Juanito 0 - 10 months

Hey there! I want to tell you about my experience raising a child in Chile. His name is Juanito and he just turned one year old. I come from a big family; for instance, I have five brothers and sisters, and we all live together until each one gets married.

I attended school and the university in Santiago, so I didn't have a real reason to move out from my parent's place. After that, I worked for one year and then I got married. Not even 10 months later Juanito was born. He was (and still is) the cutest baby on Earth!

Since 2011, the Chilean law has granted a very long and secure maternity leave. Each working mom is granted six weeks before the baby is born to stay at home to ensure the mother is relaxed and the house is ready to receive a newborn. After the baby is born, the law also gives her 24 weeks, almost six months, so that the mother can breastfeed the baby and rest before going back to work. During this whole time the mother receives the same salary she was getting while she worked. Fortunately for me, Juanito was born into this regime. I enjoyed every day with him and was able to breastfeed him for six months so he is now a very healthy (almost too healthy) baby. We even had time to practice together every stage of his development. He was slow at the beginning because we used to hold him all the time, but with different kinds of exercises, he learned to crawl so fast that now it is impossible to catch him.

I was working as a math teacher, but, since we were coming to the US, I quit before the academic year started (in Chile it starts in March) so the kids wouldn’t be left hanging when I left. Nevertheless I had to make money somehow from March to July, so I partnered up with a cousin and started our own business. You may imagine that this wasn’t easy, especially while having a kid to take care of. But, as I told you before, families in Chile are large and very supportive.

My mom would pick Juanito up whenever I had a meeting or needed to work without being distracted. If she couldn’t make it, I could rely on my mother-in-law, any of my sisters, or my friends. Everyone would literally fight for who got to babysit Juanito. It was very easy and fun raising a child with this kind of support. When we told my mom that we were coming to the US she offered nicely: “Why don’t you go by yourselves and I can give Juanito back to you when you return?” Haha like being away from my son for a year was really an option.

This was my Chilean experience. I got to share many moments with my family and friends and we all love Juanito very much. When he was ten months old we moved to Austin. Here the story has been different, but I will tell you all about it in another chapter.

See you soon!