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A long time in childcare

31st October 2007 by Helena 2 Comments  

Twenty-four hours is a long time in childcare. My husband is back, the kidney infection is in fact a trapped nerve and the children are being saints.

I can’t credit myself with their transformation. We have come to stay with our friends Norrie and Mary which seems to have done the trick.

Just as there’s nothing quite as horrendous as three children being horrible, there is also nothing quite as lovely as three children having fun and playing. Here they have lots to do. The rabbits, donkey, dogs, geese, chickens and ducks all need constant bossing about. Norrie and Mary are like the grandparents from heaven. “Go for a sleep,” they told us after lunch. “We’ll take the children for a walk.”

I didn’t even need my agv (see below) last night so have woken up feeling much better. I asked Rupert why he thought the children were so much nicer here than at home.

“They love it here,” he said, “and it’s different.” Rather like me in Harvey Nicks I suppose.

Today we head off with whichever children want to come (probably none) to Annecy. This is a town in the Savoie famous for looking a little like Venice where house prices are almost as high as in Paris.

Dr DreamyWherever I go I carry with me my box-set of the third series of Grey’s Anatomy. I am sorry to say this addiction has not been cured. Meredith is choosing between Finn the vet and Dr McDreamy at the moment.

“Who would you choose?” asked Bea.

“It’s a tricky one,” I said. “I don’t really know.”

“I would choose McDreamy,” said Bea. “Because he’s a doctor. And he’s dreamy.”

What more do you need?

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2007


Filed Under: Children, TV, Travel, blog --> Tagged With: childcare

2 thoughts on A long time in childcare

  • Leanne MacMillan says:
    1st November 2007 at 7:55 pm

    I hope the “nerve” is trapped where it should be and that it doesn’t interfere with “gymnastics”….

    it is too bad that by the time I will be able to return to France full time, the children will be too old for me to work for you as an “au pair”…

    If it is any consolation, it is great when the children are wonderful with others… it means you CAN at least bring them elsewhere when the going gets really rough!.. think of the hopelessness if your children were horrible even with guests… you could never escape… and they do grow up to be wonderful 17 and 14 year olds (and beyond!)

    Have another glass of white (and red!) for me..
    Cheers, Leanne

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Helena Frith Powell was born in Sweden to a Swedish mother and Italian father, but grew up mainly in England. She is the author of eleven books, translated into several languages including Chinese and Russian. She wrote the French Mistress column The Sunday Times about life in France for several years. She is a regular contributor to the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, The Times, Daily Telegraph, Tatler Magazine and Harper’s Bazaar.

Helena has been the editor of four magazines, including M Magazine, a supplement for the Abu Dhabi-based National Newspaper and FIVE, a high-end fashion glossy, also published in Abu Dhabi. Helena was also editor-in-chief of 360 Life, a quarterly glossy magazine published with the Sports 360 Newspaper in Dubai, part of the Chalhoub Group.

Helena contributes regularly to UK-based newspapers and magazines and holds a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge. She is working on a thriller set in Sweden as well as a novel about the relationship between Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield called Sense of an Echo.

In 2022 her short story The Japanese Gardener came second in the Fish Publishing Short Story Prize. One of her stories was also shortlisted for the Bridport Short Story Prize. When she’s not writing, she works as a headhunter for the media and entertainment industry for the Sucherman Group. 

Helena, who was educated at Durham University, lives in the Languedoc region of France with her husband Rupert and their three children.

Bibliography

More France Please, we’re British; Gibson Square 2004

Two Lipsticks and a Lover 2005; Gibson Square (hardback)

All You Need to be Impossibly French; (US version of above) Penguin 2006

Two Lipsticks and a Lover; Arrow Books (paperback) 2007

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (hardback) 2006

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (paperback) 2007

So Chic! (French version of Two Lipsticks) Leduc Editions 2008 (also translated into Chinese, Russian and Thai)

More, More France; Gibson Square 2009

To Hell in High Heels; Arrow Books 2009 (also translated into Polish)

The Viva Mayr Diet; Harper Collins 2009

Love in a Warm Climate; Gibson Square 2011

The Ex-Factor; Gibson Square 2013

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles; Gibson Square 2016

The Arnolfini Marriage; Amazon Kindle December 2016

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles (paperback); Gibson Square spring 2018

The Longest Night; Gibson Square spring 2019

 

 

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