All 6 in school. Now what

The day has come. My 6th and last child has finally been packed off to school. "How does it feel?", friends ask.

Awesome. Freedom!

I had put my life on hold for the past 16 years to take care of them. It didn't make economic sense to put 6 kids in childcare. And if I left them to the helper none would survive a year. (the helper or the kids? I'm not sure which). The only jobs I could do were those with flexible hours. I needed to 'escape' and work at least 1 morning a week if not I would have gone berserk. 5 kids demanding your attention at the same time made for pretty intense days. We opened a spa hoping to earn enough to raise the kids but that failed miserably. I went on to sell life insurance but realised that I gained more satisfaction counselling my clients upon a loved one's death than closing a sale.

#4 plaited Kate's hair

Looking back, I'm surprised I survived it all and haven't gone mad. We were young, had no one to turn to for guidance and learnt everything the hard way. The good thing was, I gained wisdom and humility through this arduous parenting journey, and I guess that is a good place to start.

Kate goes to school for 3 hours and has a 2-hour nap when she gets back. That leaves me with a good 6 hours to do as I please! It feels like somebody has just handed me a key, and it opens the door to infinite possibilities ( I think only SAHMs can relate to this). My life is all mine. What do I want to do with it?

For starters, I would like to work. To do something meaningful. Say from 8am - 2pm so that I'm home for the kids after school. I have a rough idea of what I want to do, but need some time to search within myself to figure out exactly what I would be happy doing. I like to talk. I like to write. I would love to work with children. With the sick. The dying. With those who are grieving.

That's the thing about being stay-at-home-mums. Your qualifications become obsolete (yes I know, 16 years is a long time to stay home). Oh well. I shall take things one day at a time and see what comes up.

My prayers have always been answered, many times in more perfect ways than I anticipated and I don't doubt it will be any different with this. I shall keep my eyes, ears and heart open.

I'll be turning 40 this year. So exciting. My life (outside of the kids) is about to begin.

~ www.mummyweeblog.com - a blog on parenting 6 kids in Singapore ~