An Aussie Mothers Plea to her homeland!

For many living in Australia, you may not understand this Aussie Mothers’plea, whether it is because you don’t understand what I and many others are trying to say or whether your head is maybe a little too deep in the sand right now.

It is a terrible predicament the world is in with (almost) everyone worldwide. Many have lost loved ones, many are stranded, and many more feel like their home country is against them. For an abundance of people (like myself)- as an Aussie abroad, we stand proud, we unite together, and we are homesick on more occasions than we would like to admit.

My beloved Australia

This post will probably not sit well with many people, as so many have varying opinions on the matter, and what I am about to put forward is more than an Aussie mother’s plea to the Australian Public. I have very often been vulnerable in my posts, but never been as nervous about something I have written until now.

I am here speaking up for everyone in similar situations worldwide, but in particular here in Singapore, who is torn between family members, countries, and constantly changing rules. Who is having to make unnecessarily tricky decisions that most won’t understand?

I want to start by mentioning that when I hear the words “(just) pack up and come home,” for most of us, this solution you are offering is either an impossible one or a complicated option. We have lives in the country you are asking us to leave; we have jobs, sometimes families, and we may even have our own business to run.

You ask us to quit and come home to a country suffering from the unemployment rate on the rise! So how can we leave and come home? We may also be employing people in our business or our home; do we leave them stranded? Without a job and potentially in a foreign land?

When you tell us that “you should’ve come home earlier”, have you considered that maybe we have only just lost our job, or we had to wait for our life-threatening treatment to be complete, or perhaps we might have been pregnant and far too risky to travel? Perhaps, we should consider that every circumstance is different; every case is a human being that is missing someone somewhere, more than you will ever understand!

My plea to you!

So now, let’s get back to why I wrote this in the first place; what is my plea? Why am I brave enough to write this even though I know that the keyboard warriors will be dying to respond and I will be criticised for my very vocal words?

I am here as a mother with children in Australia and an elderly mother with dementia in an aged care facility, and missing my family deeply. I am not asking to come frequently. I am asking Australia to take each case individually and look at each person as a real-life human being!

Perhaps stop shaming us for our predicament and instead have a little empathy and understand that circumstances have brought us to where we are today; yes, sometimes choices but predominately circumstances.

Don’t get me wrong; I am grateful that technology has allowed us to stay in touch. That had this been in a different time, all we would have had was the occasional letter to keep us from going crazy. But human touch is the most powerful feeling of all; to be able to hug my loved ones would mean the world to me right now.