German mums - need some urgent help on baby items!

[thequietone]

Hi,
I've got 3-4 weeks until baby No.2 is delivered. We gave away all our important baby stuff before leaving the UK to friends who needed it at the time. I'm trying to order, either through Amazon or Baby-Walz, a moses basket and stand. What would this be called, or do they even use these for newborns in Germany? Urgent help is required as this baby's going to pop any moment!!! PS. I DO have a cot for the next stage of sleeping.

he certainly is not the normal complacent child well as seen here

he is stong willed, talkative, creative, and very into role play

Agree that he strives for his place in the family

I try not to argue with him it is like entering a maze he can talk the hind legs off a donkey

The kindergarten we could of used pointed to an empty corner with one chair and stated that is our audio corner
we are waiting for the funding, for the music center surely a radio or old tape recorder could of been used in the meantime

Think the kindergarden teacher have training
but lack empathy

That must be a worry to you ALice. I hate having to send them someplace which isn't right for them. If you're in a small village thoug,h you'll have limited choice and from what you say he's a bright boy who needs a lot of stimulation. He would love something like drama by the sounds of it. When my dd has been a handful at home, I've found she was working off the stress of being unhappy in her kg/school environment, ie she was taking it out on me.

Admylin, HOW could you stay here if you could go back there? It looks beautiful. I think you need to chloroform dh and just ferry him over and be done with it all

ah ok foul language, sigh. Lemme just strike that off my list then

He is still waiting on the a place near us and is with me nearly all the time

But i have a very bad feeling dh says im being silly.And saying he is bright simply because he is my child

How can i put him somewhere that will not help him at all

goes off to make a giant coffee

thank you truly for all you thoughts i'm too much of a worrier

Keep up with the chess club that sounded good!
Ds can play now - a friend taught him in the summer holidays. Have to find a club in Mitte because he beats me every time now and is not finding it fun playing against mum!

Alice both my dc were 4 when they went to kindergarten. Can your ds already speak German? Evenif he can't mine caught up and have never had problems and when I tried to put them in Kindi aged 3 they were not happy at all, when they were 4 they coped much better. Maybe that will make a difference with your ds, a few months make a huge difference at that age.

I have been following this thread with a growing sense of dread. I really hope that DH gets the job he has applied for in Switzerland.

Alice,
It might be that a different kindergarten could be the answer. Our DCs go to a fab kindergarten, they do so much with the children, spend lots of time thinking of interesting things to do. After hearing from friends about the kindergarten that their DCs go to, I am even happier about ours.

I think that the problem with the Erzieherinnnen is that it is a very low prestige job. The pay is miserable (about 20000 euros a year) so they cannot recruit many bright and ambitious school leavers. The annoying thing is, all the discussions about Pisa, and they forget that the most important time for a child's development is the first 5 or 6 years.

Admylin do you know what we found on Sunday at the Wohltaetische Buchhandlung or whatever it's really called near the Europa centre? A set of 5 DVDS from the Little House on the Prairie - the pilotfilm and the tv shows Engl/Ger. Great after reading the books although I think only the pilot film follows the books, finishing when they have to leave Indian territory. The rest all seem to have that brat Nellie Oleson in them.

Alice we are the MN Verein for worriers in the German speaking diaspora, so you are in the right place! A huge cup of coffee sounds about right.

OMG you have him at home all day atm. It's good to have a bit of a break from them at that age, they just drain you somehow, don't they? Can't think of anything but sport to wear him out a bit! Good luck finding a place for him.

hi again for a mo

ds is at home all the time im not sporty i try

ie footy in the garden
we do to loads of baking , painting, play doughing etc

He can speak some german and understands a lot
problem is i am also not happy with tons of other stuff and he needs a happy mum

He will also be a very late starter into volks schule i was once so in favour of this my thoughts have been turned around

Kindersurprise, that sounds like me! I'm waiting for dh to endlich get a job in UK or the US. I'm ready to move, I could be out of here within 2 weeks. I can't wait for that day, I dream of it!

berolina are you off to the Uk? (you said you were getting ds a passport) We are really due a trip over, running out of all sorts including my first aid box contents and branston and just had to order marmite on a food from home website as ds can't live without it!

Hi KS, sorry to always be the prophet of gloom and doom! Where would you be in Switzerland? Think it was somewhere near Zurich Ernest lived or is still living(?) and she seemed to love it there.

Chess. Sigh. Well dd is loving it and progressing well. We get homework printed off some German website and I really struggle to understand the Aufgaben, you know. It makes my brain shudder to a halt sometimes and I get a bit fed up with that part of it - Fehlersuche I particularly hate, "why are these positions impossible?" I just don't know. I got dh onto it on Sunday and he didn't know either and his chess is pretty damn good because unlike me, he really thinks ahead.

Well you could try OB-Str if you fancy the same set-up we have. Just go in and ask what day it is and if you can come for a try out. We had a month to try it. Doesn't your school have a chess club? A lot of them do?

Geez Alice, you're really throwing yourself into the job. I'm much lazier than you. No, I didn't mean you should be doing sport with him but isn't there some kind of a Sportsverein near you with football for the littlies and running about, swimming, that kind of thing?

oh im being dim

yes dh takes him to a mini sport club thing

me and sports centres do not get on

think i feel that it is my job as it used to be my job
does that make any sense
Dh says im only still when im ill!

SSSandy don't even ask about clubs of any sort in our school! I don't get alot of the moves and tricks in our chess book either which is why a club would be nice for ds as he seems good at it.

Alice how is life in the village you live in? I lived in one in the south of Germany and I was extremely depressed because we didn't fit the profile so we weren't accepted. When we went to the little play ground people would get up and go as they saw us coming. We only got a little bit of respect when one of the big mafia families daughter gave birth in the next town and saw dh at the hospital in his white coatand he took her baby's blood for testing and said hello etc so when that was reported back we got went up abit in the scala of speak to/don't speak to. If only we had gone to church on Sundays, we would have had more of a chance. I really hope you aren't in one of those sorts of villages.

it is a very clicky town and yes i do not tick the right boxes

Dh grew up here

I feel the austrians can not choice which box to put me in

And im afraid i also do not go to church as im not catholic

I am not bothered about staying here, I actually like the area where we are and have lots of friends here. Bit worried about school system though.

It would be Geneva, so French speaking Switzerland. Another language to learn.

It is the not knowing that is so awful. I know that we will have to leave here sometime and I would just like to know when so I can start planning/organising.

Alice
That is difficult for you. Are there any other people who are new to the town? We do not have many friends of the "old guard", most of our friends are "zugezogene" like us.

That's exactly the key to get in though. Mine was also a catholic village. Thinking back I should have just gone and sort of pretended for an hour every Sunday then we might have been happier (or rather me , the dc were small so happy in their own little world)

Have you got a car? The thing that kept me sane was the English playgroup every Friday, dc played and we all sat and talked and drank tea, the atmosphere was easy going, all in the same boat sort of thing. It might be worth looking for something like that nearby?

Yes, kinder surprise that brings back memories in our village I also only made friends with 2 other families, zugezogen and non church going!

www.stgeorgesschool.de/

Is this one within travelling distance? I thought it looked ok and I liked the fact they offer bursaries so it's a bit different in approach to the usual internationals.

Alice, how long have you been in this village and is it your dh's hometown?

oops the link was for KS!

Sandy
I did look at that school, but I don't really think that we can afford it. First time that I have regretted DH's good wage, no chance of a bursary.

Cologne is about 30mins from us.

I cannot see us being here for much longer so if the job does not go through, then it is just a matter of time till the next opening comes up.

admylin, yes, off for 10 days in April and then for 3 weeks in June/July including a seaside holiday . Any orders?

I am happy with ds1's kiga for now (well, it's really a kinderladen, and one of the reasons why it works is because it's so small) - because of it being Elterninitiative and Integration the staff are interested and experienced - the youngest one is 28, I think. We won't keep him there until he's old enough for school though, as it will definitely begin to bore him - current plan is to send him to a Vorschule from autumn 2009, when he'll be 4. Could you find anything like that, Alice, or a Vorklasse?

Oh duh, jsut noticed that ALice already said her dh grew up there. So dh is Catholic then? Well unless you find the set up creepy and weird or anything, you could try all going along to church, if it helps. You don't have to be Catholic to attend, you just aren't supposed to go up for communion but no one will object to your presence there I shouldn't think. Maybe there'd be some nice things for ds organised through the church?

Or maybe not. Still worth a try perhaps

I remember too Cadmum saying how nasty her priest had been to her so you can't count on it being a great way in I suppose. Mind you I think that was an Anglican church in Austria.