My journey of self-discovery was also a kind of voyeuristic experience where I lived alongside the life of what my own family’s environment may have been like had I stayed in the UK (notwithstanding the fact that had I stayed, my child would not have found his way in). There are so many differences, from boundaries and control to exposure and experience, and I couldn’t help but compare. The actual comparisons have no bearing here since they have nothing to do with what is better or worse but rather people’s drive to make things the same as everyone else and the pointlessness of this since that is a journey with no real destination.

It brings me back, as most things do at the moment, to the choice I have made to have only the one child. I know what I’m giving up and I am fully aware of what I am depriving my child of … regardless of my views that the pros outweigh the cons. But, the world over, children are growing up with different realities. These different realities identify them in their uniqueness as individuals and no matter how much we conform to social norms, we will never create a normal child. There is just no benchmark.