Article Marie Claire
Le Blog de Catherine Sanderson:http://www.petiteanglaise.com/
Paris has been my home for over a decade. I set up this blog in July 2004. A year later, I left my partner, Mr Frog, the father of my daughter Tadpole, for a man I met in my comments box. In 2006 I got dumped, dooced and outed, but also snagged a book deal. In 2007 I won my case for unfair dismissal against my ex-employer.
Extract
who’s your daddy?
franglais
Tadpole suddenly started speaking in phrases this week. French ones mind, which are not nearly half as gratifying to me as English ones. I am not yet ready to admit even to myself that French will be her dominant language, while my mother tongue is likely to be relegated to second language status.
Overnight, everything she pointed at was suddenly accompanied by a “c’est … ça.”
“C’est mummy ça”, “C’est daddy ça”, “C’est teddy ça”, “C’est quoi ça?”.
Or with a triumphant “there it is”: “Il est là daddy” “Elle est là mummy.”
Accompanied without exception by exaggerated finger-pointing and arm-waving. As far as gesticulation levels go, Tadpole most definitely qualifies as a French person.
Pushing Tadpole plus wobbly trolley around the supermarket (no security harness, this is France) on Saturday evening, stocking up on edible provisions for the week, (which now include various additive-laden but child-friendly snacks that I hitherto swore I would never feed my child, including fish fingers, which I am currently rediscovering), Tadpole gets it into her pretty little head that a complete stranger, who looks absolutely nothing like her father, and is at least a decade older than he is, is her daddy. The only plausible explanation I can find for this is that she was confusing the word “daddy” with the word “man”.
“C’est daddy ça!”, shouts Tadpole, loudly, with extended arm and pointy index finger.
“Er… no sweetie, that’s not your daddy. It might be someone else’s daddy though.”
We turn into the next aisle, and I begin my search for a breakfast cereal not containing ten times the recommended daily intake of sugar. A toss up between porridge oats and cornflakes, again: Rice Krispies are like gold dust in this city.
“C’est daddy ça” cries Tadpole earnestly, volume turned up a little higher. I start and look up hopefully from the packet of ‘Honey Smacks’ I am examining, wondering if daddy has actually deserted his powerpoint presentation and elected to join us in the supermarket. No such luck. Just the same man, who is not, never was, and never will be Tadpole’s father.
“Don’t be silly, it’s not your daddy,” I repeat firmly, wishing that it was, because I’m unsure how I am going to get both shopping and Tadpole home on my own, even if it is only 200m from the local Franprix to our own door.
I swing a hasty left, and pounce upon a packet of Jacobs crackers. Not because I actually like them, you understand, but because they are a brand from home, and Franprix don’t usually stock them, so I feel I have to seize the opportunity. I have an unopened bottle of HP sauce in my cupboard, also purchased at Franprix. They can keep each other company.
We take up our position in the queue.
“C’est DADDY ça, il est LÀ daddy.”
I lose my patience.
“Good grief [Tadpole], give me credit for some taste! That man is not your father!” I snap.
Tadpole is stunned into silence by my tone.
And I spend five minutes in the queue praying that the man in question isn’t an English teacher by profession.
*voir ma section "Jobs" dans les labels, là où je parle de mes boulots, (avec un point de vue sarcastique n'est-ce pas) :)
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