The great Australian Dream

Google it, the great Australian Dream.

What does it tell you?

Australians want to own their own home. They want to buy a house, pay a mortgage and own their own home.
Obviously its a dream! Who doesn't want to own a house, pay it off and one day live mortgage free in their own home, the home they watched their kids grow up in, the home that sore their kids walk, talk and play for the first time.

I have a home like this, its seen my kids walk, talk, laugh and cry. Its seen my kids birthdays, its watched me plan a wedding and its heard endless hours of laughter. My pictures are on the walls, my clothes hang in the wardrobe and my kids toys decorate the floors.

But guess what? This home isn't "mine". I dont own this home. Someone else does. I pay them for the ability to live here. Im deeply in the "rent trap" or so they call it. 

Let me tell you my thoughts on this. For years and I literally mean YEARS, I have been renting and feeling like a failure. I moved out with my MR when I was 19 years old, I was pregnant at 20 and had my first baby at 21. We have never ever asked for money and have 100% supported ourselves since this time. We pay rent, childcare and a car loan every week. Leaving us with enough money to live but not enough money to save for a house deposit.

So I felt like a failure. I wasn't focusing on all the amazing things we have achieved, instead I focused on the one thing I didn't have. It ate me up in time. I felt I was letting my kids down because I wasn't supplying them with their own home.

It has only been in the last couple of weeks I realised just how ridiculous this is. Home is where the heart is. Home is the roof over our heads, the kids dont know the difference between a house we own and a house we rent. And with that, brief thought...I took a breath. I smiled and I realised how wonderful life is. There are 100 million homeless people in the world and a further 1.6 Billion who live in substandard housing, and here I am complaining about not owning my own house, how ridiculous.

MR and I sat down and had a deep conversation about our future. We have decided that we are going to work to enjoy our life, not work to pay off debt. We have decided we are going to show our kids the world through our eyes, so we can see the world through theirs.

We have decided that for the next 10 years, buying a house is not going to be a priority but instead living our lives is! We are going to travel. We are going to work hard and then we are going to travel.

Our first stop is going to be JAPAN. We are going in March next year....cherry blossom season. Its been our dream for years and from now on , we are going to make our dreams a reality.

So here we are, a new lease on life, The Great Burgess dream! and this is just a small step on what is going to be a fantastic journey. So please follow along and enjoy the ride.

Have you been to Japan? Do you have any must see things? Whats your family dream?

The hiatus, and why im back

Hi guys!

Ive missed you, ive missed writting, ive missed sharing.

I had to take a break. To start off with I decided i needed a week. to switch off and disconnect. A week turned into a month, which turned into 6 months. And now I feel ready to come back and begin sharing again.

So why the hiatus you make ask?

Viral blog post...to put it simply.

The very last post on this blog when viral. More viral than anything ive ever written before. My last post was quite literally read, 8000x more than my next highest read post. It was posted on facebook pages such as Kidspot, News.com and Daily Mail. It was also on radio, news and other media outlets. It went crazy. I was contacted by people to give interviews, podcasts and phone calls. Everyone wanted to hear about my interaction with that mother and daughter.

At first I was totally blown away. I watched the number on my blog climb and climb, I watched my inbox fill! I was happy at first because I though I was able to share this story and hopefully share the love. The idea behind the post in the first place. How ever thats not entirely what took place.

Most of the comments on the post were positive, supporting me, supporting my choices. However it wasnt those comments that stuck with me. It was the negative comments, however not just the ones directed at me. I would open the comments section and see mothers attacking other mothers for their choices. I saw the breastfeeding and formular feeding war unfolding before my eyes. This was the opposite of why I shared my story.

I wanted to spread love, I wanted to share the story to enforce the importance of parents supporting one another. This was not what happened in the end and I couldnt stand it. I felt awful for the women that were fighting. I felt awful for people feeling as though I was attacking other mothers for not breastfeeding.

Thats not me, thats not what im about. I support any parent making any decision that is best for them and best for their children. Thats the message I wanted to share. I got messages from people, telling me I was sexually abusing my child by feeding for so long. I got messages from people saying I was disgusting for shaming other mothers. I got messages from people asking for explicit images.

I had to switch off. I had to close down the blog and ignore these messages.

The article still pops up in my feed every now and then and it just makes me cringe.

So now im back, for a couple of reasons. One to say to everyone:

I suppprt you, I support your decisions, I support you caring and loving your children exactly how you see fit. Please know that I think each and every one of you is fantastic.

The second reason?

Its Troll free day today. I LOVE THIS CONCEPT! Share the love, spread the love, support one another. What better day than to switch back on, than today!

So im being brave, im coming back to continue to share my story, to share my journey, I have lots of things I want to do, lots of things I want to share and I want to connect with others going through the same things!

So here I am, the trolls wont win! Support and love will win!

Lets do this :)