Working parents/ living outside of the system
I invite you to take these uncertain times to experiment with different ways of living.
A lot of people tell us that we are living the dream life. If the dream life is not being stuck in a system that demands 2 full time jobs, 2.3 kids, a mortgage, two (lease) cars and the stress and expectations from society/work/ peers that come with that. Then yes we live a dream life.
I don’t really feel I am living a dream life. I do feel I live the life we as a family want to live. I never understood for example why you would have kids and as soon as maternity leave was over you put you kids in daycare to only enjoy being with your little boy/ girl the last few hours of the day or in the weekend. I get it but it never felt right to me.
Now that we have little Oliver I understand it a little better, but we still choose not to send Oli to daycare in his first year or year and a halve. There are a lot of other parents with little children in and around Ainsa we meet on regular bases. We discovered that; You can work hard AND take care of your kid(s) as parents AND have plenty of time for the outdoors. It is not always easy but it is very fulfilling. In current corona times we benefit from that earlier choice. We already had a rhythm in place for taking care of Oli and working, which made the transition to (self) isolation a lot easier.
We deliver quality design work to our demanding clients while taking care of Oliver. We live a rich life. A rich life based on family time, outdoor time and design time. All the things that are important to us. I believe our designer and entrepreneurial mindset make that this way of living works for us. We are used to a try and error mentality as designers & entrepreneurs. We think of how we want to divide a day or approach a design project, we try it, talk about it and we change the things that don’t work and go forward. Sometimes it is a iteration and other times it is a full pivot.
I invite you to take these uncertain times to experiment with different ways of living. Think of which values are most important to you, design your life around them and try if you can implement that new way of living. Good luck and do’t hesitate to ask if you have any questions.
Author: Jeroen Spoelstra
