A realistic day in the life as an American mom in Switzerland

You know, when you live abroad, a lot of life can be very over-glamorized on the internet. When in reality, the mechanics of your life, they kind of do stay the same, especially if you're a young family like us and you're raising very small kids. So today, I'm taking you into a very regular, average Thursday in the life of an American mom living here in Geneva, Switzerland. This is going to be a very unglamorized view into what it's really like to live here. Okay. Today is a little bit extraordinary because it is my husband's 40th birthday. So, even though it's going to be a pretty regular day, like, this is a school night, so we're not going to be doing anything too crazy, I will be bopping a bit around town more because we're going to go try to find a special dessert for him, and we're also having some friends over tonight just for a very low-key barbecue, but I thought I would take you along with me, and you can see kind of, like, daily life here in Switzerland. And he's bigger than normally. What do you mean he's bigger? His size. He grew? Because he's 40. Oh. Where are the hair ties? Where? Here you go, lovey. You made a kaka? That's not kaka. Okay. What time is it? What time is it? 9.45. 9.45 is the start of admin hour. Sometimes one to multiple hours a day we're doing house admin. What is on the docket today? Permit renewal. Permit renewal. Permit renewal. Permit renewal. Permit renewal. Permit renewal. Permit renewal. Permit renewal. Permit renewal. Permit renewal. Permit renewal. Permit renewal. Oh yes, this is a very important admin task. So we have to renew our B-Permit, our Permit-B. It's up for renewal. Last year we got the Permit-B as a part of Kyle's business, and this year we had it, we got it for one year, and now this year we have to file a renewal, and hopefully, hopefully it gets renewed. And we're hoping for maybe longer than one year, but we shall see. Okay, so you need me to scan these documents. These I've scanned before. Go to my office. I'm going with you. Why, you going downtown? Yeah, but I was going to work out. What are you doing? Putting together my birthday gift. This is 40, huh? This is 40. This is 40. All I want is slow cooked meats. Okay, so what's the problem? The problem is this is a lot of work. This is like my entire afternoon. Okay, so we're going downtown. We're going to go to this patisserie because birthday boy needs to get a dessert and we are making pizzas on the grill tonight. So, well, on this grill that has yet to be put together. So we also need to get some groceries and that's it. There's a lot of hubbub about turning 40. I just turned 39. So I guess I'll experience it next year. But do you see it as the closing of one chapter or the beginning of a new chapter? I don't think about it all that much, but maybe I do think, I don't think about the closing of 30. I think about the beginning of middle advanced age. I don't know. It's weird because like so much of our 30s, obviously, like we were in New York and stuff. And now it corresponds to like the fact that we left. It's like, is this the decade of Switzerland? We're just living such a different life than we lived in our 30s. I mean, physically, because we're in a different country, but also like lifestyle because we have three kids now. The 30s was like building your family and still figuring out life. And now it's like all the key players are here. And I think it's everyone's here. We're not adding any more people. And I think it's kind of like optimizing. It's like refining for the future. They have tiramisu, cheesecake. They have eclair. You pleased? Yum, yum. I think in a past life I was French. So now where are we going? We're gonna go get my favorite coffee. Ah, Café Le Coucou. Café Carousel. Buying up your 41st birthday gift. Oh la la, I made a mistake. I should have gotten a coffee maker. This one is nice, huh? Look at you, clean it up. Clean it up nicely on your birthday. Coffee acquired. Treats, coffee, okay. Now, grocery store? Wait. This is always the time of day that feels like there is a timer that is about to go off because it's 3:20. I have to go get the kids, but I also have to prep stuff for dinner. I really wanted to do one pizza as like a barbecue chicken pizza. And now I need to make the barbecue chicken. What a treat today it has been to go out and about, like, have a... Semi like free day, just going. Around town, that was so nice, but now I have 40 minutes to prep all this stuff for dinner and go get the kids. I'm doing manual labor today. Okay, do you need me for anything else? I'm gonna get the barbecue chicken going. Late, running late to get my kids as always. I'm gonna go get the girls. So you're, you're like prepping everything for your own birthday? What's going on here? Alright, I'm late. I gotta go. Shoot, I realize I do not have a snack for my kids. Okay, is everyone buckled? Is everyone ready to go to the park? Well, yeah, like we'll have cake later, okay? I didn't pack one. Okay. Okay, so Sava, you have to make pee-pee too? Okay, pee-pee break. Let's go. I am going to check on my chicken. So now usually we always go to the park. You gotta wash your hands, honey. Wash your hands, wash your hands. And also flush, please. So we always go to the park after school when the weather's nice. So I'm leaving this disaster situation for the birthday boy and there'll just be pizzas done.