Moving Home: Putting the cat back in the bag

During these past three years living abroad, we have indulged our children and ourselves with things, in particular technology, that we would probably not have if we had remained in the U.S.

For example, Micaela, James and Emilie all have their own e-mail accounts and Micaela and James are on Facebook, all as a way to help them stay connected to their friends back home. David and I are also on Facebook. Would we be if we hadn't moved away?

And cell phones. Micaela and James both have them and they have been a godsend. Pre-cell phones, I would spend an hour every afternoon trying to located my kids at their school. They could be anywhere and were never together. Once I located one, I would misplace another. I was often in tears those first few months as I made round after round of the school, with a heavy toddler on my hip, searching the playgrounds, gymnasiums, restrooms, music rooms, cafeteria, locker rooms, etc. for my children. Now, I put the responsibility on Micaela and James. When I'm stopped at the railroad crossing down the street from the school, I call one of them and say, "I'm at the railroad crossing. Find your siblings and make your way out to the parking lot." Works like a charm. I don't even have to wake a sleeping Rebecca up and can just wait for them in the car.

And to think that we had balked at first when Micaela requested a cell phone. But we began to see a pattern. James' soccer practice would be canceled and Micaela would not have the 1 Euro to pay the receptionist to make a phone call and would end up borrowing one of her friends' cell phones to call me to come pick them up early. It wasn't fair to the other parents to have our kids always using their kids' cell phones.

We also let the kids chat over the internet with their friends back home and with their friends here, too. There would be no need for this if we hadn't moved. They would have been living in the same neighborhood as their friends and could have spoken to them in person.

As for David and me, we each have a Kindle e-reader. I doubt we would have them if we hadn't moved, as I frequented the library and David didn't have time to read books much. But I was spending too much money on English-language paperbacks at the mall and was often frustrated when I couldn't find what I was looking for. The Kindle was the best birthday present I have ever received.

And DVDs. I buy a lot of kids' DVDs here, more than I ever would have bought in the U.S., so that we can watch the movies in German once we're home. It would be one way to keep up their German. But given a choice between the English and German track when watching an American-made movie, will they really choose the German one?

Then there is traveling. We've been to some amazing places: Paris, Venice, skiing in the Alps, touring Harry Potter locations in London, Rome, Berlin. Will it be a big let down to spend vacation at home once we're back in the U.S.?

If we had remained in the U.S., I may have discovered podcasts, but I would not be blogging.

And even our navi, our dear navi. Before we moved here, navigation systems seemed to be such a luxury -- not necessary, but nice. Here, our navi has been an absolute necessity. Our first two weeks in Germany I got lost every single time I left the house. It took me driving the kids to school at least 7 times before I made it there without taking a wrong turn somewhere. I panicked and was in tears constantly while on the road -- unable to exit an autobahn without being put on another highway, turning down one-way streets, not understanding priority, ending up yet in again in the middle of Frankfurt when I was just trying to get to our local mall. You just don't understand how confusing driving can be here unless you've tried it. I don't think I would have made it here without our navi.

So, can we backtrack at all? Is there a point? My friend Sue told me that I have little to no chance of taking the cell phones away from the kids. "Every kid over 10 has them now," she told me. Micaela could be tooling around the city in a golf cart with friends and it would be nice to be able to tell her to pick up a gallon of milk on the way home.

And what would be the point of not using our Kindles? I guess at the least, I won't feel the need to buy DVDs, except for the good Pixar, Disney and Dreamworks movies, which are almost all the movies I buy anyway.

Of course we'll let the kids continue on Facebook and chatting on the computer because they have made such great friends here. As for traveling, it'll be back to camping in our pop-up. The kids said, "That's OK, Mom. We actually like camping!" Was all that traveling to amazing places totally lost on them?

Blogging? Not sure yet. I'll cover our repatriation which we have been warned can be more difficult that adjusting to a new home abroad, but beyond that....is there a point? We'll just be living a normal life again. And we will definitely be using our navi back in the U.S. After all, I won't know where anything is in our new town and it will just make things less stressful.

I guess we can't put the cat back in the bag. Or else there's just no reason to even try.