Our move to Mexico, while ours, is like anyone’s story. If you’ve moved before, tell me this story doesn’t sound familiar?
When you move a family to Mexico…
they will have to open a bank account. When they open a bank account, they’ll begin to look for a home. So they’ll search for a couple of days until they find the perfect one.
When they find a house…
they’ll probably want to get some furniture. So they’ll go to a handful of furniture stores to try and find the right couch and the right tables and the right chairs at the right price. This will be exhausting and in the end they will buy a couch from Facebook because new $1200 couches are not on their budget. And then they’ll have to wait because… delivery.
And while they’re waiting for furniture…
they will get hungry and want to eat but they’ll remember that they don’t have a refrigerator. Or pots and pans. Nor spoons. Or, well, anything. So they’ll need to go to a Big Box Store (or a mall if you could find one) and spend a lot of money on things they owned before but that they no longer have because they could only bring 14 suitcases and coffee pots don’t typically make the cut.
When they’re done shopping…
they’ll realize that they are hungry and that they haven’t eaten since the chilaquiles they had for breakfast so they’ll want to eat. (Maybe Husband is even hangry because when he gets hungry and is shopping he’s not in the best of moods 😆.)
They’ll want to head home and eat…
but will remember they don’t have a car, so they’ll have to call an Uber. Watching the little car move around on the screen is super fun for the kids but by the time the Uber arrives, they will be tired and cranky and losing their sh*t so you’ll have to forget going home and making dinner and eat out. Again. For the 159th time this week.
When they get to the restaurant…
they’ll order food but the kids will be so tired that one of them will fall asleep at the table. Like – face on the table, drop dead tired, sleeping at the table.
And when dinner is over…
and the day is done, they will go home and go straight to bed. Luckily, they have sheets and beds.
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Moving is a lot like the kid’s book, “When You Give a Mouse A Cookie.”** (Or the Pig and the Pancake or the the Moose and the Muffin or… I’m sure I’m forgetting loads, but I digress.) The cause and effect of that simple story is so much samesies as the moving process. One thing depends on another thing happening which rests on some other thing that can’t get done without the other. It’s quite frustrating. And even though you are expecting these challenges, it doesn’t make it any less frustrating.
Our move to Mexico has been exhausting for sure but we’ve had a tremendous amount of help from my parents and I’m happy to report though that if our family was, in fact, that mouse with his cookie, we’d be at the end of the story. Bank account ✔️. House ✔️. The furniture is on its way and we’ve started eating at home – the most genuine sign that you are settling in and not just visiting a place. With all of that done, the next chapter of our story is ready to begin. Same characters, different location.
Update: since writing this the furniture has arrived. Oh happy {organizational} day!
P.S. What to consider when moving abroad with a family and must have items when moving abroad from professional expats.
