If you read my story, you already know that I am a working mother of two young children : two sons, a baby and a 5-year-old. As you can imagine, my days are VERY busy! Let’s see what a typical day in a French family is like!
7 am
My typical weekday starts at 7 am. I used to like the snooze function, but now that I am a mother, that is not possible anymore, or maybe just for 5 minutes 🙂 I wake up, while my boyfriend is already preparing a nice cup of coffee to me to start the day right. At 7:15, I wake my elder son so that he can take his breakfast quietly. I get ready and then I help my son getting ready as well. In the meantime, my boyfriend wakes the baby and gives him his baby bottle. Right before leaving for school, I always put lavender essential oil behind my elder son to avoid catching lice (small tip for you 🙂 ).
8:15 am
School in France starts around 8:30. I drive my son to school at 8:15, I accompany him to the classroom, where he needs to put his slippers on. Then, once he has been dropped off at school, I drive baby to the nanny’s house.
9:00 am
Office work usually starts at 9:00 am in France. French people generally work 35 hours per week, with a one-hour break, from Monday to Friday and have 5 weeks of paid holidays per year. For your information, there is a minimum wage in France : €1539,42 gross salary (as of June 2020).
4:00 pm
Firstly, in France, 4 pm is 16h. “L’heure des mamans” as we call it (“Mummy’s time“) means that school is over and in general mums are coming to pick their children up. If parents are still working and can’t be on time, either a nanny can take care of your children at her house or there often is an after-school possibility at school. Wednesdays are special as there is no school or just a half day of school in France, that is why a lot of French mums are off that day.
5:00 pm
I pick my sons up at 5 pm (17h) at the nanny’s. Then we go home where the whole evening ritual (as I call it) starts : bath for both children (I love this moment, they are so cute together!), cooking and have dinner all together. The younger the children are, the earlier the dinner is, typically between 6:30 pm (18h30) and 7:30 pm (19h30). This is a great moment when we discuss what we did during the day, what went well, what went wrong.
7:45 pm
At 7:45 (19h45), this is the “going-to-bed ritual” : Teeth brushing for the big one, baby bottle for the small one, one story and a lot of cuddles for both of them. At 8:15 pm (20h15), children are asleep and parents can relax.
Of course, this schedule of a typical day in a French family is only when everything goes smoothly, but we all know what real life is like : A mess all day, running after time and at 9 pm (21h00), children are not sleeping yet, even though you only have one thing in mind : laying down and SLEEP!
What is your typical day like? Let me know and comment under this article!
