I Have a Dream

It's been a month since the last post. So what do I need to write about? Impressions of living in Germany? Well, I'm learning to be patient when I need to get something done, because nothing important gets done quickly. Take the tagges mutter situation. That means day mother; day care person for Sorcha; my sanity savior as I've been taking care of Sorchia (a beautiful child , interested in anything I show her, obsessed with cows and other large hoofed animals, happy always with a developing sense of humor) all day, every day. At 16 months, she doesn't understand that, in life, some time must be devoted to mundanities such as grocery shopping, cleaning, regularity. I'd say 80% of the time this is no problem. But, when one does need to shop, clean, maintain regularity, then she has no patience and the effect on this adult male is to raise stress level. If she didn't take a daily 2 hour nap I'd be in a strait-jacket. I now better understand songs like "Mother's Little Helper" and the popularity of Valium in the 70's (can you still get this substance?).

So anyway, the Tagges Mutter: I first learned of the existence of these saviors at the local Familien Zentrum, where, at least a month ago I had a meeting with a woman who carefully took down the details of my child care needs: at least 3 days a week, but I'll take what I can get. "Nothing available now", she said, as Sorcha dumped the woman's ash tray on the floor and started gleefully picking through the butts. "I'll call you." Three weeks and butkus. Then I get the call on a Thursday. Available Taggesmutter, in my neighborhood, 3 short days per week. Great, I'll call her Monday, I think, set things up and start the following Monday, at the latest. Maybe I can even get Sorcha in by the end of the week. I call Monday, and the woman says maybe we should meet on Saturday. Saturday! That's nearly a week out. Ok, I adjust, cancel a weekend family trip to the Alps and we meet Saturday. Ok, I think, we're probably on track for a Monday start because of course this woman is in it to make some money. The meeting is painstaking. Her 18 year old daughter comes in to help translate around the edges. She usually does 8-1, but maybe she could do 8-4. She brings it up. I accept. Perhaps too eagerly as she then seems to trend toward talking herself out of these extra hours. Look, I think, you brought it up and it took me about 2 nano-seconds to adjust my expectations to the longer days and helplessly watching her now try to pull it back was torture. In the end she agreed to the long days, so I'm thinking we start Monday. Not so fast, jack. First we must both arrange a mutually agreeable time to meet with the coordinator at the Familien Zentrum so we can simultaneously sign paperwork formalizing the agreement. This turns out to be Wednesday, at which meeting I learn that the first 2 weeks is and "adjustment period" and I must hang out with the Tagges Mutter for the first two weeks and the sessions can be no more than 2 hours. Is this typical? How does anything get done in this country? So the following Monday Sorcha and I show up at the Tagges Mutter's haus. "Oh no", I hear. There is a problem. "You must bring haus shoes for Sorcha." After 45 minutes of sitting around watching Sorcha do just fine I couldn't take anymore. "I think maybe I'll take off for a couple hours" I say, standing up. Tagges Mutter visibly stiffens, crosses arms, seems to be thinking of good reason to oppose this. But she can't. Sorcha is fine. In the end I agree to spend the first 20 minutes where she can reach me at home in case there's a problem. I do. There isn't. I'm free! That was a couple weeks ago. Today Sorcha spent her first long day with the Tagges Mutter. I played tennis, went on an excellent long bike ride with a friend and cut the grass for the last time before picking up all of the kids on the bike. Sweet beautiful day.