MN Little Italy 18

[DemonBradleySlaysPippi]

Where are you????

I agree on all counts about the SAHMness. Franca, I wonder,though, those first months/years of Mum-ness, would they perhaps have still been like that in Italy? You summed up how I felt then, I loved dd and being with her, but looking back, was so alone with it all, which I would also have been in the UK as am so ancient I had dd completely out of time with other friends.....dunno.....

Javier- dd was 6 at the beginning of October...apparently the spitter is already on a desk by the teacher (with the boss's grand-daughter )

Bucharest, ooooh, did you have the first yrs of loneliness too? I'm so sorry to hear that...

I'm not sure how I'd have felt here. I think things might have been easier for me here in Milan, where I know lots of people and the majority of my friends were having babies when I had my first. We are also close to both our families, and that also makes a big difference, imho.

However, I'd have felt lost if we had been in any Italian city/town with no friends and family.

I think there are people who are better equipped than me at living within their own nuclear family. I love my little family, but I also like chatting/gossiping/having lots of human relationships.
I hope I don't sound like a needy busybody !!!

Btw Bucharest, I'd like to express again my admiration for you for living in a small provincial town in Italy. I know how hard it can be.

It provides fodder for my magnum opus.
(and I sometimes get a strange kick out of being WeirdForeignMummy who says mad things in the schoolyard....)

Slightly OT, but the thing I find most grrrr about my situation (apart from the nutters I attract with my "nutters come hither" magnet) is when, for example, there is a meeting at school which starts at 4, and all the other mums say "oh I have no-one to leave ds/dd with" when what they mean is they can't decide between mother/mil/sil/etc and I really have no-one!

Ah well.....

Oh I absolutely get a strange kick out of being WeirdForeignMummy/Wife/Person/Anything anywehere anytime. That is the best bit of being here. I can just do whatever and be whoever I want. The total opposite from the provincial town I came from or from living within the 'grinfie' of an extended family (we already struggle with the little we've got although for the reasons you mention Buch sometimes it would be handy).

I think loneliness is a big factor in mothers not enjoying being a mum. I know that since I build up a great network of friends and activities I struggled with the concept.

Franca I know how you felt about losing it with DS. Being there many times. Hope guilt trip has now gone.

BTW JB I have offered my italian services to the school. They also told me I can advertise on their newsletter.

Oh and I've had my first consultation re DD1 and I am so proud [PFB emoticon] !

oops, suddenly disappeared this pm, did manage to do lots of jobs that were pending though!

Where is the crostata recipe that we were promised?

wow, and i found this lamb recipe uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/512899

Will give you crostata recipe in a minute. Love that Lamb Stew. Will make it next week.

I have developed a sudden crash for www.davidshuttle.com/range_page.php?brand_id=6&ranges_id=154&category_id=0&SET=Emma%20Bridgewater_St arry%20Skies&gclid=CNOytt7s4Z0CFU0A4wodPTL4Mwthis [warning: very stepford content]. I want it! Is it SAHM? Is it middle age? Is it suburbian living?

here

Definetely suburban living!!!!! I am both a sahm and middle age.

www.thefrenchhouse.net/prodrange/show/2025 I like the breakfast stuff in this range..

I am lolling. Were you joking?

Pippi, it's english, no London, no NORTH LONDON middle-class yummy mummy stuff. you will stare at it every day and remember who you are

(I love it, in fact... i own this, feel free to take the piss ad nauseam )

speaking of nausea, i think i cauhgt dd's bug. i feel crap. off to bed.

oh franca, i love the french house website, that was a good tip!

No I am not joking . I really really really want it. I will not get it obviously only because of the price.

MM spot on!

Well, if you like it......

To be honest I had never heard of that site, I thought it was the kind of stuff that gets sold on telly, on the channel where they have somebody talking and the clock ticking. Did you see the Union Jack teapot . Priceless. Obvioulsy, I am totally out of touch with what is edgy and contemporary! Le't see what our design consultant from Milan thinks....

Emma Bridgewater's shop is in Marylebone High Street.

hello there!

hope you're all well, MM, really hope you haven't cought that bug (I'm the one who cries like a baby when I vomit, I actually think I have some sort of phobia ).

I'm and at all those likns - 10 years ago I wouldn't have been seen dead near any of it, now I'm finding myself brushing them in shops and wishing our plates etc would break, at least the "everyday plates" so that I can replace with "granma" -style stuff, but we have so much that it'll never happen (in fact, we bought some really nice modern sets -cofee, tea, plates, glasses - 10 years ago when we were buying our first flat and we only got some of it out of the packaging last year after having it stored at PIL!). oh, well, maybe the crockery box will have an accident if we ever move...

I didn't feel lonely in my first years in London - had plenty of friends, even after we moved "down here", I had friends, got really close to some of my old colleagues etc. but since becoming a mother, it feels like I'm an independedt island. friedns have moved away, colleagues left the job, and then friends who don't have kids don't obviously understand and tend to not include you, and I understand that, I mean, having no-one around to babaysit makes it so difficult to go out, so yes, we have a pretty lonely life at the moment, which feels worse when I'm in italy because I see what I could have (extended family and friends, social life). but hey, ho voluto la bicicletta, mi tocca pedalare.

I did believe that with ds starting school I'd make "friends" with other parents, but a part from not being one to be all out and extrovert/confident enough to make the first move, there seem to be the usual 2-3 impenetrable groups that I've given up trying to fit in (and not sure I'd like to fit in either really). I'm sure some of them would consider me aloof, but it actually suits me fine (god, I sound so snobbish now). work is another story, when you're a p-timer (and especially a homeworker) you become second class, so no-one really goes beyond the required polite chit-chat.

oops, DD kept on waking up while I was writing I hadn't realised I wrote so much, and so negative, really it wasn't my intention

Camo hurry up move up here-ish and we'll meet up often enough!

I thought Emma B's stuff were very much my mother's friends taste. Now I am one of them .

JB I am not surprised you not liking them (thank god someone has retained their sanity), after all you live at the Tate Modern, but I am very surprised you not knowing it.

LOL at the yummy crockery, and JB's diplomatic response.
I have not the makings of a yummy N. Londoner I'm afraid. Actually I have reached 40 something and not yet achieved matching crockery (let alone a butter dish!)

I think having small children is isolating for many, many people, possibly this is the key to the success of MN!
I have started getting to know other parents of kids in DD's class, most of them seem really nice actually! It's a novelty for me.

Ain't got time for f* crockery man, I have a business to run at Orlando's...
Sorry . Have just watched another episode of the wire.

Camo how are you my dear?
ANd poor masseuse, I hope you have lots of mint tea, I find it helps with stomach bugs.

Emma Bridgewater. Mmmmm. I used to like it in my first years in the UK, but it was impossible to buy it in Exeter

Oh I do not have matching crockery either, the few things that match are from ikea. Most, and my favourites, are findings from charity shops. I do own a butter dish though!
Sometimes I dream of being a person with not only matching crockery but a servizio buono and argenteria as well .

pippi

but we're having another bit of a crisis (maybe me, actually, more than DP).... I'm feeling again not 100% sure I want to leave London, I really loved the area we had all the viewings and I know that we couldn't afford what we need anywhere in London... indecision, indecision...

franca, I've just taken the first dose of the new antib, fingers crossed (left it 2 days as doctor said, but the cough started getting worse again so it has to work)

Why was it impossible?

You really are convincing me I should buy it for DH. I am not even sure I am resisiting. Possibly because DH is already a telly-addict and I cannot make myself giving something I am not happy with. I'd rather do the opera thing.