Home

One of the most important things I have ever learnt from John Ahern's family story is the meaning of home to children.

Pretend that you're bringing your family to a year-long European vacation on a campervan, like what John Ahern did. One day, you find a furry grey mouse scurrying around the campervan floor. Wait - there is a lot more. I haven't told you the next thing you see is smoke billowing out of the engine.

Well, there isn't much you can do except sending the campervan to the mechanic and moving into a one-bedroom apartment with your wife and two kids. Few activities are as boring as waiting for the engine parts to arrive, which is more or less like putting out rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die.

And then your kid raises a question with the gravitas of a grown-up who knows everything, "When are we going home?"

Good question. The question makes your stomach crawl.

"Well," you answer nervously, "we've still got lots of places to go. And eventually you'll go home." To get your message across, you know you should hide the fact that you miss your bedroom at home too.

That's exactly the question John Ahern had to answer his kids. I remember my daughter asking the same question when we brought her to camping at the age of three. A question both John Ahern and I had heard wrongly. His son was actually asking "Yes, but when are we going home? When are we going back to Franki (the name of campervan)?" And my daughter was referring home to the tent.

Lesson learnt: Home is about the people, how we connect and care for each other, not some designated pile of bricks and mortar with new couches and the latest flat screen TV.