LivinginBrno

Being a parent is already hard enough, but parenting your cute, precious little energy bombs in a foreign country brings a little extra to the situation, of course the great things outweigh the bad, at least that is what we think so far. I searched online information about how the expat parenting is done, what are the common traits of expat communities and, particularly, how to the parents living in foreign countries are different from those who live in their native country.  I strongly believe the expat parenting has some peculiarities that are more prominent, we are a different segment of society groups and even if we prefer the global type of thinking and living, our behavior as parents is strongly shaped by the socio-economic context of the country we chose to relocate to. As not much information is available online - for example, statistics or real life opinions about the differences between the two groups, I came up with my own view on this. Far from me to label people - I t...

Trying to learn Czech since 2011 but without much success and results, I quickly stopped my efforts. Now my son goes to kindergarten and cannot procrastinate anymore. I am learning from and for him this amazing, tongue tickling language - the czech language. The text bellow for sure known by most preschoolers in Czech Republic and here is my own, free interpretation in English (in yellow highlights): Hody hody doprovody, Sing this holly holiday Dejte vejce malovaný, Put/bring the painted eggs Nedáte-li malovaný, If you don't have painted eggs Dejte aspoň bílý, Bring at least the white ones Slepička vám snese jiný The hen lays another egg V komoře v koutku In the hen roost corner Na zeleným proutku. In a green nest. Proutek se ohýbá, if the nest will break Slepička kokrhá. Then the hen crows Dejte ji jísti, So take and eat the eggs Dejte jí píti, Give the hen some water Dejte jí semence, Feed it some seeds Ona snese tři vejce. She will mak...

We went to the veggies and fruits market on Saturday morning . It was our first visit this spring and kids were delighted about Brno city appearance, the market, honey bonbons, and gingerbread Easter eggs. I wanted to publish for you a detailed list of the prices on the Saturday farmers' market but was unable to find all I had on my list so here are the ones I got: -  2 branches of medium sized tomatoes - 80 czk (about 120 czk / kg) - 200 g walnuts - 23 czk / 100 g - 200 g goji seeds - 23 czk / 100 g - gingerbread Easter egg (kids were delighted) - 45 czk/ piece - 2 garden flowers in a pot - 15 czk / pot - fresh parsley - 15 czk - 500 g strawberries - 20 czk I wanted potatoes and fresh salads but these were not to be found on the market today. Maybe next time, as the season is not yet fully opened and with the latest freeze session maybe the crops were already damaged. Anyway, hope the cherries will survive this season. What are your thoughts on the farmer markets? Where ...

So, you washed your IKEA cover mattress despite the clear instruction on the label to not do it. Well, I did it because...I have a toddler and had to try and save it. I also washed the cover in a 3h program on 50 degrees Celsius. it did not shrink but I had a very hard time putting it back on. I would do it just once in a mattress' lifetime and only if necessary. If you are in the same situation, do not give up and run to IKEA for a new mattress...If I could put mine back so can you. Here a few tips: - turn the cover inside out and start pulling it on the mattress from one part slowly - grab small parts of the cover so it slides onto itself, allowing thus a smoother pulling on the mattress surface - pull each side at a time, with patience All operation took me about 8 minutes, here I share a video showing my struggle, you might find that helpful: Putting Back On the IKEA Cover Mattress

In 2014 when we had our first son I remember wanting to know other expats' birth experiences but at that time not much information was available online like these days. However, I still don't find an existing online presence where mothers share their expat adventures, except for few meet-ups or facebook groups. So, here it is - documenting for you both in video and text format my own experience with giving birth in Brno. If it helps at least one expat mother to be, my mission is accomplished. The birth of bot our kids took place at Brno FN Bohunice hospital. In this country there is no private maternity hospitals, in case you are wondering about the possibility to give birth at a private center. The public health systems works well enough so all births can be covered by the insurance. In the last 2-4 weeks gynecologist explained me we need to start the special weekly scans and check-ups at the hospital where I want to give birth. Based on her recommendation, I went to Bohun...

Shopping online was a thing for us, even before having the kids, but shopping our food and groceries is happening since 2018. Planning and cooking our meals at home ie enough time and energy consuming so, buying our food just by the click is really a game changer. 1. First we used online shop from Tesco (Brno) during 2017. For a while everything was fine, great delivery, in time, better quality of products like veggies, bread and fruits than what is found on the shelves. The variety of the online offer was not that much at the time. 2. Then in 2018 we discovered the online rohlik shop  and is our favourite and only grocery shop that we use on weekly basis. It provides fresh veggies, fruits, pre-packed meals, M&S food specialities and even an amazing and always growing variety of local farmers's foods like: meats, spreads, plant based meals veggies and fruits. The Bio/Organic offer is staggering and really very good quality. All you really need is one good grocery shop a...

I vote for staying at home to raise the kids as much as possible and this post is about my experience and reasons why I chose to stay on a longer maternity leave rather than starting to work earlier. 1. I get to raise my own children, rather than working and paying another stranger to do it The private day care costs around 5000-10000 czk/month - by paying this fee, not much of my salary remains, so it simply is not worth it financially 2. These early childhood years are so precious and go by so fast - that is actually the most important reason of all, overcoming any financial or physical demands of raising children 3. I manage to cook healthy homemade meals more than ever - it gives energy to raise them, among many obvious reasons like - less expenses 4. Being stay at home mom might seem hard and it really is exhausting at times - but I still find the time for me and even a hobby - before having kids I didn't care about my hobbies 5. I get more involved in the communi...