A young mother has revealed that she and her partner decided to stop living in Australia and return to New Zealand because Kiwis value work-life balance much more.
Cassidy Skelton, 28, moved into an apartment in Melbourne’s CBD in December with her week-old son, known affectionately by his online character Nugget, and her partner Nicolas, 32, so she could start a new job .
Ms Skelton told Daily Mail Australia that while the city was big and beautiful, it lacked the “fun culture” they were looking for, not to mention they spent very little time together as a family.
Nicolas’ job in Melbourne offered a salary package worth $120,000 more than what he earned in New Zealand and provided an ideal opportunity for Ms Skelton to raise her son without working.
But despite the windfall, the couple’s “honeymoon period” as new Melburnians passed after about six months.
The young parents separately realized that they were not enjoying life in the concrete jungle, but were hiding it from each other.
“We both realized we weren’t excited about our future in Melbourne,” Ms Skelton said.
“We realized we’d be happy to go back to having less money if it meant we could spend more time together.”
Kiwi mum Cassidy Skelton (pictured) has revealed why she and her young family decided to leave life in Melbourne and return to New Zealand.
Skelton said she and Nicholas had both loved the country on previous trips and had everything planned out for the foreseeable future.
‘Our plan was to move to the suburbs; buy a car, furniture, set up a life and we both kept putting it off,” he said.
‘I thought Nic was happy and satisfied with his new job and Nic thought I was happy with the financial freedom of not having to work again, but when we talked about it we realized we weren’t happy.
“All we wanted was to work from home so we could share every moment of our son.”
They both “felt like little kids” after arriving in Melbourne, drawn by the wide culinary options and better access to cheaper food and healthcare.
However, the first six months of Nugget’s life and stay in the city passed quickly, and the ugly parts of Australian culture began to become more apparent.
“I didn’t realize how much I took Kiwi culture for granted until we moved,” she said.
‘I also felt that the staff were always in a bad mood and treated badly, I witnessed several men speaking so badly about their staff.
“My cousin worked temporarily at a bagel shop and her boss told her on the first day ‘if you don’t fit my vision, you have to leave.'”
Ms Skelton and her partner Nicolas (both pictured) jumped at the chance to move to Melbourne after he was offered a new job with a huge salary.
They were initially happy after starting life on the other side of the ditch with a week-old baby in tow, but everything started to fall apart about six months later.
The couple were also shocked by the lack of dating in Australia after Nicolas was attacked by a drunk man in the middle of the city.
“It’s 6pm in the Melbourne CBD and hundreds of people walk by and this guy just attacks him out of nowhere and not a single person stopped or checked to see if Nic was okay,” Ms Skelton said.
“This was crazy for Nic because he grew up in a small town in New Zealand and would never go through anything like this, so it was a real feeling that this is not our forever home.”
To make matters worse, Nicolas’ entire bonus structure that they had been uprooted for was “not respected” because his employer later said it was not in his contract.
However, there were some positives to their time in Melbourne that Skelton said “really helped us grow as a couple and as a family.”
Separated from their families by the Tasman Sea, they spent more time together on weekends and splurged on things thanks to the higher salary.
“We really lean towards city living… we try to accept and enjoy the differences of living in Australia,” Ms Skelton said.
The family’s bad experience in Australia also helped them weigh what they valued in life and pursue financial independence on their own terms.
“I think the main reason we moved home was to just start living the life we wanted and stop talking about it,” the young mother said.
“We decided to bet on ourselves and launch our marketing agency that we had been talking about for so long.”
Ms Skelton said they became discouraged by the lack of culture compared to New Zealand and quickly became homesick while separated from their families.
However, their bad experience with employers and Australian culture prompted the young couple to start their own marketing agency.
After returning to New Zealand, the young family is now enjoying a road trip and has to “keep pinching ourselves” in disbelief at how much better their lives are.
He noted that the couple may have been able to juggle life in Melbourne while they were starting creative nugget but added that they would not have enjoyed it.
‘We needed our support system to ensure this journey to business ownership was an enjoyable one. It’s also very motivating to live in a beautiful place surrounded by your family,” said Mrs Skelton.
The happy family has since returned to New Zealand and enjoyed a road trip to reacquaint themselves with their home country.
“We start each day with a walk on the beach, then take turns watching our son while the other works and finish around 3 pm for another walk on the beach or dinner at a family member’s house,” said the mother.
“We keep pinching ourselves because this is our life now.”
He added that returning to New Zealand instilled a “new faith” in them and they are now motivated to run their agency with their “baby at the sweetest age, we don’t want to miss a second.”
