David: “Our house is so small that we sleep in the living room, on a folding bed. Our son sleeps in the only bedroom and our daughter in the garden house.” Saskia: “A lot of people in this neighborhood have a child who sleeps in the shed. Or they have a small business or a studio there.”
David: “If we were to move to a house with one more room, it would cost us an extra 1,500 euros per month in rent and we would no longer have a garden.”
Saskia: “But many people think it’s strange that we sleep in the living room.”
David: “After the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, we also had a young refugee in our home for six months. She slept with our daughter in the garden house. Communication was difficult, she only spoke Russian.”
Saskia: “Our children have learned how difficult life can be if you don’t get a good foundation from home and that they have to take advantage of opportunities. And how sweetly everyone offered help. Next time we would wait until the children have left the house, so that everyone has more space.”
Golden cage
David: “All things considered, this house is a golden cage. Small, but with a garden and in a wonderfully quiet neighborhood. It’s like a village. I grew up in a big house, but I don’t want that anymore.”
Saskia: “We actually believe that many people live too large and have too much money. A family with six children used to live in this two-room house! We have been satisfied here for twenty years.”
David: “There’s nothing wrong with a big house with a nice kitchen, but it’s never enough for most people.”
Saskia: “A little is enough. We could have chosen to earn more by charging more money for the classes at our yoga school. But we believe that everyone should be able to take those lessons. And as entrepreneurs in the same company, we would never have gotten a mortgage.”
David: “In addition, we would have lost as much as we now pay in rent due to all the insurance for a home.”
Saskia: “We are now putting that money aside for the children.”
No stress
David: “We could also have chosen to work more. But because one of us works in the evening and the other in the morning, we are home every afternoon with the children and the combination of work and family does not cause any stress. The disadvantage is that we never sit on the couch together in the evening.”
Saskia: “They have never been to a shelter.”
David: “I think we both work about 25 hours a week.”
Saskia: “I once wanted to study physiotherapy, but was rejected and I started studying English. When I started taking yoga classes as a student, I noticed that I felt much better. After five lessons I started taking a yoga course and within a year I was teaching myself. To make ends meet, I also worked in a bookstore and in a cinema.”
David: “I was interested in Zen and meditation since I was fourteen and when I met Saskia, I started doing yoga. That was in 2000.”
Saskia: “We then started taking a human diet training course together. I didn’t finish it because we wanted children. Both had two jobs – David taught karate, worked at the Film Museum and did an internship -, studying and exercising was too much. We also wanted space for our relationship. When we had two children, we focused entirely on yoga school from 2009 onwards. We both once wanted to become stay-at-home dads and stay-at-home moms and we largely succeeded.”
David: “We live frugally. We have no car, no expensive hobbies. And we try to make clothes last a long time.”
Saskia: “We almost always go on holiday in the Netherlands, Germany or Belgium. With the bike and the tent. We only went to Japan last summer. We thought it would be fun to take a long trip with the children.”
David: “We often look after someone’s pet during the holidays. This is financially convenient, because you only pay for the train journey. Last summer we babysat a rabbit in Winchester. And on a dog in Paris at Christmas. We had no idea where we would end up. It turned out to be a villa with a swimming pool in one gated community!”
Paradise
Saskia: “When we have a three-week holiday, the four of us go away for one week and we take turns working at the yoga school for a week and the other is on holiday with the children.”
Saskia: “The school provides our income and our buffer. This is important in case one of us gets sick and if something breaks.”
David: “We have taught our children that they will not lack anything.”
Saskia: “And we discuss with them what is and what is not worth money.”
David: “All things considered, we have now achieved all our dreams. We have everything we wanted: a nice family, a house, our own yoga school. We live in paradise.”
Saskia: “That is also the idea behind yoga: basically there is peace. But people often disrupt this through their own actions and then they end up in conflict. People should try to be more satisfied.”
In Spitsuur, couples and singles talk about how they combine work and private life. Participate? Email to [email protected]