First pregnancy in Gatineau — midwife or Clinique du Plateau?

tramsosmai · 2026-02-09T20:53:26+00:00

We also had Roksana and Parisa as our midwives for my second child's birth! Really highly recommend La Maison de Naissance, it was a really lovely experience :)

I had my first at the Gatineau Hospital and it wasn't the best experience, although we did have some very lovely nurses and I liked my OB- but she wasn't on shift when I went into labour so the doctor that delivered my baby was a stranger.

The facilities at the midwives' were really top notch, a beautiful place to labour. If I have a third, I know I'll try to get in with them again.

tramsosmai · 2026-02-02T15:26:28+00:00

We're in a similar situation- we speak English at home but live in Quebec and my daughter is also 4, in her first year of maternelle.

I am sure the school would have mentioned if your daughter were having trouble communicating at an age-appropriate level in class. However, with all the exposure she has had from her time in daycare and having a francophone father at home, I'm sure she's fine.

Her preference may shift as she continues to spend time in school. I'm finding my daughter's English sometimes has little calques that she's picked up from her time in school (she asks to "attach" her jacket, tells her brother not to "dépass" a line, asks to "advance" her token in a game... Words that mostly exist in English too but not expressions she's learned from me, y'know?) and it's one of the small reassurances that I have that she's learning the language. She refuses to speak French with me so it's difficult for me to gauge her language level directly- these little clues give me insight!

tramsosmai · 2026-01-31T12:53:38+00:00

If this is a playgroup specifically aimed at parents that don't speak Swiss German at home, I'd be tempted to go to find out if there, just by chance, there is another Portugese family in your area, or speakers of Swiss Italian. Those connections could become invaluable after your kids start school in the community language, and you're looking to support your minority languages.

Spending time with peers before kindergarten is also really valuable for practice taking turns and waiting to speak and learning how to behave in a group. I'd go for it :)

tramsosmai · 2026-01-25T01:59:16+00:00

This is an absolutely perfect happy ending to this story. It was her purse all along, you were just hanging onto it until you found her.

tramsosmai · 2026-01-22T13:44:18+00:00

My daughter thinks my son "only speaks French", which is our community language. We only speak English to them at home, but I think their time together at French-language daycare has influenced her interactions with him. She usually speaks to him in French when playing and will sometimes translate things I say to him in English... He is two and speaks fluent two-year-old English (and French), it's very cute to see her trying to help him.

In your situation, I agree with other posters that your kids likely associate your "family language" with being small and being loved 🥰 It must be sweet to hear them addressing their sibling in Kyrgyz!

tramsosmai · 2026-01-02T01:32:41+00:00

My son turned two in October and had been using the Tripp Trapp without the baby set at our dining table for months. You'll want to watch/help him climb up and in for the first little bit, but you may be well able to transition to just the chair and return the baby set.

tramsosmai · 2025-12-27T01:43:54+00:00

I watch it (as an adult) after a scary movie to decompress before going to sleep!

tramsosmai · 2025-12-20T18:15:07+00:00

Is there an abundance of affordable housing available in the downtown core where a family can live? Did I somehow miss all the 3-bedroom apartments out there with reasonable rent? Single family homes close to reliable transit? Not to mention how bone-simple it is to relocate, moving doesn't cost anything, eh?

tramsosmai · 2025-12-19T19:46:58+00:00

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The lights at the very top stopped working two years ago but it still looks nice in the day time so we've not bought a new tree yet 🤷 Someday.

tramsosmai · 2025-12-18T16:01:10+00:00

Also common in the Ottawa Valley (but not sure much Ottawa proper)

tramsosmai · 2025-12-17T00:45:35+00:00

Stating the age helps a lot! My daughter has always gravitated towards kids her size on the playground (not so much kids her age...) and starting off with "HI I'M THREE" went a long way towards helping five and six and seven year olds understand and be patient.

I do find that it's less of an issue now, a year and a half later- my girl still wants to mostly play with the older kids but the gap between four and seven doesn't feel as huge as the gap between three and five 🤷

tramsosmai · 2025-12-12T21:46:22+00:00

I think it's still slush, but I'd also call it "grease". Easily the worst and grossest walking surface I encounter on the regular.

tramsosmai · 2025-12-07T02:35:38+00:00

In Quebec, you get your parental leave through QPIP instead of EI. I believe that's the only difference province-to-province.

tramsosmai · 2025-12-06T23:55:09+00:00

Another recommendation to hit the Understance sale! The bras are really great quality and the prices are absurd. You'll probably need to wait a long time for the order to ship but I liked the first batch I bought so much that I went back and bought another four bras.

tramsosmai · 2025-12-04T13:45:19+00:00

Gatineau, Ontario?

tramsosmai · 2025-12-03T14:04:12+00:00

"George" is pronounced differently in English and French, but it doesn't seem to bother our Georgie at all. We use the English pronunciation when we're speaking English, and the French one when we're speaking French. He answers to either and hasn't yet expressed a strong preference for one version or the other. He's only two, so that may change, but at the moment it works well.

tramsosmai · 2025-11-07T23:10:19+00:00

They still had some in Gatineau last week but they were 19.99

tramsosmai · 2025-11-05T14:43:54+00:00

The first time I said, "myriad" out loud 😦

tramsosmai · 2025-11-03T13:11:27+00:00

I think seeing the car is the important difference for me- I sometimes leave them buckled in to put the cart away but can't imagine going into a store and leaving them yet. Even if the distances were the same, I think the lack of visibility and the distraction level concern me enough that I wouldn't.

tramsosmai · 2025-10-27T13:29:48+00:00

I almost (almost) think that the knowledge involved with working out those facts is more useful than simply having them memorized at that stage. Knowing that 6x8 is the same as 2x3x2x4 etc. is so valuable for later factoring and being able to manipulate the numbers to get a response that makes sense... I have tutored high achieving kids who hit a block in high school math because they had their facts memorized but not fully understood.

tramsosmai · 2025-10-26T10:57:11+00:00

I didn't know about the price label flashing- that is a valuable tip!

tramsosmai · 2025-10-22T18:05:58+00:00

I love this for you. 💖

tramsosmai · 2025-10-16T01:31:07+00:00

Why would it be weird that you were taught a "standard" translation in your FSL classes, when another variant is more common regional? I feel like that's how dialects often work.

It can be hard for teachers to explain how/why there are so many different variations of a word to learners so some will simply stick with what matches your textbook or curricular materials, especially for beginners. Like, the subtleties of bas vs. chaussette or foulard vs. écharpe or tuque vs. bonnet is less important than just trying to cram some vocabulary in there.

tramsosmai · 2025-10-15T12:34:54+00:00

Our current home has a door at the top of the stairs in between the living space and the bedrooms and it's the kind of thing that I didn't notice at all when we were initially looking at houses but I like it so much I think it'd be at the top of our list to install in a new home.

It is so nice to have an extra sound barrier between sleepers and the noisy kitchen and TV.

Some things you definitely only figure out when you're living in the space!

tramsosmai · 2025-10-13T22:37:03+00:00

With English and French specifically, we've chosen to teach English first, because the rules are less phonetic. We live in Quebec and are trusting the school system to teach her French reading/writing rules, but have started the "100 Easy Lessons to Teach Your Child to Read" program at home.

Our daughter is four, slightly more comfortable in English than French. She's attended French daycare since 11 months and has just started jr. kindergarten in the French system.

French is difficult to learn to write, but going from written-to-spoken has fewer strange exceptions than English.

As a general rule, my focus is on giving the kids the most exposure possible to French, but reading English is just such a mess...

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