Parenting:How one family coped with the outsourcing, redundancy and the property boom of the decade nearly gone
HUGO MEAD has moved house quite a lot for a child who is not yet 10. Each upheaval was dictated more by circumstances rather than choice as his family coped with some of the defining social characteristics of recent years: outsourcing, redundancy and the property boom.
One of the Republic’s 54,789 “millennium babies”, Hugo’s life so far reflects changes the first decade of the 21st century brought to Irish society.
“I wouldn’t like to count up the number of playschools Hugo went to. If I did, I think I would be embarrassed!” says his mother Sinead, when she compares his early years to that of some of her friends’ children.
She and her husband Jeff had no idea what lay in store when their first child arrived at the Rotunda hospital in Dublin on November 24th, 2000. Living in Howth, Co Dublin at the time, she had not anticipated how “this really bonny baby” would change her view of life.
“I would have been a real career woman until he came along.” After negotiating extra unpaid leave, Sinead “reluctantly and unhappily” went back to work as an account manager with Solectron, a manufacturer of electronic components, when Hugo was six months old.
However, it was just as well because soon afterwards Jeff, who was on contract with the Bank of Ireland, was “rather abruptly” let go because work in his department was being outsourced.
In February 2002, after Jeff had secured another contract job with Mastercard in Brussels, Sinead took parental leave to move there with Jeff and Hugo. She was then just about to hand in her notice when her employer rang to say she was being made redundant.
“In my case it was a happy outcome. I had worked for six years; I got a lump sum and I could give up work with my head held high.”
Their family grew with the arrival of Eva and, a year later, Arnaud. “We had a nice lifestyle but for a variety of reasons we moved back to Ireland in the summer of 2004,” says Sinead.
For a start, Jeff’s contract was for only six months at a time and although it kept being renewed, they could never be sure. The tenants in their Howth home had just moved out and, more importantly, they were worried about Hugo who had started French playschool at the age of two and a half.
“It is like Montessori here in Ireland, but they do a lot more hours. Hugo really stopped speaking English and wasn’t picking up French either so we were quite concerned about that.”
Within six months of returning to Howth, the Meads were expecting their fourth child and wanted to extend their three-bedroom house. When they applied for planning permission, they found out that, while they were away, a neighbour had been given the go-ahead to build apartments “almost over our back garden”.
Sinead asked the man who was developing the site to explain his plans and half jokingly added that if he needed more car-parking space, he could buy their house. “He came around and bought it that night!” Although they got the market value, they could not then afford to buy the sort of house they wanted in Howth.
“Jeff suggested we buy in Carlow where I am originally from. I really did not think it was a good idea, to be honest, but it made total economic sense.” In the summer of 2005, they moved to a rented house in Carlow town. Hugo started school in September and Charlie was born at the end of that month.
“It was a totally, hectic, stressful period of our lives. We attempted to buy several houses in Carlow. It was a crazy time, prices were going up; we were desperate to get back onto the property ladder.” They eventually bought a detached house with a garden in Nurney, about six miles outside Carlow, in April 2007. So Hugo and his siblings are spending their childhood on much the same “stomping ground” as their mother.
But Hugo has a lot more extra-curricular activities than she ever did. Her father had had the family car during the day, “whereas I chauffeur Hugo around for his social life and activities”, says Sinead.
A keen soccer player, Hugo plays for Nurney Villa and supports Chelsea. He swims, plays piano, the tin whistle and the Nintendo. But his parents restrict the use of electronic games and the television.
“Maybe eventually he would self-regulate but I have never gone down that road,” says Sinead.
Jeff now works in Dublin for OmniPay, a company that provides payment processing services and allows him to work flexibly. He commutes from Carlow at non-peak hours and his weekly routine includes two overnights in Dublin and a day working from home.
While Hugo has to cope with his father being away two nights a week, Sinead reckons that, hour for hour, he probably sees more of him than he did when Jeff had to travel to Clonskeagh from Howth.
The profit from the move to Carlow enabled the Meads to buy a holiday home in France, where they spend up to six weeks each summer and from where Jeff can work remotely. They also go skiing every year in the winter.
Although some of their life changes over the past 10 years were upsetting at the time, Sinead reflects on how it has all worked out for the best. They are now in a house “we could not have afforded in a million years in Dublin” and the children see their cousins and grandparents regularly.
“They have a similar upbringing to what I would have had here,” she adds, “with a lot more trimmings.”
Last word from Hugo: "I want to be a football player with Chelsea when I grow up." And the best day of his life so far? "The last time we went to the Zoo because I ate burger and chips – and the elephants make funny noises."
