Franglaise Mummy

Posts Tagged ‘work’

Today was the day I’d envisaged going back to work after maternity leave. C is 6 months old, L is back at school after half term last week, today would have been the day I’d have left my two girls with a live-in nanny to go back to work in an office, leaving them from 8am until 7pm for 4 or 5 days a week.

Then everything changed. About 2 months ago. I was getting all ready to go back to work, I had contacted nanny agencies in our search for a live-in French nanny, I started to think about work clothes and weaning C off breast-feeding during the day. Then I had a moment of clarity. I don’t want this, I thought. I can’t do this.

In the back of my mind – you know that fanciful area where anything is possible – I had been entertaining the idea of childminding, so that I could work and spend time with my girls too, especially as I’d really wanted C to have a playmate her own age somehow. But the rational side of my brain kept arguing me back into place, with things like “you’ve got a degree”, or “you’ve got a good job as an account director in a digital marketing agency in London, are you going to give that up?”, or “won’t you get bored?”, or “your brain will shrivel up and die”.

But none of these arguments were enough to deter me from what I really want to do, right now, which is to provide fun childcare in French and English for my daughters and a couple of other children (preferably of a similar age). I started to look into it, and I discovered that it’s feasible and financially viable.

So I set up a meeting with my bosses and handed in my notice, fortunately they were really supportive of me, as were all my (former) colleagues when I told them. It’s a very strange feeling as I went back to work 4 days, then 5 days a week when L was just 3 months old (as is fairly common in France), and then didn’t really spend any time with her, not working, until last September when I went off on maternity leave. And I have seriously loved this time.

It may not be what I do forever, but for now it feels like the most right thing in the world and I couldn’t be happier.

How could I not want to spend time with these two?

After following Tara’s ‘The Gallery’ over at Sticky Fingers for a long time I have finally decided to join in with this week’s theme which is ‘Breakfast’ (nothing to do with this week’s competition, that’s just a coincidence!). I am hoping to make this a regular thing, but let’s not hold our breath!

So this is what breakfast in the Franglais household looked like yesterday morning:

My first photo had B in it too (on the left) but then when I mentioned it was going on the blog he opted out!

Weekday breakfast in our household usually happens between 7.30 and 8am. L doesn’t need to be at school until 9am and it’s a 2 minute walk away, but B leaves at 8am which means L is woken up at 7.30am so we can all have a family breakfast together before going about our respective days. I love the fact that we sit down and have breakfast together as a family every day, despite the occasional arguments that can occur when people have got out of bed the wrong side!

I would just like to reassure everyone that her hair does get tamed down before she goes to school!

For this pregnancy my commute involves travelling on the tube (London underground) into central London every day. After years of commuting in bumper to bumper traffic jams or on completely unreliable trains (anyone ever heard of French strike action?!?) on the French Riviera, this is my best commute ever. I have a 7 minute walk to our local tube station, an 18 minute direct tube ride on the northern line, and then a 10 minute walk to my office the other end. The tubes run every couple of minutes at the time of day I get them and they rarely have strikes that affect them, engineering works or other delays. So, you may think me weird, but I love my commute! It’s a little bit of “quiet” time for me before and after work when I think, read and just generally let my mind wander wherever it will.

For those of you who have travelled in London you may have seen women with big tummies sporting this attractive badge (or maybe a cleaner one than mine!):

I was in two minds about wearing one of these, as I didn’t think I’d really need one as my commute wasn’t overly long and I wasn’t fussed about standing. But then I hadn’t banked on squashed trains and over-heating, so within a month of my positive pregnancy test I’d gone and picked one of these up (a note to any French readers – you don’t need any proof to pick one up, you just ask for one at your nearest station, and it’s given to you! A very different experience from needing anything like this in France).

I started wearing one but more so that I felt justified in asking for a seat if 1st trimester nausea and tube over-heating meant I needed one. As time moved on I was grateful of this badge when the tube carriage was busy – at just 5’3″ I needed a badge up on my shoulder as nobody seemed to see the big bulging tummy lower down.

There is just one thing that confuses me – what is the official etiquette with these badges? What has your experience been as a pregnant woman wearing one? Would you ask someone to give up their seat or hope they notice you and give it up anyway? The experiences I’ve had have been varied:

• The woman sitting in the seat that you are supposed to give up for pregnant woman looking at the badge, then my tummy, then swiftly looking back down at her newspaper/book to avoid offering her seat up. Nice!
• The kindly person mid carriage who shouts down the carriage to me standing near the entrance, mid busy commute to offer me their seat, resulting in glares from everyone as they get shuffled out of the way to make room for him/her to stand up as I sit down. Thank you, even though this is the embarrassing one.
• The alert person sitting in the aforementioned “pregnancy” seat, who is out of their seat while you still have one foot on the platform. Thanks!
• The person who you ask if they mind letting you sit down when you’re really not up to standing. Thanks for the dark looks!

On the whole, my experience has been positive, with people keen to give up their seat. To those giving me evil looks, thanks all the same, it makes up for the not being allowed to eat anything interesting, drink any alcohol, do anything fun, get comfortable or sleep well. I know it was my decision to have a baby but your consideration is greatly appreciated