My supports

Support systems are vital to ones survival and healthy living, it is important to be surrounded by this support .Most of my support here in Saudi Arabia occurs from a distance. My husband plays major role because he is here with me, although his profession requires travelling a lot. He plays both physical, social emotional support and financial support. He is the first person I can upon when I need help, My mum and dad provides spiritual, and social emotional support, we speak frequently on phone ,when I need advice I call on both of them or when I am emotional down, my mum, lifts my spirit up with her motivational words. My elder sister supports me social-emotional and academically, I call her when I need a different opinion to issues, when I need someone to talk to, she also helps me with studies, since she runs a kindergarten and nursery school back in Nigeria. My younger brothers and sisters provide social-emotional support, they call me from time to time, we chat, and it makes me feel a sense of belonging. My friends here in Saudi Arabia live far away from me, but they provide support through calls to offer advice on how to cope as a stay- home mum here in Saudi Arabia, my older friend who is like a big sister to me, offers supports me, she educates me on how to develop myself professional despite challenges. My daughter makes me happy and she makes me more convince about studying early childhood studies, she also provide social emotional support, she takes away boredom, my mobile phone and internet services plays crucial role ,I get to communicate with both and get my work done through the internet services. All these factors come together to support my well being as an individual and a member of a family and society, without these support, life would be difficult and feel isolated.

The major challenge I see is more of a physical one, most times I am on my own with no form of help and I have a little daughter, so I have to shuffle between school work, taking care of my daughter cleaning and cooking, I cannot afford services of a stay –own maid or nanny here in Saudi Arabia so sometimes it really gets difficult for me to do my school work, maybe if Saudi Arabia operates child care centers ,I believe this would help mothers a lot, most of my friends live far away from me, so I cannot even seek their immediate help, and moving around here requires your husband being with you, because women are not allowed to drive, so you to or get a driver or your husband drives you, without the presence of my husband things could be challenging sometimes .I feel if I were to live close to friends ,I would get more physical and social emotional support. Despite this challenge, I still believe that the type of support I get with people around me still goes a long way to be of benefits that if they were not in place, I would find my studying even more challenging.