Taking a toddler to the tropics can be both trying and rewarding, even for a weeklong vacation. For three women from Minnesota, however, the east coast of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula is home, and the challenges and benefits of raising children there are not a temporary trip, but daily life.
No walk in the park
Julie Sterud, from Plymouth, lives in Playa del Carmen with her Canadian husband Dave Tomlinson and their 3-year-old son, Ryder. Sterud has known only Mexico for most of her time as a mother, having given birth to and raised her son there, albeit with regular trips back to Minnesota — an easy, half-day journey by air from the Yucatán.
While her son Ryder played nearby on the beach, watched by his part-time Mexican nanny, Sylvia, Sterud talked about the pros and cons of raising a child in Mexico. “Here, it’s a beautiful paradise place, but it’s not easy,” she said. She freelances as a massage therapist, while her husband works long hours, managing three dive shops and a hotel.
Aside from the beach, there are few public spaces for kids. “I miss that you have land [in Minnesota],” she said. “Parks, yards — you can let the kids run, it’s safe. Here, the streets are so busy.” She and Ryder walk to the beach when the heat is bearable.
Baby things like toys, cribs, and strollers are expensive, she said, but private medical care is not. Her hour-long pregnancy appointments — with a “fantastic pediatrician” — cost 300 pesos (about $30), and her Caesarian section at a hospital in Cancun cost 2,000 pesos.
As Ryder neared 2 years old — the traditional age to start school in Mexico — Sterud started looking at the several Waldorf schools in the area. One school has a pool, music rooms, a library, and playground; another teaches half the day in Spanish, half in English. When Ryder reaches 1st grade or so, she said the family might reevaluate whether to stay in Mexico.
“At the younger age, I think it’s good,” said Sterud. “[In Minnesota] my son would not be learning two languages. He would not have the opportunity to experience this.”
When he’s older, however, “this is going to be a dream boat for him,” she said. “Diving, the beach, the boats, the motorcycles. That’s going to give me a heart attack.”
Ideally, said Sterud, they would spend November through April in Mexico and the summers in Minnesota or Canada.
Snowbirds
Lyda Puleston and her 4-year-old son Castor are living that ideal. From October to May, the two live in a large, RV home at Paa Mul, a largely expat resort community just south of Playa del Carmen. The daughter of an archeologist who spent much of her childhood in Mayan lands, Puleston is offering a similar cross-cultural upbringing to her son. In Minneapolis, Puleston owns a home and several apartment buildings, which she can manage via cell phone and Internet from her comfortable outdoor patio.
Castor already knows some Spanish, said Puleston, as the two wandered through the Paa Mul community and along the bay, stopping to investigate sea creatures in the shallow, rocky pools along the beach.
As he reaches traditional American school age, she is leaning towards home schooling, which she also experienced as a child. She recently attended a home-schooling conference in the U.S. that bolstered her enthusiasm.
At a younger age, I think it’s good. (In Minnesota) my son would not be learning two languages. He would not have the opportunity to experience this.
“School prepares for a structured environment; how to be like everybody else,” she said. “I want him to be independent and have a lot of interests in plants and animals and insects and people.”
Even without school, Castor has the Paa Mul community — a few other kids and a lot of de facto grandparents, said Puleston, and his grandmother visits three times a winter. (Like others interviewed, she said the Yucatán is an easy draw for family and friends.)
While Minneapolis is safer, especially in terms of driving, the environment at Paa Mul lends itself to the open, experiential lifestyle and play.
“We’re always outside,” she said, “We’ll go a week and maybe take only two trips in the car.”
On a cloudy Saturday afternoon last December, Puleston and Castor attended a traditional Mexican Las Posadas Christmas celebration at the house of Amy Adams de Martin, a Twin Cities native who married Jose Martin. His family has owned Paa Mul for more than 100 years. The couple welcomed their third child last spring.
The children and parents gathered at the door of the screened party room to simulate Mary and Joseph’s search for a room at the inn. Once inside, the group sang a traditional song before a likeness of the Virgin of Guadalupe, and then the children each took a few blind swipes at a piñata. When it finally burst, they rushed together in a blur to collect the fallen candy, proving that, no matter where you are, ultimately, kids will be kids.
Jeremy Stratton is a Twin Cities writer.
