The Surban cliché is a moving story of life. For too long I had felt smothered, stifled and unable to breathe. Our family had outgrown our house at an incredible pace. When we moved into our 2-bed terraced house in Portebello in 2017 it was just me my wife and our bump. The bump became Thomas 3 months later and our house became a home. It was a shock. It was bliss.
We were living close to town, hanging onto our carefree lifestyle. And, always want to be close to the center of party land. We would not grow old and become the Surban cliché. We were still up for long weekends of excess and carefree hangover days. Time ticks on for everyone. Although we were still up for a good time we became lonelier in our quest for friends who were able and willing to join us. We were the last of our friends to marry and the last to have kids. We were the ones trying to keep the party going while others dropped off. Kids are a great excuse to have when you don’t want to go out but also a genuine reason for not being able to go out. I often wondered if my friends were using them as an excuse when we called them about a gig or a restaurant. It did annoy me. After Thomas, I realised they had every right to back off the lifestyle. It was hard work and kids are 24/7 . Kids take over, and what is left is for you, but this is often not enough to drag yourself off the sofa on a Saturday night. A takeaway is so much easier and I don’t have to move. The person you swore you would never become is looking at you in the mirror.
One kid became two and the two bedrooms did not work anymore.
It was fine for a while. We had baby Jane in with us but it was not ideal. There was no space for anything. The plastic years had caught up to us. These are the years where every toy is a hard plastic and bigger than can fit into the understairs storage. A garage and a ride-on car have moved into the living room. The playpen has taken over the kitchen and there are no spare seats at our kitchen table as booster seats are strapped everywhere. The time to move was cemented when we were given a trampoline for Thomas and realised our garden would not fit this and the rotarty washing line which was essential for baby Janes million babygrows and vests.
When we realised we had another kid on the way it became clear. Time to move and quickly the Surban cliché. Four of us in a two-bed was a struggle but five just did not compute. The time had come to leave behind our bohemian ideals and enter the real world. Time to get real with where we could live and the life we would have for the next while. In a blink of an eye, we had become hostages to the cliché we had fought so hard to avoid. Us, the cool kids had become real and needed to move on.
The house I wanted and the house we could afford were miles apart. I wanted to move slightly more out of town but still cling to being on the outskirts of the expanding city. Milltown, Donnybrook or even Kimmage. In real life, a house to fit our new reality was further away. Try a different county. Kildare was close we told ourselves. We can still hop on a bus service and be in the City center for all the parties and gigs we get invited to. The distance will not hold us back. When we realised the calls for action were getting fewer and the need for family growth became greater, we decided to make the big move to Suburbia. We both worked from home, I was doing HR for a global IT giant and my wife was busy juggling the kids and an interior design course. We could have lived anywhere with good broadband so we took the plunge and headed East. Kildare Town.
I really did not have the time to organize the move.
My wife was also busy. A friend recommended Vanquotes.ie as he had used them before effortlessly. We filled out an online form and had 3 different quotes by the end of the day. After talking to the moving company we liked the best they took over. They recommended a clearout before the move. We got a skip and filled it with broken toys and an old bike. Emptied most of our attic into it and the small shed which collapsed when we tried to fit the trampoline in, was also put into the skip. We filled the skip and what was left fit into a Long Wheelbase van. There were different types of vans available the Surban cliché at vanquotes.ie but this was the one that suited our move.
They came and did all the packing the morning of the move and by 4 pm in the evening, we were in our new home. Thomas was scooting around the living room on his Tonka truck and Jane was crawling in the back garden. We sat on our garden wall,(we have a garden) with a glass of wine in our hands. Space to breath and grow.
The bell rang. Our first visitor. It was our neighbor, a young couple who had also moved down from Dublin. House prices and expanding family also foretold their move. They were a nice couple and invited us to a party at their house over the weekend. We could meet the other neighbors the Surban cliché. Perhaps we are not old and buried yet. Perhaps there is still life in the party dog yet.
