À la maison avec mes 2 singes

Enfin, je suis en mode vacances depuis mercredi soir. Malheureusement, mon épouse n’a débuté les siennes que ce soir. Pauvre elle! Mes enfants ont été un peu plus chanceux car je n’ai pas fait mon papa égoïste et ils ont donc eu le droit et le privilège de passer les 2 derniers jours avec moi. Il n’y a pas d’activités du style “Wow!” mais je pense que nous avons réussi à s’amuser. S’amuser, me semble que ça fait 2.5 ans que je m’amuse beaucoup moins. Il y aura surement d’autres billets à ce sujet mais mettons que la vie corporative a tiré bien du jus pendant cette période. Ce n’est pas le fait de faire plein d’heures pour le travail qui me déprime. Il y a un côté à ma personnalité qui aime drôlement ça. En fait, ce qui me dérange est que ces heures et le stresse associé ont fini par me rendre désagréable et irritable. Je vois donc cette pause comme l’opportunité de faire un gros “reset” sur cette phase de la vie. Mes fils, et mon épouse, méritent un homme présent mentalement, agréable et souriant. Alors, ma petite famille, je vous promets plus de monkey business! Après tout, il faut bien les entrainer ces petits singes!

Singe numéro 1

Singe numéro 2

Deuxième tentative…

Me revoilà après 2 ans pour une tentative ultime de fait revivre ce blogue. En fait, ce blogue n’a jamais vraiment vécu. C’était une tentative plutôt ratée de faire suite à La colonisation québécoise de Paris qui était un aperçu de mon aventure en France avec ma petite famille (qui s’est agrandie de1 depuis). Il est possible que ce blogue soit “full bilingual” selon mes goûts. On verra bien. Ou devrais-je écrire “whatever”?  C’est drôle, mais j’ai l’impression d’enfin arriver à la fin d’une période difficile qui perdure depuis quasiment 3ans. Famille, enfants, travaille, manque de temps, forme physique en déclin et tout le reste du caca qui vient avec la mi-trentaine. Alors, ce blogue me servira de thérapie, de défoulement et d’espace pour me plaindre autant que je juge nécessaire. Mais, malgré mes écrits, sachez que j’adore ma vie!

Is the 7$ daycare price too low during a second maternity leave?

Here in Quebec, our taxes are quite high. Are they too high? Most people would probably say that yes, they’re way too high, especially when compared to the rest of North America. For me, I like to think that we get services for our “investment”, particularly if you get a university degree, get sick or have kids. For the last point, I’m fairly convinced this is true for Quebec families ever since the provincial government
increased its funding of a prolonged maternity leave and started subsidizing daycare (7$ a day!). There is even talk of a mini baby boom since the implementation of these programs. In the case of the 7$ daycare program, like many popular government programs (free in-vitro fertilization programs come to
mind), places are limited and oh so sought after. I’m very lucky that my company has set-up such a daycare at my workplace. Convenient and cheap. Since my wife is now pregnant with our second child, I have added my future little mini-me (or mini-her) to the daycare’s waiting list and I’m rather confident
that this child will have a place when my wife will be ready to go back to work in early 2013. However, I feel a little guilty (not sure that is the right word) that my oldest child will be going to 7$ daycare while my wife is home on a one year maternity leave with the baby. Of course, it will make life easier for us and it ensures continuity for my child. It would be odd to have him in daycare for one year, then out, and then back in a year later. And we definitely wouldn’t want to lose our place. But, does it make any sense to ask the population to subsidize the fact that it will be easier for my wife to send the oldest to daycare? Technically, since she is at home, she could be taking care of him. For me, it seems to fall more in the “privilege” category rather than the “necessity” category. So, in this age of deficits and budget constraints, maybe this “one size fits all” funding approach should be reviewed. But then again, I’m afraid that after these 5 years of eventual daycare, I will return to paying way more into the system then I will be getting out. So maybe I should just shut my pie hole before someone reads this, agrees and cancels this wonderful family perk 🙂

 

 

Terrible Two…

Right now, my biggest headache is my son. Wait, can I write that or will this come back to haunt me during his teenage years or during an eventual custody battle? Anyway, this creature is not my son. He clearly has been possessed by some sort of demon. I was reading up on different sites to learn how to perform an exorcism. Alas, it seems he simply suffers from the Terrible Twos. I figured that since he was closer to 3 than 2 that we were probably out of the woods and that we had avoided the worst. Wrong. Since our family trip to California last month, my child has decided to experience all possible mood swings every single day. The highs are really high and the lows, well they simply suck. And, all these personality variations can switch up every 5 minutes or so. Lovely stuff! But, the little bugger remains a cutie so that makes it all the more frustrating! Basically, I think he is just testing my patience as I have been doing with my parents for the last 33 years or so. What goes around…

Exhibit A

Here we go again!

Well, this will be my second serious attempt at blogging. I really have no idea why though. It’s not like I have any free time. Whatever time is not used up by sleep, work and family could probably be put to better use… I don’t really know what I will be blogging about. Probably stuff from every day life that will not amuse you! Ok, there I go with some of the false modesty. You will be hanging on my every word! Seriously, there is just something about writing that is good for the brain and the soul. I really feel as though the act of writing forces me to better organize my thoughts, feelings, impressions, etc. Some I probably get more out of it than I would freely admit. My last blog was in French so this time around, my bilingual brain will give it a try in Shakespeare language this time around.

I look forward to complaining, I mean, sharing my thoughts on all things over the next few months. A bientôt!