Switzerland, somewhere in the first year —

I did not speak French, and the only word I recognized was the name of our bus stop. The bus hissed open its doors. My feet stayed planted. People stepped around us without looking, and no one was unkind because no one needed to be.

I was just unnecessary.

So I walked forty minutes uphill with a stroller, telling myself the exercise was the point.

— from the book

Have you ever felt completely capable, and completely lost, at the same time?

Then perhaps this book will feel quietly familiar to you.

the book
Parenting Unpacked cover

Parenting Unpacked

Parenting Through the Loss of Self  ·  Jessica Gabrielzyk

For some parents it's a move to a new country. For others it's a newborn, a diagnosis, a career that disappears, a teenager who has gone somewhere you can't follow. The trigger is different. The experience underneath it isn't.

You're still expected to lead. Decisions slow down. Small tasks carry weight they never held before. And everything you absorbed about what good parenting looks like gets louder precisely when it no longer applies.

Stories from families across six countries. Four phases: Leave, Adapt, Anchor, Thrive. Most people live through this without knowing it has a shape.

This is not a book about how to fix it. It's the company you needed when you were standing in the baby aisle, hand on the cart, not sure what the rules were anymore.

behind the book

I wrote this for the parents who are still functional, still showing up, still making dinner, and somewhere underneath all of it, wondering who they are becoming in the process.

It is not a relocation guide. It does not tell you what to pack or which schools to research. It follows what happens to identity, yours, your partner's, your child's, when the life that once made you competent changes faster than you can adapt.

If you have ever stood somewhere unfamiliar, responsible for someone else, and thought: I don't know the rules here anymore — this book is for you.

Jessica Gabrielzyk

Jessica Gabrielzyk

Author

about the author
Jessica Gabrielzyk

Jessica Gabrielzyk

Brazilian writer living in Switzerland

She has spent the last decade moving between continents with her husband and daughter, accumulating passports, waiting lists, and enough material for several books.

Her first book, Maternity Abroad, explored what it means to become a mother far from the system you trusted. It has reached readers in more than fifteen countries. Parenting Unpacked is her second.

She is a member of SIETAR and the International Academy of Brazilian Literature. She writes at the intersection of parenting, identity, and the particular bewilderment of belonging somewhere you chose but didn't grow up in.

lived in
🇧🇷 Brazil 🇦🇺 Australia 🇵🇹 Portugal 🇮🇪 Ireland 🇨🇭 Switzerland
featured endorsement
Praise for Parenting Unpacked
“While much has been written about the impact of global mobility on children, Jessica invites us into a deeper look at what this experience is like for the adults who raise them. Many who have lived this life will find themselves swept into her story, recognizing it as their own. I know I did. We are not alone. We simply didn’t have words for it before.”

Ruth E. Van Reken

Co-author, Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds
Co-founder, Families in Global Transition

early readers

Voices from parents around the world who've read the manuscript.

"I really enjoy this. I think it will really connect with parents at any stage of their move abroad. It definitely will make the reader feel less alone, more supported."

Bree  ·  USA

"There's no doubt that parenting is one of the most difficult and at the same time most rewarding jobs one can have, and adding the extra challenge of living abroad might feel lonely or even scarier sometimes. Books like yours provide a sense of community and partnership among readers."

Ana & Josie  ·  USA

"Congratulations. Necessary content, especially when delivered with heart."

Valéria Macedo  ·  Writer

"Whether you are preparing for a big change or already deep in the thick of it, Parenting Unpacked meets you exactly where you are. Jessica Gabrielzyk writes with courageous honesty about the self-judgment and identity loss that shape how we mother, and how our children carry what we haven’t yet unpacked ourselves. This is the companion every mom needs to move from surviving to truly belonging, because a family thrives when Mom feels at home in herself first."

Rima Elahi-Syed  ·  Pediatric Physical Therapist, Certified Parent Coach and Founder of Precious Parenting

"Jessica Gabrielzyk writes with sensitivity, emotional intelligence and a truly great deal of authenticity. Parenting Unpacked gives voice to the silent transformations that accompany parenthood, adaptation and the sense of belonging in times of change. A welcoming, reflective and deeply relevant book for families living through personal, cultural or geographical transitions."

Dr. Débora Pasin  ·  Linguist, PhD in Medicine, and International Communication Researcher

questions

Everything you need to know before the book launches.

It's about what happens to identity, yours, your partner's, your child's, when the conditions that once made you competent change faster than you can adapt. International relocation is the lens, but the experience belongs to any parent navigating a major life disruption. The book follows a four-phase arc: Leave, Adapt, Anchor, Thrive.
Parents raising children abroad or between cultures, including immigrant, expat, and internationally mobile families. Also relevant for any parent navigating a major life disruption, a new baby, career loss, divorce, or diagnosis, who has felt their sense of competence shift without warning.
No. International relocation is the clearest example of the experience the book maps, but the same pattern appears wherever a parent's sense of competence collapses while responsibility remains. A new baby, a diagnosis, a career that disappears, all of these produce the same disorientation.
It doesn't offer advice or prescriptions. It follows real families through real situations and names what is happening while you are still inside it. It is narrative nonfiction built from personal experience and interviews across six countries, written for psychologically curious readers who want recognition, not a to-do list.
The publication date will be announced soon. Join the waitlist to be notified first.
edition notes

For readers, booksellers, and anyone who likes to know exactly what kind of book they are holding.

title Parenting Unpacked: Parenting Through the Loss of Self
interiorBlack & white on 50 lb white paper
author Jessica Gabrielzyk
cover finish Gloss laminate
publisher Keep It Simple Publishing
isbn To be announced
language English
availability Exclusive to Amazon
page count To be announced
format Paperback & ebook
before it launches

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