Ịbụ nne na Italy: Francesca na-agba akaebe

“How many times did you vomit today?” My mother asked me every day.
 My pregnancy started badly. I was very sick, weakened and alone. We came to France with my companion to open a Sicilian restaurant. Finding work in the south of Italy, the region where we come from, is very complicated today.

– Mamma, come help me, you don’t work, you have time… I was trying to persuade my mother. 

– And your brothers and sisters, who will take care of them?

– Mamma! They are tall ! Your son is 25!

– So what ? I can’t leave them alone. “

The Neapolitan family is very close

As we know, Italian women are stubborn … So after two hellish months of being sick all day, I returned home to Naples. There, I was surrounded by my mother, my four siblings, and my nieces and nephews. Because everyone lives in the same neighborhood, and we see each other often.

The Italian woman is the hostess, and she values ​​this role. Even if she works, she is the one who takes care of all the tasks. The dad is considered the “bank” of the household, the one who brings back money. He takes care of the little one, but very little – while the mother washes her hair, for example – no more than five minutes a day. He … not
 don’t get up at night either. Lorenzo is not like that, only because I do not like him
 have not given a choice. But for my mother, it is not natural. According to her, if Lorenzo decides what Sara eats, it means
 I am not able to handle the situation.

                    >>>Gụọ kwa: Ọrụ etiti nke nna na-ewu nwa

In southern Italy, traditions are strong

Compared to the North of Italy, the South is still very traditional. I have a friend, Angela, who gets up very early to go for a run while her husband makes her coffee. “She’s crazy! She forces her husband to get up at dawn and make him his coffee to do something ridiculous like jogging! My mother told me.

An Italian mother is breastfeeding. And that’s all. I did it fourteen months for Sara, seven of them exclusively. We can breastfeed where we
 wants, without any shame. It’s so natural that in the hospital we don’t guide you. You go there and basta. When I was pregnant, my mother advised me to rub my nipples with a slightly coarse sponge to strengthen them and prevent future cracks. I also massaged them after childbirth with “connettivina”, a very fatty cream that is applied and on which we put a plastic film. Repeat the operation every two hours, taking care to wash thoroughly before each feeding. In Milan, women take less and less time to breastfeed because of their job. Another point that differentiates us from the North.

                          >>>Gụọ kwa: Continue to breastfeed while working

Little Neapolitans go to bed late!

The common point between the regions of Italy is that there are no real timetables
 fixed to eat. But that doesn’t suit me, so I’m doing it the French way. I like the setting of the nap and the snack. But, what makes me 
especially pleases, it is the good international meals at the crèche – in Italy, it is considered that the Italian gastronomy is sufficient.

When we go back to Naples, it’s difficult, but I try to adapt anyway. Little Italians eat late, don’t always take a nap and sometimes go to bed at 23 p.m., even if there is school. When my friends say to their children: “Come on, it’s nap time! »And they refuse, they answer« ok, it does not matter ».

                  >>>Gụọ kwa:Common ideas on the rhythms of the toddler

Me, I became severe on this subject. A friend even told me that I practice hospital schedules! Ducoup, I am seen as a sad person. I think that’s really overkill! The French system suits me. I have my evenings with my companion, while the Italians do not have a minute of their own to breathe.

But I miss the conviviality of family meals. In Italy, if the friends are having a dinner, we go with the children and not “as a couple”. It is also normal to all meet at the restaurant in the evening around a large table.