Daily family life: a normal day in Blois

by Joost (Sept 6, 2005)

"Joost, are you awake, it’s time to get up," says my partner. I look on my watch and see that it is just half past six in the morning. What a terrible time! Normally I wake up at seven o’clock and get up at a quarter past seven. In Holland you can get up later because you don’t need to travel a long distance. The school is not very far away from your house. I get dressed myself and walk downstairs.

When I am in the kitchen we start eating. Then her brothers come into the kitchen. We greet each other and then they also start with their breakfast. My partner’s mother has already eaten and goes to her work. When I am in my own house, we have breakfast together. And we tidy the mess up together.

Then we go to school by bus. Her brothers go to the same school. In the bus they have no contact with each other. Everyone has got his or her own friends. In Holland I ride the bike to school with my sister, because there is nobody else.

After a busy day we come home and it is already dark now. Her father and mother are still working. Normally when I come home and that is 3 or 4 hours sooner than here, my parents come home after an hour.

At last dinner! The dinner here in France is the same as in Holland, but then with difficult food, of course. Everybody talks with each other about what has happened that day, circumstances and a lot of other things. In Holland we also eat together with the whole family.

In the evening my partner does some homework and I watch some French television. It’s very hard to understand what the people are saying. Her mother is also watching television and her brothers are playing a pc game, but I don’t know where her father is. When I am in my own house we watch television with the whole family. Sometimes my parents are reading, but then they are still near the television. And then it’s time to go to bed.

In this description of a normal day in France and the comments you can see that family life in France is not the same as in Holland. I think that the differences are mostly caused by the fact that everything is far away from you, like school, and also by customs. In Holland we eat early and in France late. There are also a lot of things which are the same in Holland and in France.

When I compare family life in France and in Holland, I prefer a life in Holland. In Holland you have more contact with the members of the family. Besides, you are also at home earlier but then you have to do homework.

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