Hello – My name is Helena and, along with my husband, we own Smiths School in Nakamozu. I wanted to share my experience of living in Japan and in particular being a mum. If there are any Smith’s teachers out there thinking of starting a family I hope this will help!
When we first moved to Japan we never expected to have kids out here – the plan was to get into the system and build, build, build! A year into our adventure though we found out that baby one was on his way and all plans changed!! We’ve been incredibly lucky in our life out here in terms of bringing up our (now two) kids. Japan is safe and the facilities as well as the amount of fun things to do with kids is incredible! We have managed to work our schedule around our lives so that we have combined a good income from our English school franchise with maximum family time. As a mum I’ve been able not to stress about leaving my kids at daycare and going back to work ~ at first my husband took over all the teaching hours and after a few months I gradually got back to work whilst my husband got to spend time with our kids too. We now take turns teaching whilst the other parent stays with the kids – a great way to get the best of both worlds!
I would really love to hear from any other mums within the system – current or future! Maybe we can get together for a picnic in the park and let the kids run wild!
Helena
Hi Helena!
Wish we were in the same prefecture so we actually COULD get together at the park! I will look forward to seeing you and meeting your kids the next time we get down to Osaka for a seminar!
Your comments about daycare are right on the spot. Why send your kids to daycare when you don’t need to? All our students are asking when I’m coming back to work. We haven’t decided yet, and I plan to see how things go. But I certainly do expect to get some cabin fever at home, and my husband has been talking about being “Mr.Mom”. I would hate to have to make the choice of who stays home with the baby, or whether or not to send him to daycare. What a privilege not to have to do that!
For us, the plan is this: I’ll take time off for now (we have hired another coach to help us at the school) and see how it goes. Eventually, my husband and I will take turns in the classroom. The best of both worlds!
By the way, this should not in any way be read to mean that daycare in Japan is no good. On the contrary, I would much rather send my child to daycare here than in Canada! But why do that when we don’t have to?
Best of luck to the four of you!
Keep posting…would love to hear more stories!
Deana