MN Little Italy 8

[francagoestohollywood]

Benvenuti, ciao hello

Ciao! How exciting.

I haven't read through the other threads, I must admit, so feel a bit bad just descending without knowing people's stories... But hopefully I will catch up. Should I introduce myself and why this thread is interesting to me?

Welcome Penthe. There is a mix of Italians in the UK and Brits in Italy here. Me and my family were in Devon until last Christmas. We are now in Milan, missing Napoleone, of course/
one of my fav bit in eccebombo

You are sending me in circles with that link, franca!

Pippi I hoope he is not one of the 2%.
re my fingers somebody suggested it might be the way I hold Dd when feeding with fingers in a ' new ' position anyway went for tests this am Flippn Eu47 of ticket to pay and they will be ready in 2 weeks time. POor mini rosa was out with dh but hunger was too much so they put me in room away from tutti vecchi and I fed her and they did my prelievo after she had finished ( about 30 mins after they should have closed ) strano ma gentile !!!
Gio has your flu gone now ??
Oggi pm I am back at the nido to learn the song I have to sing at the xmas do ( eeeek!)

OK, well I'm a Brit, but DH is Ligurese (sp?). We're in Cambridge, but trying to raise our DD to speak Italian (OPOL). She's only 6 months, so we've yet to see how we're doing!

Oh how rude - Franca well done on the job is it a book shop by any chance ????
Penthe spill the gossip and welcome to Italy on the mumsnetweb .

Ciao, Rosa. Are you bf-ing in Italy? My ILs look at me like I'm some kind of strange exotic creature when I bf my LO. Is it relatively uncommon to bf in Italy?

Sorry [stupid emoticon] - you talk about Euros so you are obviously in Italy. Durgh.

Are these the tests for your hands? Sorry - was lurking on other thread... Or am I confused.

Thanks . No, it is not unfortunately. Clothes.
That was really kind of them to find a quiet place for you and dd .

Penthe, you'll get lots of advice here, as all our children (well a bit different for mine) have been raised bilingual

No, it is not uncommon. Possibly depends on the areas. Don't know how old you IL are, but it wasn't common to breast feed in the early 70s for instance. But all my friends have/have tried to breast feed (say in the last 10 yrs).

My advice is you talk to your dd in English your husband always in Italian. Get books in both languages and dvd / Sky if you can. My elsest dd 2.8 speaks both she is more inclined to Italian at the moment but she chats away to Grandma on skype !
yes I have sort of crunch joints in my fingers and mega stiff in the morning annoying to be honest . I bf quite happily and yest at doc surgery they even put me in the nurses room I was going to get boob out in reception (had scarf suitably in postion). My problem is finding a bar or somewhere where I can fit dd and me behind a table not in bulls eye view and not getting ripped off for a coffee . In prenatal they have this stupid sofa that in order to lean back on my feet don't touch teh ground and I am 1m70 !

Brangelina also has good stories of bfeeding in Italy. I breast fed almost anywhere both in Italy and the UK, but then I have no shame.

Yes, def get lots of books/dvds in italian whenever you can and have your dh read them to her. Pimpa (which Rosa doesn't like if I remember well ) is a very good book for little ones (there are also dvds). Mine loved her.

Have to go and tidy up a bit before school run.

Welcome Penthesileia
I grew up in Cambridge! Well, just outside it. I haven't been back there for ages, I miss it sometimes. Anyway, I'm now just outside Rome, I've lived in Italy for 19 years. You are doing the right thing with the OPOL. We all speak english at home though as DH always spoke english in his family. DD is 4 and goes to school in Italian, we've had a few problems but I'm sure it'll come out in the wash. DS is still working on his english.

Congrats on your job Franca

Thanks Sputnik

This is for Auldalliance who asked on another thread.

The government is planning £££ cuts that involve all the levels of the public education system, from maternelle (in Italy there is maternelle until 6, then primary, middle school and high school) to University. It started off as a mere financial measure, that should cut 9 billion euros in the next 3 (or maybe 5) yrs.
What really concerns me are the cuts to the maternelle and primary sector (whose performance vary regionally, but which is on average quite good). Hours of actual teaching will be cut, or we still don't know who is going to teach those hrs. (Up until now the majority of primary schools in northern italy are "tempo pieno" - full time, until 4.30. The new "reform" seeks to bring back 1 teacher per class and just for 4 hrs of teaching a day. Obviously working parents (the majority in most urban areas in Italy) are opposed to this. So the gov said oh all right schools will be able to guarantee tempo pieno. With their own money and who will teach if there's going to be 1 teacher doing only 24 hrs teaching a week? We fear that those hrs will be commissioned to external cooperatives, whose quality is uncertain, at best.
It also means that more families will turn to private schools, which in Italy are mostly catholic. And given the relationship between this gov and the vatican, it looks -again -as another favour to the catholic church, which is getting more and more vocal imho.
I also personally believe that the quality of a state is linked to the quality of its public education system. I'm really angry. And sad. Sorry, if this is not too clear.

Thanks for that, Franca. It sounds dire. And vaguely familiar; not that the current gvmt in France is as extreme as the Italian one, but the secular tradition that is so strong here in France is currently being eroded by the "tough guy" President, who criticises teachers whenever he can and famously announced that "the teacher will never replace the vicar" (bad translation, sorry, am v tired).
The plans (publicly denied by the gvmt, more than suspected by anyone vaguely connected to the education system) to scrap maternelle are also a step back, as the playgroups that replace them will probably cost parents, so for many women that will mean having to stay at home for the first 5 years of their children's lives. A blow for working women (a convenient one for those in power at a time when unemployment figures are rising).
I agree that the quality of a state is tied up with its public education; in the years leading up to and after WW2, until about the late 80's when it was decreed that 80% of each generation must get the baccalauréat, without any effort going into ensuring that that meant they actually had the level previously required to pass it, France had an excellent education system. It allowed people like my PIL to take advantage of the "ascenseur social" and leave poor rural backgrounds to become hard-working but secure middle-class earners. That is no longer possible and I find it very, very sad and worrying. The reforms to teacher training will also mean that students have to study for a year longer than before without any extra financial assistance, thereby making it harder for those from less wealthy backgrounds to become teachers.

Yes, I absolutely agree with you Auld on everything.

Scraping the maternelle sounds particularly dire. Maternelle are fantastic here in Italy and - together with tempo pieno - a great achievement for working families (and not just them). But looks like they want to save money on ours as well. Plus, members of the gov aren't keen on discussing this reform either, so nothing is clear at the moment.
And another thing: they have been talking to create separate classes for children who don't speak italian. So much for integration

Pippi, how are you???

Hi, can I join in? I'm an Italian in Surrey, I've been here for over 10 years and have 2 DCs, DS 4yo and DD 13weeks. DH is Brit of Italian origin and didn't really speak Italian when we met, so we've always spoke English between us.

DS would speak mainly italian until he started nursery, and now he finds it difficult - he's just started school so homework and everything is obviously in English and the other day when I asked him to speak Italian he said "we're in English () so we need to speak english" (same thing I used to tell my French born mother when I was little....). How did all of you managed to keep up english/italian when dcs started school in IT/UK?

Oh, never had any problem bf in Italy or UK (well, didn't bf DS in public here as he was born when we had a few cases of women being asked to leave/feed outside cafes/restaurants... which would result in embarassing leaky patches while out and about )

I'm okay.sorry not to have joined in earlier but had 2 friend from pg over for a take away which was lovely. DD1 was in love with zio alessandro and told me 'sono proprio contenta oggi' before going to bed [bless]. better not say this to dh .
unfortunately dh is one od the 2%. will go back in theatre tomorrow am - crap . never mind. his morale is quite good. dds quite fed up of being shipped here and there so saturday I'll take the day off and won't go.

no other news here.

we are in the uk. my dd1 always spoke better and more italian than english (i'm italian dh in english). since she's started nursery she speaks more english when she plays 'nursery teacher' but with me she always always speak italian even in front of her friends - she often translates for me . also bed time stories must ne in italian. don;t know what I've done 'right' and don't know if it's going to last. she seems to like and thrive in this duality. helps that the childminder is greek and speaks to her children in greek and makes a point of how wonderful is to speak more thaqn one language. also lots of other children are bilingual around her so I think she thinks it's normal to speak different languages with different people. also dh and mil and uk relatives very supportive.

having said all this I don;t know if this is going to work with second dd who's 8 months.

so ask me then...

thanks pippi, will stock on italian books when I go back... got satellite, but he's addicted to CBeebies... and good luck to your DH!

Oh pippi . Fingers crossed for tomorrow. And good thing you decided to take a day off on Saturday, I'm sure it'll help to feel better. And good that you saw your friends, I find this always help.

Hello Christmasflower (saw the pics on your profile your dc are so cute in those halloween outfits!)

For us the situation was a little bit different, as both me and dh are italian so we spoke italian at home. The dc learnt their english (at a different pace, dd was "quicker" than ds) at nursery and would happily switch from Italian to English as the occasion required. Italian has always been their main language though, but a few months before we left the Uk to go back to Italy English was becoming more dominant (esp after ds started school) and they would often speak english between them.
They are - unfortunately - losing their lovely english accent and especially dd (younger) finds it difficult to come up with words now. And when I try to speak english to them they'll say, we are in italy, speak in italian...
Have found an american girl who comes to play with them once a week and it does help in keeping them exercised.

I'm sorry to hear about your DH, Pippi.

Hi ladies, can I ask you something? Dd is learning Italian and NEEDS to know how you say marshmallow in Italian. "I NEED to know it mum". It isn't in my dictionary. Does anyone know offhand?!

Pippi - so sorry to hear about the 2nd op, I hope all goes well for your dh. I'll be thinking about you both all day.

Welcome Penthe and Christmas Flower. I am English, married to Italian (who had lived in UK for 20 years). We moved back to his home in The Dolomites 1.5 years ago, then moved to Rome for 1 year and am now back in Dolomites (for last 3 months). I have 1 DS (3 in Jan) and am pg due at end of March. In UK we only spoke English to DS, now I speak English, in-laws speak both English and Italian to him and dh speaks Italian only (mostly) but dh lives in Rome and I am up North and DH only visits weekends. DS speaks both - but speaks very little. I think this is down to character but he does struggle with pronunciation - not sure if this is in both English and Italian - but for 'biscuit' he says 'bitsick' (LOL!) and he can't pronounce any h's - so we get 'orse' (horse), 'ouse' - house etc. Am also hoping some of these foibles will come out in the wash!

I am quite nervous about bf'ding here in Italy, as I am not convinced that I will get the support I need - i don't like hearing that there is not enough milk, as I thought that your body produced on demand...but with DS1 I was fine (born in UK) and didn't need to top-up (which I'm not convinced is always necessary but I am certainly no expert).

Anyway - there is more snow arriving all the time, we must have over 1m now - it is beautiful but if we weren't already isolated I feel more so now! Luckily I am off to Rome this PM, and then Amalfi coast tomorrow for the night.

Rosa - great news re. mini Rosa!