I guess it is a common practice here in Germany, that children start with the daycare veeeryyy sloooowlyyyy.
According to the stories I have heard from Finland, the practice is to go and visit the daycare place once or twice and after that the child is left there possibly for the whole 8 hours.
But not here.
During the first three visits, I was present the whole time and we played there for an hour.
On day 4, I went to the hallway for 20 minutes. Fräulein was first crying a lot, but started to calm down slowly. The Tagesmutter (child minder) told me later, that the crying started again whenever Fräulein spotted my handbag and remembered her mum...
The following three times, we played together for 20-30 minutes and then I went outside for half an hour. What a freedom! I spent the time at the local cafe.
All those times I left Fräulein there crying, but she had always calmed down quite quickly with the help of her pacifier and some cookies. Fräulein uses her pacifier normally only when sleeping, but I think that, in this case, the end justifies the means.
This Monday was the first big day, when I actually drove home! What a funny feeling to be home alone! Fräulein spent two hours at the daycare. After one hour I got an SMS telling me that Fräulein was not crying but playing with the other children.
When I went to pick her up, the Tagesmutter showed me some photos and a short video she had taken of the children playing. It had been better than I could have hoped for!
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| Is that a smile behind the pacifier? |
Today is the second day when Fräulein spends there the 'whole day' (from 9am to 1pm). And I am proud to inform you that I have actually done something useful with this free time that I have! I have seen a dentist (subject for another post) and, ummm..., now I'm writing this...
And I have already made plans for next week: visit the bank, dye my hair, and stop by at the post office to send a baby-gift, which I have had ready for ages...
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| If the baby girl who will receive this package is reading this (or her mum), don't be disappointed if it won't look as nice as this, because I'll need to open the package in order to fit it into an envelope... |
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Fräuleinin päivähoito on alkanut mukavasti. Hitaan alun jälkeen olemme nyt päässeet rutiiniin kiinni.
Ja minulla on kovasti suunnitelmia tämän vapaa-ajan täyttämiseksi...
3 comments:
It's a funny feeling, isn't it, being without your child for the first time? She's well on the road to independence:)
I can't help but wonder if Germany is alone in using such a long settling-in period. The people at our Kita think Brits and Americans are cruel & possibly quite crazy to want to just hang about for a short time over maybe the course of a day or two before launching their kids into daycare. Ours expected me there for 4 weeks. 4 weeks!!
I hope Fraulein enjoys herself! And I hope you enjoy your free time too!
Thanks for your comments - I'm sorry it has taken me this long to answer!
Manycoloured-days: Yes, it is funny feeling being home alone. First I was checking the clock every two minutes to see, if I should go and pick Fräulein up. I guess it takes some settling in from my part, too! :)
fiona: I have heard that it can take 6 weeks in some Kitas! At first, I thought that the start with our Tagesmutter was very slow and was afraid that it would take several weeks to have her settled in. But even though I have left Fräulein there crying, she has actually enjoyed playing there, so we moved from 20 minutes absence to 4 hours quite quickly. Thankfully, as we will have our summer break just in few weeks...
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