Mother's column – a cup of satisfaction

Maybe that is why I now notice how fancy the town is where my sister lives. She herself is not very fancy at all – she rents a small house – but many of the other homes are big villas. Many of them have a perfectly kept yard with a large swimming pool that could fit half of the region's water supply and giant trampolines with diameters of which Martha can only dream.

For some reason, many people stare at us. Maybe many of them read my columns and recognise us. But it could also be that a cargo bike is a rarity in this town – the streets are mostly decorated with shiny Opel Zafiras and racing vans of handymen.

Neline is married and the mother of five: Martha (8), Abel (6), Jolijn (5), Reinout (3) and Sifra (0).

I would not feel very much at home here, I think, by myself. What would I do between these materialistic people who are proud of their riant villas and do not know any sobriety?

But wait. Suddenly I am scared of myself. Who is actually the proud one here? To be honest, I am a bit jealous. Because it must be very nice to have a handyman as husband and a house that looks perfect – an IT husband is, in that sense, a little less practical.

Time to go home. Our town appears on the horizon. An average village in which we feel at home. Tired but accomplished, I enter my kitchen. Unintentionally my eyes look at the kitchen cabinets. It does not look like we will be able to buy a new kitchen soon. Therefore, we recently painted the fronts of which the upper layer had become too worn out. Thus, we have kitchen drawers in two colours: RAL 9010 and the soft yellow that the previous house owners liked. Oh well, at least our kitchen is practical, and all our electrical appliances still kind of work.

"Shall I boil some water for the tea?" Jan asks sweetly. "That would be very nice", I mumble gratefully while sinking into the couch. The sofa slightly sags, but that makes sinking into it even more comfortable — high time for a cup of satisfaction.