Die Kaffeestube - German and Austrian cyber Kaffee und Kuchen

[admylin]

Kaffeeklatsch for anyone in a German speaking country or interested in German, Kommt herein und setz euch!

There once was a very crude orange
His jokes would make you cry or cringe. :)

Ooh, Italy beckons, how lovely! Have a fabulous time if your phone/alarm hasn't killed you off! Ciao!

If DS2 JUST got up for the day at 5am I wouldn't mind, but hourly wake ups all blimin' night, starting from 9pm are ridiculous at nearly 15 months old - its not usually quite this extreme, but at about 3am I must admit I didn't like him very much! He had calpol at 10pm and 2am in case it's teeth, but to be honest he has no teething symptoms and it hasn't even been hot the last few nights. Why doesn't he sleep?!!!!!!!! With 3, and given he really just cat naps in the day anyway, an extra bad night makes the whole day so foggy and grumpy.

Yay for bilingual toddler NoHun DS2 only says Tschuß and "sod" which is his version of Gruß Gott (he spontaneously offers people his hand to shake and says it, he picked it up at DS1's Kindergarten), so only Bayrish and English here, no proper German yet! I remember when we first moved here the first phrase DD, who was then 20 months, came out with was "Noch Ein mal" :o

Enjoy Italy Linzer !

Lucky Linzer - I bet Italy is getting all the sun! Hope you have a great holiday.

EnglishWoman hope your ds slept abit better last night. Wonder why dc wake so often in the night. He just can't bare to separated from you for more than an hour or two!

Torrential rain started here this morning just as ds left the house to walk to school. It's a 10 minute walk but he will have been soaked through. Dd left just after 8 to go to Bremerhaven for the day and she'll probably be soaked too. Oh well, only tomorrow then holidays start for them.

Got a letter yesterday from school saying your ds has not had his homework or only part of his homework atleast 3 times in Werte und Normen (lesson instead of religion) and I should sign to say I will work with school to ensure he does it in future!

First I've heard of it - he always had homework and I ask and check every day so no idea what more I can do. Also we usually get 2 calls a day from his class mates asking ds what the homework was so most of them don't write it down. I'm presuming it's a new teacher who gives a minus point for every little thing and is just following the rule that parents get Benachrichtigt when a dc has 3 points.

Wish I was off on holiday again soon :( wonder if I can talk DP into a "babymoon" and for how much longer that would be possible....

Englishwoman I really hope you got a better nights sleep!

admylin the description of school, the lists, teachers, homework, exams etc on here is starting to sound very dark when all put together. Why is it so complicated and IMHO slightly backward in Germany? Although I don't doubt a quality education is received by the end, it just seems the journey there is... well odd!

At the moment a bad night's sleep for me is worse than a non-pregnant day after a big night. I feel totally useless and ridiculously tired! Speaking of which, I'm off to crash on the sofa and possibly have a nap!

Hope your kids aren't too soaked admylin (wonder how the fact all thier classmates will be soaked with, presumably, no change of clothes, squares up with the German and Austrian obsession with never getting cold - will they all be ill and take to their beds for weeks, in the style of a Jane Austin heroine who allows her feet to get wet and remain so for more than a moment...)

Nuttella Hope you got your nap - enjoy... I don't think school here is all bed tbh, I am in favour of a lot of things, although not so much the homework and the arbitrary word-of-the-teacher-is-law. I love how children here are expected to act their age take more responsibility for themselves - I have a friend in the UK who is up in arms with righteous fury at the moment because her 6 year old's school failed to "put him on the bus" and was brought home by the grandfather of his best friend (who she and her son both know well)... Apparently this is a huge and serious "fuck up" on the part of the school - she is furious, her husband wants to sue the LEA - here that wouldn't even raise an eyebrow - Kindergarten children are handed over to a parent and not allowed home with anyone the Kindergarten hasn't checked is allowed to take them, but a 6 year old school child just walks out of school and makes their own way home, there is none of this "handing over" "putting them on the bus" - DD is 6 and catches the bus to and from school, and tbh unless the teacher has let the whole class out very late and/or the bus driver has driven off with a lot of children missing (the second one has happened) it's her own fault if she misses it! Also at 6 and having lived here I would put the onus on the child not to go home with a "stranger" - assuming they were not snatched obviously! It seems crazy 6 year olds are having to be handed by teachers directly into their parents hands, they are 6 not 3! She lives rurally too, not in central London or anything... Lots of fb friends are sympathising and sharing her rage at the school, nobody has even questioned whether maybe her son missed the bus because he was messing about with his friends and could maybe be gently reminded he needs to go straight to the bus...

Ooops that went off in a bit of a rant - does anyone else find the average UK smothering parenting attitude infantilises children who are old enough to start taking a bit of responsibility? It's the same with attitudes to letting children play anywhere but their own house and garden without an armed guard...

Haha should preview - I don't think school is all bad not bed, freudian slip from the sleep deprived! (Only 2 wake ups last night though, up at 5 of course but much better than the night before :) )

It's very old fashioned schooling here Nutella and it took me ages to realise it's never going to be like the sort of schooling I had in the UK. Even now in year 7 it's the norm for a parent or grandparent to sit with the dc and help with homework.

EnglishWoman the independent part is good, dc have more freedom here although it drove me mad when I was waiting for my 8 year old who had been out on a school trip and was late or never knowing at exactly what time my dc would be coming out of school.

Or the time 6 year old ds forgot to go to religion (in his first school he went to Evangelisch but half his class went to Katholisch) and as I wasn't there to pick him up, he walked home. I was in town and went straight to school to meet him at the usual time. As I stood outside for over 15 minutes thinking he must be inside, went in and the teacher just shrugged oh your son didn't come to religion! She wasn't bothered and I found a very fed up ds sitting on the step when I rushed home. I know now that situation is the norm here but I was very p*ed off indeed the first time it happened to me!

The girl in dd's class who gets extra points is always bringing in extras to show the teacher. The latest was when they had a presentation to do about rust prevention (not about rust - that was a different group) and this girls dad set up an experiment at home as he had some rostschutzmittel and large nails, took photos and did a proper experiment write-up for her on Power Point. Of course the group got an A.

Admylin the last bit about the girls's dad, experiment, power point and so on.... That will never be me! my poor child doesn't have a chance

I totally agree about the independent part. My niece (6) and nephew (9) live 10 minutes walk from their primary and he will be 10 this year. They leave school at the same time but are always walked to and from school. They live in Stratford on Avon so not exactly rural but a lovely place to grow up and very quiet.... I can remember walking home from school, playing in fields and being miles away when I would have been their age... Ah well I'm sure they'll be interesting challenging lovely teenagers...

Have great weekends everyone!!!

Yay - the sunshine is back! If the weather gets any nicer I might be tempted to get my pasty legs out. Hessen beware....

admylin I always imagine the parents who set up full on powerpoint presentations etc for their DC to be the Einser-Mamas Linzer sometimes talks about.

Nutella Hope you got your nap!

EnglishWoman Any improvements on the sleep situation? Suing the LEA for not putting a 6 year old on the bus does sound a little extreme.

Linzer Have a lovely time in Italy!

NoHun Nice poem :)

We picked up a new TV unit from DBIL this weekend (well, new for us, it's their old one). It's a bit higher so DS' attempts to pull the TV over on top of himself have been foiled for now, and there's a glass door so he can't get to the radio volume knob any more. DS crawled on over to investigate this morning and was distinctly unimpressed! Once he realised he couldn't do any of the things he wanted to he screeched like a little chimpanzee!

Sunshine here too - about time eh!

Gator you should build one of those climbing things like NoHun's ds has! And yes, they are the einser-mamas (and papas) who do the work for their dc but it's a shame that the teachers never notice. I'm still not sure that I've understood the marking system because I know of a couple of boys in ds's class who never did homework, skive doff loads of days and never joined in but still managed to scrape through. I'm sure if my 2 had behaved like that they would have bene thrown out of their year!

Nutella I think alot of parents are anxious in the UK because of media coverage of cases of child abuse and abduction and that's before they worry about traffic and other youths walking about with knives (also reported more in media over there). In Berlin I walked my primary school dc to school and back because we had to cross a square (where the green party HQ is) and there was always a smell of someone smoking pot or the TV crews were setting up to interview a politician, busy place!

We've started the summer holidays. My dc were hungry all day yesterday, asking when th enext meal was! I thought they'd be in bed all day but no! Then we had another gerbil problem so went to vet (????again) and dd is now playing nurse to her pet, it has ear drops and anti-biotics! Anyway, hope it gets better soon as next holiday activity is that dd cleans out her dump of a bedroom she just let it go the last few days of school and she definately has too much stuff. Ds is in mourning as his laptop broke and is at the repair shop (???????more] but atleast cheaper than buying a new one. He's lost without skype!

And tomorrow I'm going to have dh here all the time as he starts his holiday and don't know yet when he's going to see his old boss in Berlin and do some jobs for him!

It's tricky. My own brother was very nearly abducted by two men from just outside the school when he was about six/seven, in the early eighties. This was in a 'lovely, quiet' semi-rural village, so you get deviants everywhere. I think I will let DS think he is doing a lot by himself, but walk ten paces behind, hiding!!! Not that he will be going to school, of course, but clubs and the like.

Thanks re my poem, Gator! :-) And yes, I would recommend a climbing wall if you have an adventurous monkey for a child, like mine! Channel that energy!!! :)

Hope the gerbil gets better, admylin! Glad your DD is doing well nursing the little mite! :)

NoHun sounds like a good idea letting ds think he's doing alot by himself but staying near! I hated it in Berlin when the primary school took off on day trips across the city so I sometimes offered to help and went along so I didn't have to worry all morning!! Can you imagine 2 teachers and 27 small dc at Friedrichstrasse SBahn station!

Poor little gerbil died yesterday afternoon. We went to dd's friend's house to bury it in her lovely flower garden. She put some straw and sunflower seeds in the box/coffin and wrote gerbils name on it It had reached the years of age so that's old old lady in gerbil years.

We're having trouble with the internet, it goes on and off, the dc's laptops wifi goes off too and then back on, back off, every night it goes off too and I have to reset the router. Today a really grumpy technician phones back and couldn't fix it so he's sending a technician tomorrow. Ds still doesn't have his laptop back but hopes it'll be fixed today.

Taking dd to get ingredients for an Italian sweet that she's longing to try and make - cheer her up abit as she really loved her gerbil.

Gator :o at your DS screeching like a chimpanzee when he couldn't get at the new television etc! DS2's sleep goes in phases it seems, it's better than last time I posted, he was only up twice last night, and one of those was before I went to bed so only one actual wake up as far as my sleep was concerned.

NoHun did you say your DH made the climbing wall? Do you have thick gym mats under it? DS2 can now climb everything in the playground by our house, but he gets to the top of the climbing bars then takes his feet off the bar and danges by his arms shouting "Muuuuummmmmmmmmmmmeeeeeee!" - which would be fine if he were 3, but he is not quite 15 months... Ds1 wants to share a bedroom with DS2 and has outgrown the toddler bed he is still in, and I actually found age adjustable bunk beds with a climbing wall (from Billi-Bolli made in Munich) but getting back down is the problem we have, not getting up, so it would be totally dangerous to put a climbing wall in his bedroom I think (they make gates fro the bunk bed ladders). The beds sound fantastic but are too expensive anyway, esp as what DS1 really wants is a car bed and they don't make those.

Walking 10 steps behind while your DC thinks they are being independent is hard to do secretly when you are trailing 2 more, smaller, not very covert siblings - also how do you get back in front without being seen so as to be in to answer the door when they get home

Oh yes DD got her first fountain pen today, she is so proud :o Mind you I wasn't quite as thrilled when the stationary for next year added up to ?76, and that's without replacing the "non perishables" from this year that she tried to persuade me to buy new because they were on the list...

Oh yes, a funny thing happened yesterday morning- a man (who looked somewhat like on of Father Christmas' elves and was wearing an elf like hat) was driving around our village in his van, putting 2 half litre bottles of beer and a leaflet about his beer and soft drink delivery service on every doorstep. You can't get a pizza or Chinese (let along the holy grail of Indian food) delivered here, but you can get beer delivered... Anyway it just hit me how that was such a small, unimportant thing but underlined so much the differences between here and the UK - apart from anything, if a small business man tried that in the UK, there'd be a couple of blokes following a hundred meters behind collecting up all the beer to re-sell or have a party, whilst anyone who did get home to discover the unsolicited free beer would doubtless assume it had been tampered with and was some kind of trick, and not drink it!

Attic, yes, DH made our climbing wall. We currently just stand under it when DS is climbing it, I think we will get a mattress soon though!
That bed sounds fantastic! :)

Ah, I know re following him. I guess we will cross that bridge as and when.

I loved getting a fountain pen, though I was never great at writing with one. Hm, maybe that explains why my handwriting is so dire!

Ooh, I am feeling festive now! Five months til Christmas! :)

Hello everyone!

Soooooo glad it's Friday, had quite a busy week this week and the heat has really taken it out of me. Wednesday and yesterday I needed a 2 hour sleep nap when I got home from work.

I hated fountain pens. I was 9 & had a very old-fashioned teacher who insisted on it. Of course being left handed You couldn't read what I'd written because it was all a big smudge and I had a blue hand, arm & sleeve! Rather than help or offer support at all this teacher was rather cruel and obviously thought left-handers were kind of backward
Later I had a lovely teacher who encouraged me to experiment with pens until I was comfortable.

Hope you get a peaceful weekend Nuttella - DD is 6, nearly 7, she has already tried writing with her fountain pen and it is nicely readable - luckily she is right handed (can't you get left handed fountain pen? I bet you can these days). Fountain pens are on the required list of equipment for the second class at school (so glad they got given the list already rather than on the first day of the new school year!). I have had to put it away otherwise she would have trashed it or lost it by the start of term in mid September!

She was treated like a little celebrity in the stationary shop when I told them she needed her first fountain pen for school, and they gave her all the "beginners" models to try out (though I am afraid she chose the one the same as her friend in 2nd class rather than paying attention to which she liked writing with the best). Luckily she has relatively neat writing when she concentrates, although like everything I am sure it will all go to pot when she loses concentration and daydreams! Not sure the boys will do as well when their time with fountain pens comes, but we'll have to wait and see, luckily they will be a bit older starting 2nd class!

We've had really hot weather recently - had to brave the crowded afternoon Freibad yesterday as it was too hot not to - I don't mind going to the Freibad at all but hate it when it is super crowded just because it is hard to keep my eye on all 3... It's looking like rain today of though - this is definitely connected to the fact the village summer fest is scheduled, it almost always gets rained off the first time! I have also had swollen-feeling hands, arms and feet (and oddly eyes feel swollen too) which I thought was the heat, but they are worse than ever this morning and its cooler so maybe I will have to go to the doctors on Monday and see if they have any idea what's going on, as walking, esp walking and carrying an 11kg toddler, is quite painful, and it doesn't combine well with looking after 3 young kids!

Hi all,

We had a great time in Italy - perfect weather, the children had lots of fun in the water, and I managed to read six books. We met up with our neighbours while we were there, as they were on their way back from Sardinia with their caravan, so stopped over at the same hotel where we were staying; the childre were really excited to see each other.

We've now got less than a week at home before we fly back to the UK on Saturday. The children are at a Zirkuswoche this week, run by the Hilfswerk (who also organised the music week that DD2 went to a couple of weeks ago). They have a really good summer programme; it's a shame that this is the only year all three of them are at the right age to go.

EnglishWoman I'm a bit about the speed with which they're expected to write in ink here; DD2's class basically went from learning to write in the first semester to using a fountain pen at the start of the second semester. I'm trying not to even think about the cost of all the stationery this year, as this will be the first year that all three of them are at school, but we've already spent nearly ?250 on school bags.

admylin Sorry to hear about the gerbil; I remember how upset I was when mine died. Hope you've had the Internet fixed by now.

NoHun That's very scary about your brother. I always worry that the DDs have been abducted if they're more than about 20 minutes late home from school, although traffic is far more of a danger of course.

Nutella A babymoon sounds like an excellent idea if your DH can be persuaded. You should definitely do it with your first if you have the chance, as it gets even trickier once you already have children. I was due in December with DD1 and we went to Canada (drove from the USA) in early November; my midwife gave me my notes to take with me (I was about eight weeks from my due date) and said I should take frequent breaks while travelling, but it was absolutely fine.

Gator Hope your DS has got over the new TV by now! Why is it that the more dangerous/unsuitable an item, the more interesting it is for babies/toddlers? It was an absolute nightmare with DS at times; I remember him going through a stage when he was fascinated by toilet brushes.

I really don't see why writing with a fountain pen is important. Can anyone enlighten me?

Glad you had a great time in Italy, Linzer. Six books, wow!!!!!

It was scary about my brother, and though it is rare, it does happen, and I would rather be over-protective than not.

Attic, hope the swelling and stuff is nothing serious and disappears soon.

Internet is fixed, well still goes off now and then but it's staying on for longer than it was.

Linzer glad you had a good time, sounds like the perfect holiday with the 6 books! I read 3 in Dhaka and would have had time for more, was very nice!

NoHun it does get drummed into them here, the only way is fountain pen! Both my dc are left handed and had lots of smudged books and complaints that their writing wasn't neat enough because of it and they had special left-handed fountain pens. I'm sure it would have been better to stay with pencil for longer.

Nutella hope this heatwave has been bearable for you and you've had fans and ventilators going and your feet up plenty! Couldn't face going into town in this heat so we didn't go far last week. Maybe next week we can have a mini shopping day if you're around!

EnglishWoman hope the swelling is better. I had swollen hands in Dhaka but it was a combination of not drinking enough water and the humidity and heat and going round an ancient fort with no shade or AC.

We're looking after dd's friend's 2 rabbits this week. They're quite nervous.
Dh was meant to be off work but he's been going into his office after a late breakfast as our internet keeps going off and he's writing grant applications and he's applied for a job in New Zealand (desperate). We've been to the local library and got lots of books and dvds to keep us going for school holidays - into the 2nd week now.

New Zealand???!!! Ooh, exciting! We'd like to spend some time there too! Good luck!

Re fountain pens, yes, but WHY? Who as an adult chooses to use a fountain pen? No one I know! What even is the point?

Hello everyone!

Linzer 6 books? Wow! I have the shortest attention span but when a book really grabs me I can't put it down day and night, drives DP nuts

Admylin let me know if you do pop into town, depending on the day/time I could quite possibly be about. Although I have some courses coming up which should make this a nice month money wise :)

And no, we don't have any fans, normally I don't have a problem with heat, it's the cold I really hate. But yes, last week did wipe me out and I needed a lot of naps.
We are dog sitting a very sweet little toy poodle at the moment and I took her for a walk today... we both enjoyed a nap afterwards :o I am feeling very lazy; even more so than usual

oh, and DP and I met in New Zealand so it is rather a special place to us!

Why does everyone hate fountain pens? DD is really excited about hers, she has been waiting to be allowed to use one all year, I know you don't "have" to be able to write with one in order have a happy and fulfilled life, but you don't "have" to be able to do 80% of things you pick up the ability to do through childhood... she wants to use a fountain pen, it's another new and "grown up" thing to try, a right of passage, she's happy...