A few days after our skate at the City Hall skating rink’s children’s rink last Sunday, where gloves are compulsory, we again watched figure skating in the Olympics, a male skater’s short program. She watched a while, then asked. “Why doesn’t he wear gloves?”

Last Sunday afternoon, we went ice skating at the City Hall skate rink’s children’s rink: That evening at home, we watched the highlights of the day at the Olympics, figure skating among them. She watched wide-eyed, then said: “I can’t do that!”

Today, my daughter had a chocolate for dessert and afterwards, tried to put the ribbon back around the chocolate box. It’s a very tight ribbon, but yesterday she succeeded. Today, after quite some struggling, she declared: “Für die große Schule muss man schreiben, vorlesen und Schokolade essen, und dann wieder zumachen.” “At the big [elementary] […]

The other day my daughter melted into tears on the métro. The incident prompted me to ask the advice of a friend, mother of four and “second mom” to many more. I described to her similar situations at home where my daughter would not react to me asking her “What’s wrong? Why are you crying?” […]

Today when Daddy picked up our daughter from school, she complained he hadn’t left the Christmas lights on at home. When they switched them on, she asked “How does Mommy say that?” Dad’s German is rudimentary (but improving), and he suggested “ausstellen” which she understood as “anstellen”, and she told him: “Non, ça c’est pour […]

This morning, my daughter (3½) told me excitedly she was going out with Daddy. “Where are you going?” I asked. She ran to her father to ask, and I heard his reply: “Au magasin de bricolage et au manège.” My daughter related to me: “Magasin de bricolage und Karussell!” Shows that the unimportant stuff (home […]

Four years ago today, on New Year’s Eve, I was on the métro going home when I overheard a mother speaking English to her preteen/teenage children, who replied in French. I couldn’t help it, I approached her and asked about languages in her family. It turned out they were a British family living in Normandy. […]

These days, I often find myself running for a pen and paper. Any pen and (virtually) any paper will do because the main thing is to write down as quickly as possible what my daughter (3½) just said. Why? Because half a minute later I will only remember what she said, but not how she […]

In case there has been a doubt about my daughter’s nationality, and based on these words of wisdom, here is final proof:    

One aspect of going home when you are the minority language parent is realising that “people understand me here”. By that I mean that I’m so used to no one around us understanding what I say to my three-year-old in public that I have to do a double-take when I’m back home and suddenly remember […]