@Thomas Huckstep no sports and no hobbies. but that will take time. we are in a foreign country with limited opportunities. (there are no playgrounds, no public places to play ball nearby (we live on a hillside)). also my income has been limited so we can't afford to go places or buy things that could help here. not to mention that the stress of having to find work limits the energy and time that i can spend with the kids. but things are getting better. my income is slowly improving and so there will be more freedom and opportunities to explore new options. (the kids should get bikes for example)

@Thomas Huckstep we are in tanzania. we moved to east africa from china where the kids were born. things are done a lot more manual here. we live together with a local family who is doing most of the cooking for us, except for the odd things the kids want to do on their own. the problem for me is that i would much rather spend time with the kids, but if i don't prioritize work, it doesn't get done. and when i don't have new projects lined up that means prioritizing the search for new projects until i have one. when i lost a long term customer 2 years ago i was out of work for 1.5 years in part because i didn't prioritize finding new projects for half of that time. until my savings were used up. it's better now because i again have a semi reliable customer who has new projects for me, but i still need to prioritize work until i rebuilt my savings if i don't want to repeat the experience. that's one of the challenges of working from home. the kids need to learn that i am not always available for them. the positivity comes from an entirely different side. mainly because i chose to be in this situation. i could give up, go back to austria and file for unemployment and financial support. as a single parent i could not get a job because the kids are to young to be left alone at home. one of the benefits of living together with another family is that here i can leave the kids at home because they would not be alone. so despite things being harder i have a lot more freedom here than i would have in austria. add the experience we get out of this and it makes it all worth it.

@Stefan Richter yes, i am in tanzania now with two kids.

@Stefan Richter the people here are very welcoming. much more so than in europe or even in china. the kids are 8 and 14