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Parenting in France

Last activity 26 April 2018 by nimnom

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Priscilla

Hello everyone,

Being a parent can be challenging, and even more so when moving abroad, but it can also be an enriching experience. Tell us more below about your role as a parent in France.

How are you experiencing your parental role in your new home? Has your move abroad changed anything in your parental perspective or approach?

On a professional level, have you been able to balance your family life and career? How so? Tell us about the benefits that parents can enjoy in France, such as maternity leave, etc.?

How do you deal with being a parent as an expat, without the support of your extended family in the country?

Do you have any advice on how to introduce the culture in your new country to your children, while maintaining the traditions and customs of your home country?

Thank you for sharing your experience.

Priscilla

nimnom

I was already working mostly remotely as a consultant when we moved to France from the UK, and managed to retain my client. I work around 20-hours a week to give me time with my primary-school aged children. This has been invaluable in France - not only because there's no school on a Wednesday afternoon, but also to have time to just be with them and support them through the change.

Taking time to just play and relax with them was vital especially in the first six months plus, when they didn't speak the language and were finding school hard, not just academically but socially as well. Removing them from established friendships to a new country where making new friends wasn't so easy meant some hard times. I needed patience and empathy and they needed lots of love and reassurance. Without wanting to make a big 'thing' about it, I was aware that my children just needed me more. Family time, days out and down time were also especially important.

I think I've seen my children as the people they are becoming and empathised more with who they are rather than as 'my kids'. Equally it's not been super easy for us adults all the time, and I've reminded them that I am a person, separate from being their mum, too! I think remembering that we are all individuals, with different personalities, different ways of coping, has been a bonding experience for us. What works well for one child isn't necessarily the ultimate thing for the other.

Being further away from family, and from the support of established friends, is a challenge. The tutor I found for our girls has really helped. Not only has she helped with their language and school work, but she's very kind and they have really opened to her, which has been a great confidence booster for them, and a backbone of quiet support for me.

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