Born and raised in Malaysia, a shopping mall gypsy once read my palm and foretold, that I’d fall in love and end up in a land far far away…

And she was right. 🤯

While working for a corporate design firm in Hong Kong (M Moser Associates) over 15 years ago, I met my future husband, we fell in love and ended up moving to his home country, Switzerland.

Being a mom came with many surprises (not all of them the good kind – physical changes and mental drain anyone?).

I remember feeling so alone in the first weeks after I gave birth to my first child. I’d had a beautiful pregnancy, a loving husband, and yet there was this nagging feeling of isolation, as I transitioned from my old self into my new role.

At the most basic level, I knew that my baby really only needed me during her first few months of life. But the independent college-educated millennial in me, rebelled at the thought that I alone, should take ownership of this new parenting job. 

After all, I didn’t make the baby alone, so why should I be the one to take on the lions share of extra work?

One evening, I had a shift in perspective.

I was completely exhausted – and my honey too. But he could be away on his boys-night-out. I remember feeling this inexplicable sense of abandonment and self-pity. I thought, “If he really loved me, he would’ve cancelled game-night and stayed home with me.” 

I hated feeling like the nagging wife – who insisted that her husband… fix up the baby bed, change the diapers, clean the house, cook the food – when I could imagine that the last thing on his mind  when he got home from work, was to do even more work at home (working moms, I feel you!).