Why Optin?

I remember a time when my kids were younger than they are now. I think back to that time and remember the joy of walking in the door after work and the kids would scream out "daddy!", I truly cherish those moments! They would drop whatever they were doing and would run to the door and we would have the best cuddles. (These days I am lucky if the dog gets excited if I walk in the door).

I used to think to think to myself, being the young Dad at the age of 24, that I wasn't sure that I was doing the parenting "thing" right. I read a book about being a Dad just before I became one (but that seriously left me scarred), then just after my first child was born I remember the Nurse telling me, "don't worry babies bounce" in the metaphorical sense. So I decided that that coming from someone who had handled a lot more babies that I, that it was sound advice to take on board, and I was determined to learn and make it up as I went.

Not long after I became a Dad I took a new job in the Pilbara, which saw my new family move 1,186km away from both our parents, whom had been around for the first few weeks after the baby was born, but now we were really on our own. Being young parents in an outback town was a great way to raise kids, however very few of our friends had begun to have children of their own. Luckily every now and then we would get the offer that someone would look after our child and my Wife and I would spend the night at the footy club (or maybe the local Chinese restaurant for a real treat!). Often the person looking after our son was also the carer from the local child care centre, whom we are thankful for their offer to this day for allowing some "time out" as well as imparting some wisdom upon us on what they saw and knew of raising kids each day at the child care centre.

I think back now and realise that we did a great job, but equally we could have set ourselves up to fail, we moved away from our support network, to a new town, with a new baby, a new job, new financial pressures and we were new parents! (What could have been a breeding ground for mental health issues) We made things work for us, we opted into the committee at the local childcare, we opted in to the committee at the local footy club. We found our own support network, and made do, learning as we went.

Fast forward to now, and I think how great it would have been to have support for my Wife and child through Optin to Life during those times. Where someone other that the our friend at the local day care (whom had a Western Australian Working with Children Check ) was able to come and spend some time chatting, sharing experiences about children and life, as well as offering some respite of being a Mum, even if its only time enough to run a brush through your hair and feel somewhat human again after a late night with a restless baby. Keeping Mum happy means everyone is happy.

This is why I am so passionate about Optin to Life, or Optin as we like to call it. It's a chance for Mum's to connect with a social support that provides assistance or time-out that is agreed on by Volunteers and Mums. Support may mean accompanying Mum to care for bub during exercise or an appointment, while a meal is cooked, or simply having a cup of tea together. You can be as creative and flexible as you like provided our simple Guidelines are followed. I encourage you to spread the word of our new Not for Profit Charity as we pioeneer through this development phase of our own and Optin! https://www.optin.org.au/