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Traveling is great, but living there is full of challenges
Also known as an angsty mother that uses her blog as free therapy
LIVING ABOAD - THE REAL TRUTH
One mother's true experience
Travel blogs and Youttube videos often show one peron's fun filled week in an exotic location. It's much different to live someplace long term. This is my account of what it's really like to live someplace with a young child.
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The China Experiment
When we left Thailand, we could not have been more excited. We had spent 5 years in Hat Yai and while we liked the school, the city was...
ciaokiddies
Aug 74 min read


Cats, the Chaos they Create and the Case of the Disappearing Felines.
In one of my last posts, I talked about moving cats internationally. Well, I've done it again. Twice. We left China at the end of June,...
ciaokiddies
Aug 56 min read


Did you miss me?
I haven’t written in a long time. I have been pretty busy. Last August we left Thailand. I was busy packing up 5 years of life in...
ciaokiddies
May 262 min read


Love/Hate Relationship with my Cats
We are moving to China tomorrow! We are very excited, I am excited and scared shitless! Anyway, a week ago, I said to my family, "It's...
ciaokiddies
Aug 6, 20244 min read


What You See VS What You Don't Know
I know that the guy and his girlfriend at the supermarket saw an annoyed old farang shoving their cart out of the way but what they...
ciaokiddies
Apr 29, 20243 min read


Christmas Dread and Doctors That Can't/Won't HELP
My poor son. He just can’t catch a break, none of us can, it seems. My son developed tics this summer. They started mild and now have...
ciaokiddies
Dec 17, 20233 min read


Eating and Other Failures
I give my son 1 hour and 10 minutes in the morning to eat breakfast and get dressed. 50 minutes of that is allotted for eating a small...
ciaokiddies
Nov 24, 20235 min read


How to get fired before starting a new job
For some reason I really feel like telling the story of how I got fired before I started a job. When we were in Yangon and Charles was...
ciaokiddies
Nov 14, 20232 min read


Tic, Tic, Tic.......BOOM!
This is another therapy blog. As I mentioned in my previous blog, my son developed a tic over the summer. He has Autism and through my...
ciaokiddies
Aug 27, 20232 min read


A Travel Story....
During our summer break, our family had the chance to return to Latvia and visit family and friends. It was an amazing trip with a few...
ciaokiddies
Aug 8, 20234 min read


Loneliness
Ren Faire photo by Chris Yetter https://www.cjyphoto.com/browse I used to be pretty cool. I was even pretty hot by some standards. I...
ciaokiddies
Dec 8, 20222 min read
My Covid Hospitalization
I used to be a strong woman. My husband and I had a child at 41. We both had dead end jobs in the U.S. We struggled to get by and make...
ciaokiddies
Dec 7, 202217 min read


Driving in Thailand
Let’s talk about driving in Thailand. I recently had to renew my driver’s license. I knew it was coming and began getting anxious about...
ciaokiddies
Dec 2, 20223 min read


Autism Diagnosis
My son has autism. *GASP* Those that have met him say “No he doesn’t!”. Throughout my son’s life I have noticed “things”. Not typical...
ciaokiddies
Oct 29, 20225 min read


No Vax For You!
Thailand did quite well during the first year of Covid. Strict lockdowns and even stricker quarantine for people entering the country. ...
ciaokiddies
Jul 12, 20212 min read


The thoughts here come from my giant misshapen head.
If you remember my post from about a year ago, I was struggling to get my Thai driving license. I had decided to quit and recover from...
ciaokiddies
Jan 11, 20212 min read


Zombies, Target, Turkey Oh My!
As I destroy clothes for my son and husband's zombie costume, I realize how much I miss the United States at this time of the year. ...
ciaokiddies
Oct 29, 20201 min read


Travel in the middle of a pandemic
Life is pretty normal here in Thailand in the middle of a world wide pandemic. Thailand went 100 days without any local transmission. ...
ciaokiddies
Oct 26, 20202 min read


How a 100g kitten ruined summer break......
During the quarantine, my son and I regularly walked down to a local shop that had a bunch of kittens and fed them. The other day we...
ciaokiddies
Jul 9, 20202 min read


Incoherent Random Thoughts and Wear Your Face Mask
This is not so much a coherent story, but a bunch of random thoughts. Here in Thailand, the government is beginning to re-open. They are...
ciaokiddies
Jun 29, 20202 min read

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