helena frith powell

  • Lifestyle
  • Women
  • Beauty
  • France
  • Contact

A question for mothers

3rd June 2007 by Helena 7 Comments  

Today is Mother’s Day in France. All over the country responsible children will be taking their mothers and grandmothers out to lunch. It is the worst day of the year to try to get a table in your favourite restuarant. They are booked up weeks in advance.

I will be eating my lunch on the TGV, as I am bound for Paris. This is not something I did on purpose; I was offered tickets to the French Open for Monday. Rupert is in London and is meeting me at the hotel, he still doesn’t know where we’re going, so it’s all very exciting. I just hope his hero Federer is playing.

Less exciting was the children’s reaction when I told them I was skipping off on Mother’s Day. They were, frankly, appalled. The term ‘disgusted of Tunbridge Wells’ springs to mind. And of course I felt horrible.

But this morning before I left they showered me with presents and cards. I am wearing the necklace Bea gave me with great care as she has yet to perfect the closing mechanism.

“If you hear something falling, then look behind you,” was her advice.

Olivia gave me a wooden bracelet and said; “Any time you miss us and feel sad you can kiss this.” Sweet you might think. But she also said, as I was trying to get my skinny jeans on, “Mummy, aren’t they a bit small for you?”

My point though is this; who is Mother’s Day for? Should we as mothers spend it with our children (like we do most other days) or should it be a day we take for ourselves, to get away from our children and have some quality time with ourselves?

Rupert has been away since Wednesday and the babies have been really tough for some reason. I must have fantasised about the moment I would finally be on this TGV in perfect calm and solitude more than I have fantasised about George Clooney picking me to write his biography or Marat Safin offering to give me tennis lessons in the nude.

I have to say I come down on the side of Mother’s Day being a day when mothers should so whatever they like. And if that means getting on a train, spending an afternoon in a Paris hotel room sleeping and meeting their husbands in the evening then so be it.

Although I do miss them already and have a feeling that bracelet is going to come in handy.

Copyright:Helena Frith Powell 2007


Filed Under: Children, Sport, Women, blog --> Tagged With: mothers, question

7 thoughts on A question for mothers

  • SpiralSkies says:
    3rd June 2007 at 10:39 am

    Oh dear, I loved the snippy comment about the skinny jeans being too small. Aren’t children awful?

    My son happened upon me as I had levered myself into a thong:

    ‘Oh Mummy, I think you’ve got your pants on back to front – your bottom’s poking out!’

    At least he didn’t say ‘hanging out’, I suppose. Small mercies and all that.

  • debio says:
    4th June 2007 at 10:26 am

    I am so jealous – you might see Nadal, in the flesh, as it were. Now there’s a Mothers’ Day treat. I’m trying to console you as Safin’s out, I understand.

  • okcmermaid says:
    4th June 2007 at 7:06 pm

    Hmmmmm … I wonder how Kate McCann would answer your question …

    “My point though is this; who is Mother’s Day for? Should we as mothers spend it with our children (like we do most other days) or should it be a day we take for ourselves, to get away from our children and have some quality time with ourselves?”

  • Irene says:
    4th June 2007 at 9:57 pm

    Well , I am all for the French Open, be it without strawberries and cream, followed by an evening with your beau at a lovely hotel room…
    LOL about the journey on the train. I often fantasize about the trip from C’bury to London and backwards. All the reading, tea and sandwiches…
    But come on, without my kids on Mother’s Day of all days? No, i don’t think so, even if it were for Becks!
    Have a lovely stay in Paris!

  • Amber Lee says:
    4th June 2007 at 10:30 pm

    My stepfather usually takes my siblings camping the weekend of Mother’s Day.

    By the way, how does it feel to have a Wikipedia article?

  • janejill@fastmail.fm says:
    4th June 2007 at 10:47 pm

    It’s always a dilemma and I know how torn you can be. I still have to come down on the side of everyone having some time just for them, if that is what they need. I think if you are happier,then the children will be too. Guilt assuaged now..(mine, that is)

  • Claire says:
    5th June 2007 at 1:42 am

    Kate McCann is qualified only to answer that question for herself. Likewise for Helena and the rest of us.
    A friend of mine regularly sighs that “a mother’s place is in the wrong” when her children are being more teenagey than usual. From that starting point I guess that things can only get better!!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

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

 

 

© 2023 Helena Frith Powell
Website by Web Inclusion
/* ----------------------------------------- */ /* Content Template: content-template-for-layout-for-header-and-footer-layout - start */ /* ----------------------------------------- */ .helenaHero .mainTitle h1{ font-size:3em; -webkit-transition: all 0.8s; -moz-transition: all 0.8s; -ms-transition: all 0.8s; -o-transition: all 0.8s; transition: all 0.8s; margin-top:-100%; padding-top:100px; padding-bottom:50px; margin:0; } .scrolled .helenaHero .mainTitle h1{ font-size:1.2em; padding-top:30px; padding-bottom:20px; } /* ----------------------------------------- */ /* Content Template: content-template-for-layout-for-header-and-footer-layout - end */ /* ----------------------------------------- */ /* ----------------------------------------- */ /* Content Template: 17hfp_about - start */ /* ----------------------------------------- */ .HFPA-section{ width:100%; background:#eee; } .HFPA-Image{ background-position:center right; background-repeat:no-repeat; height:276px; width:100%; -webkit-filter: grayscale(100%); /* Safari 6.0 - 9.0 */ filter: grayscale(100%); } .HFPA-Text{ padding:20px 10px; } /* ----------------------------------------- */ /* Content Template: 17hfp_about - end */ /* ----------------------------------------- */ /* ----------------------------------------- */ /* Content Template: 17footer - start */ /* ----------------------------------------- */ .footIt{ background:#222; padding:20px 10px; } /* ----------------------------------------- */ /* Content Template: 17footer - end */ /* ----------------------------------------- */