Call Me A Hypocrite and Call It A Day

As my um, few readers know, I do not have a nanny/maid/house cleaner or any other various and sundry staff at my house. This is painfully obvious to anyone who comes by. Shoes piled in the doorway, laundry piled in the hallway, dishes piled in the sink. I think you get my drift. We do what we can to get through the day, and that has to be good enough.

However. However. Just this morning a very interesting and important opportunity has presented itself.

See, my hubbie is from another country. We talked about many cultural issues before we got married, one of which being the importance of raising bilingual children. We both find this to be incredibly important for many reasons. The challenge in our family is this: most multi-cultural marriages that we encounter for our language group is the mom is the "non-American" and the dad is the American. The kids pick up the native language of the mom because she is their primary caregiver, and the kids pick up English from friends and school. It is not so in our case. Because I am the American and the one staying home with the kids, the kids have tons of exposure to English but not enough of their pappa's native language.

Today the phone call I have been dreaming of came. There is a girl studying at our local college from my dh's native country. She is looking to pick up hours babysitting, etc. This is exactly what we have been looking for. Someone to come over a few hours a week to tutor Little Bird. Since she is only two, I am interested in someone coming over to play with her in the backyard, kick a soccer ball around, play "store" with her--all the time using only Swedish.

But. But. Damn, this smacks of "having help." And I am not that kind of mom. But I know this is my pride talking. This is the only way that my daughter is going to get the language input. My Swedish is passable. Det funkar. But Little Bird's vocabulary has already far surpassed what I can help her with.

And so all the railing I have done against moms who "have help" has come full-circle. We will be hiring this girl to come and play with the kids. If I am going to sell out on my principles, I suppose my kids are a good enough excuse. Parenting comes down to doing what is best for your kids. We believe their ability to function in two languages and two cultures will serve them well in the future. In this tiny corner of the world, this is our only option to keep our kids on track. So smack me on the back of the hand, call me a hypocrite and let's call it a day.