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GummibearGate – Kids and Swearing
Do you get all <catbum mouth> at people who swear at their children? You are not alone if you do. Who would not look disapproving at someone shouting and swearing at their child? Who would not judge that person as a Bad Mother for using bad language, for shouting at a poor little innocent child. If you had observed me on our trip to Germany, you would have judged me and found me wanting. But stop for a moment and think. This post is not about parents who verbally abuse their children, who shout and swear day in, day out. But about the parents who lose their temper and patience…
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Raising Multilingual Children – A Blog Hop
This was always our plan. From the moment that my husband and I realised that we were destined to stay together, to marry, to raise a family; we had always known that our children would be bilingual. It simply wasn’t an option to do otherwise as our parents do not speak each others’ languages. For our children to be able to communicate with both sides of their extended family, bilingualism was essential. In this week’s bloghop, Tales From Windmill Fields asks How important is language learning for you? Are your children bilingual? Will they be? How do you keep the languages going? My husband is German, I am Scottish and…
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The Expat Adjustment Curve – And Why You Shouldn’t Go Home Just Yet
Whether your plan is to relocate for a short time or long term, being prepared for physical and emotional upheaval makes the difference between a happy expat experience and a miserable one. The Expat Adjustment Curve helps you see where you are on your expat journey of discovery, and make the experience an enjoyable one. My husband’s company paid for Relocation Training before we moved to Switzerland, and while we inwardly wondered what the point of this was as Germany and Switzerland are not so dissimilar, it was actually very helpful. If you can, I would highly recommend that you do one of these courses. Basically, it is designed to…
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My Silent Miscarriages – A Guest Post
Sarah, my guest blogger today, talks about the care she received during her missed miscarriages. A missed miscarriage is one where the baby stops growing but the body does not recognise this. Most missed miscarriages are discovered when the woman goes for a scan. Some women have experienced pain or bleeding and may already suspect something is not right. For some women, like my previous guest blogger (also confusingly called Sarah), it comes as a complete surprise. Please help us spread the word. It is not right that women should have to pay for private reassurance scans if there is a risk of a miscarriage. This is all very well…
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Buying from US iTunes Store
*UPDATE* After the stories of children running up huge bills with in-app purchases, I thought I should mention that these instructions work equally well if you are looking to limit the purchases of a child on App Store – set up an account for the iPod or iPad and put money onto their account. They can only spend what is on the account, and so learn to budget their money. Also good for older kids, when relatives don’t know what to get them for Christmas or birthdays. You can buy iTunes vouchers in supermarkets or online. Most expats come across this problem at some point. You want to…
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Sarah’s Story
Fourteen bloggers have shared their stories of miscarriage, all of them heartbreaking to read. A common thread is emerging. It is becoming clear what the most important thing for these women is, and it is not immediate access to expensive scanning equipment (although that would be jolly nice) nor is it purpose built “miscarriage wards” as some commentators seem to think we want. It is kindness. From the nurses, doctors and other health care workers. As Mummylimited put it: Mumsnet are asking for a five point Miscarriage Code of Care to be implemented and all of the points are excellent and important. For example asking that women suffering miscarriage…
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Mumsnet Campaign for Better Miscarriage Care
‘How is the new Mummy this morning then?’. The words could not have hurt more. I turned my head away from the breakfast bearing hospital auxiliary. She had obviously not been informed that I was on the labour ward for a D&C, not to give birth. Was it not enough that I had to see heavily pregnant women waddle down the corridor ahead of me, hear their puffing and groaning, and later hear the cries of their newborn babies in neighbouring rooms? On leaving the ward later that morning, I looked at my feet rather than into the excited eyes of flower laden fathers, on their way to visit their…
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Writers Workshop – A Story and a Recipe
The theme of this month’s Writers Workshop was “A Story and a Recipe” Here are the guidelines: Its autumn and time for gathering friends and family in our homes. Its a time for searching for old recipes and for trying new ones. A time for finding pleasure and contentment in baking bread and cakes and cookies and in cooking meals for loved ones. Have a closer look at the recipes you love: Is there a story connected with one of them? Is there one you got on a very special occasion? One you got from a special person? One you had to chase after for a long time? Or just…
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Mumsnet Campaign – Kick Off Thread – Lets Get Blogging
The campaign kicks off on Monday, 10th October and will carry on throughout the week. The aim of the campaign is to highlight the reality of miscarriage, often a taboo topic, brushed under the carpet of life. It is estimated that every third woman will at some time in her life suffer the loss of a pregnancy. It is sadly not unusual, and it is time that we talked honestly and openly about what miscarriage means and how we can help women who suffer from one. Particularly the extremely different standards of care offered by health care trusts across the country should be scrutinised and a Code of Care introduced.…
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Daily Mail, Lies and Statistics
My blog went viral last night. I had more hits in 2 hours than I normally have in more than a week. Sadly, not because of a scintillating piece of social commentary, or because thousands of people were interested in my writing. Although if any of you want to stick around and read some of my other posts, that would be jolly nice. Simply because I was one of the people who grabbed a screenshot of the Daily Mail, exposing their lies. Some commented that it was hardly a surprise, some noted that it was normal for newspapers to write up the opposing stories in order to get…
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Daily Mail Posts in Lies Shocker
It is not unusual for a newspaper to write up two versions of a story, so that when the announcement is made, they can get their story online faster. What the Daily Mail did tonight went above and beyond being prepared. They made up the story. Fabricated quotes. This is not being prepared, having two versions of the story ready to go out. It is plain and simple lying. If we start just making up the story, attributing quotes to people, writing about suicide watch and psychological assessments, then we may as well just not bother calling it news. Lets call it gossip. Fabrication. Lies. Assumption. But please…
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Do You Have a Parenting Philosophy – Your Children are not Your Children
Attachment Parenting, Benign Neglect, Authoritarian, Helicopter Parent, Tiger Mum – which one describes your parenting method best? Can you put a name to your Parenting Philosophy, explain it in two or three words? In those first hazy months of parenthood, many of us read books on parenting. We search for answers, for reassurance, for advice. Or we use websites such as Mumsnet, Netmums or Babycentre. Perhaps you already had an idea of the kind of parent you wanted to be, and found that the reality of parenting was slightly different to the theory. I can recall being indignant at my husband’s Grandmother, because she told me that when…
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Raising Independent Children
Only one in five children can tie a reef knot, according to a survey carried out on behalf of the Scout Association. My first thought on reading this was, “How on earth will they manage to tie a neat knot in a silk scarf when they are older”, which may not be quite what the Scout Association was worried about. While being able to tie an reef knot, or mend a puncture may be a handy skill to have, there are other items on the list that we really should be teaching our pre-teen children. How to cook a meal – my daughter is 9 years old and recently…
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Smoking In Switzerland
Can you guess from which age a child can legally purchase cigarettes in Geneva? 15 years? 18 years? Perhaps even older? I bet not many of you would have guessed that a child can buy tobacco here as soon as it is able to walk and talk. There is absolutely no restrictions. You could, if you wanted to, send your toddler into a shop to buy your cigarettes. This really threw me, when I heard it on the news yesterday. The legal age from which children are able to buy cigarettes is set by the Cantons, the Swiss states, not the central government. Which means that you may be able…
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My Bucket List
It is not something that I have thought of before – what things do I want to do before I kick the bucket. Not that I have any intention of doing that any time soon, but if there is one thing I enjoy doing, it is writing lists. My mother used to tease me about my lists, asking if I needed to make a list of my lists to keep track of them. When I read Ellen’s blog post about a bucket list, I immediately thought of the Morgan Freeman/Jack Nicholson film. I watched the Bucket List a few years ago and it is truly a wonderful film, although I have…
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Writers Workshop – Dictionary
Today I attended a Writers Workshop. The instructions were to chose a word from the dictionary and to write a piece around this word, fiction or non-fiction. This is mine. Facetious 1: joking or jesting often inappropriately : waggish 2: meant to be humorous or funny : not serious “Don’t be facetious” I was perhaps seven years old when I first heard my Granddad use this word. Facetious. I rolled the unfamiliar word around my tongue. “What does that mean Granddad?”, I asked. “It means that you should not make fun of me, or make silly remarks”, he replied. Granddad had an amusing hobby. He read the dictionary. Every…
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Roasted Pork and Late Summer Veg Casserole with Thomas Crosby Muffins
This is a recipe that I made up today to use up some of the veg that we have left over this week. Regular readers know that we have signed up for a veg box, which I pick up in a nearby village every Tuesday. This week we still have a lot of courgettes and aubergines, not to mention a glut of tomatoes, so I thought I would make a roasted veg casserole, with tomatoes and with that I will serve Thomas Crosby Muffins from Food, Football and a Baby. Sometimes I get fed up of pasta or potatoes, and the cheese and ham muffins make a good alternative to…
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Remembering 9/11 – The Day Before
Like many people all over the world, this weekend my thoughts turn to New York. Ten years ago today we could never have imagined what the following 24 hours would bring. We went about our day, happy and carefree, or sad and depressed, Â or a combination of emotions. Just one day later, the emotions we would feel would be shock, confusion, grief, terror. That time of my life was a pleasant one, I was pregnant for the third time and at last I had gone past the critical 12 weeks. The two miscarriages made me nervous, wary of being too happy about my pregnancy, but gradually I was…
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Are you a Pot Saver or a Pot Slattern?
If you had asked me this earlier today, I would have had no idea what you were talking about. Now, thanks to the wonder of Mumsnet I know what a Pot Saver is, and that I am one. According to a Mumsnet poster Pot Saver “… is a pejorative word meaning that when I’m cooking, or planning cooking, I’m always keeping one eye on what’s going to minimise washing up”. That is me! Whether it is One Pot Spaghetti Carbonara, Easy Chicken And Ham Pie, Salmon en Croûte, Pizza or Quick and Easy Salmon Coulibiac, my favourite recipes use just one pot. Or no pot at all. We have a…
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Banana Cupcakes with Caramel Fleur de Sel
When I renamed the blog, I decided that I would make Salted Caramels and perhaps use the photos for the blog logo. Easier said than done, I discovered. When I searched for a recipe, I found that almost all of them called for what the Americans call “heavy cream”. This is a cream with a fat content of 36 to 38%, in between single cream and double cream. The closest I can find in Switzerland is Vollrahm, in French Crème Entière, with 35%. For making caramels, it is incredibly important to have a candy thermometer, which I did not have. I bought what I thought was a candy thermometer but…
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Parentbloggers and Privacy – What Happens When Kids Grow Up?
This is something that I have been musing on for a few days. There are a lot of “Parentbloggers” out there at the moment and I won’t knock them – some of them I really enjoy reading. But what happens when the cute little toddler becomes a pre-pubescent bundle of hormones, then a teenager. Will the Mummyblogger still blog about her children, and can you really do this for over a decade without the friends of the children finding out and taking the piss? I guess that many will find that the store of “amusing things that the children have done today” tales dries up. Not that children over…
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Foreign Language Teaching In Scottish Schools
It was with interest that I read the article in The Scotsman about foreign language teaching in Scottish schools. Throughout the country, Mandarin is becoming more popular than traditionally taught German. Some schools and even school districts will not be offering German lessons at all. This is said to be in response to the growth in political and, more importantly, economic strength of China. The setting up of Confucius Classrooms has boosted interest, as has the feeling that children will need to speak the official Chinese language to get ahead in business life when they are older. I have misgivings about this. When I was in school, we were…
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Lazy Sunday Afternoon Cookies and Easy Chicken & Ham Pie
It has rained today. Warm rain, it has to be said, so still preferable to Scottish rain, but rain all the same. Our dog sniffs at the door, toddles along the side of the house, does what she has to do and hurries back inside. It is that kind of rain, persistent, heavy, drenching, driech. It is a day for cookies, I decided. If it were colder, we could put the fire on, drink hot chocolate and toast marshmallows. Despite the rain, it is still almost 20°C, so we shall keep that plan for a proper autumn day. My cookies are baked, soft squigy chocolate chip using this recipe. I cannot buy…
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The Joys of Expat Life
Ok, forgive me my self-indulgent and whiny post yesterday. The sun is shining in Geneva once more, my friend is on her way to a new adventure, who knows what the next year will bring both her and my families. There is change coming, and it cannot be stopped. Today, I am going to concentrate on the good sides, the sweet side of life. What I enjoy about living in Switzerland. In Geneva. Chocolate – this is a given. Switzerland has a lot of chocolatiers. Here in Geneva we can chose from Martel, Rohr, Auer and many others. We went to the chocolate festival in Versoix this spring to see how…
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Saying goodbye, au revoir, auf wiedersehen…
No matter in which language you do this, it is a bitch. And if you are living the expat life, then it is something that you have to do occasionally. I have had acquaintances come and go but today was the first time I have said farewell to a true friend. And it hurts. So I did what I do when I hurt. I baked. I cried. I drank wine. And I sat down to write. While I pounded the dough for the pizza we shall eat later, I considered this side of expat life. The side that no one tells you about, when they extol the fantastic lifestyle, the mind-broadening…
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My daughter, the writer
Does she write, because she sees me writing? Does she write, because she likes to write? Does she write, because she has to write? Recently my nine year old daughter told me that she had to finish her story, “.. I don’t really want to finish, but I must. I cannot stop writing, even though I am tired”, she sighed. I won’t pretend that I was not proud and delighted to hear that. My mini-me. She writes in English, despite learning to read in French. When she wrote this story earlier, her first on her new computer that she paid for by saving her pocket money, she told me that…
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Using Social Media to Increase Readership on Your Blog
Following on from yesterday’s post about starting blogging, this post is about increasing your readership, particularly with the usage of Social Media. When I started blogging, there were not really many outlets to get my blog out there. I picked up some readers here and there, more through sheer coincidence than any actual plan. Occasionally someone would comment on my blog, and I would be pleased that someone was actually reading it. Since I started using Twitter to promote my blog, I have gained a lot of readers. And more people comment, both on the blog or on Twitter. And let’s be honest, that is what…
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Simple Steps to Start a Blog
You want to start a blog, but are not sure quite where to begin. It may look a bit complicated, but is is actually quite simple. This blog post aims to give you the basics on starting a blog – from choosing which platform to use, to deciding on a name, getting started and publishing your first post. 1. Blogging Platform This means a website such as WordPress or Blogger – basically they give you the foundation on which to build your blog. These are the two main blog hosting websites, and the ones that I have experience with so I will stick to explaining them. They…
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Secrets of Scotland for Tourists – Review – Aird Hill B&B Badachro
It is a tricky thing, choosing a B&B. You can look on TripAdvisor.com and ask on Twitter, but when it comes down to it, you are on your own. A highly recommended B&B might have had a change of owner, or the owner may be having a bad day. You may simply not like the place, or find the pillows too hard. Trawling TripAdvisor only takes you so far – you have to weed through the reviews a bit as there are some people who are slightly hard to please such as this reviewer of a Spanish hotel. In Spain: “The staff were friendly enough but the food was very…
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The Secrets of Scotland – Scottish Artist Ron Lawson
Is it Awfully Middle-Class to Have an Art Theme? You are all nodding. This is a bad sign. It was not planned, but we seem to have a Scottish art theme in our living room (and now I angst about using living room or lounge, or sitting room. I should not have read the book about class distinctions in UK*). The Scottish art theme is all down to our recent trip. Finding Scotland both picturesque and, in comparison to Switzerland, inexpensive for buying art, we brought home three different pieces. And that sounds even more middle-class poncy than ever. Pieces. Urgh. Anyway, here is what we bought. The first piece…
