English 

Today’s mothers are always on the run, but where should we go? First at work, but then maybe at the gym! We have to keep fit, right? And once a month we would have the right to go and get a drink with the friend of all time that we can never see?And at the hairdresser? How long is it that you do not have the time, dear mother, to go to the hairdresser? And the beautician? Ugh! There is always too much organizing work behind and often we can not do everything we would like for ourselves …What are we missing? Most of the time simply a reliable person to leave our children. This is much easier for those who have a babysitter every day and so can rely on her, but for those lucky enough to have grandparents available, find a babysitter available a few hours a week or just for some evening, often, is an impossible search!But today we are in 2018 and there is nothing impossible! All this thanks to a beautiful site that I discovered. I went on internet and I did one of my super searches; I surfed several pages until I found the Sitly.ch site I immediately got caught by the graphics and then I immersed myself in reading their presentation, to really understand who they were.  Founded in 2009, this site is the perfect solution for every mother who needs to have a full-time babysitter or for those looking for a temporary solution! It is precisely the site suitable for us mothers! What do you have to do? Just go to the site of Sitly, register, enter all the parameters that must have the person you are looking for and you’re done! Sitly is a real community that will put you in touch in a precise way, with the person who will respond to all your needs, such as finding a figure that lives near your home, the age you prefer and many other things. Just think that today Sitly employs 24 people and is the online platform for babysitting services, which is growing faster in Italy and in Europe and has finally arrived in Switzerland!So my Swiss friends will be super happy! In fact I have already warned them all ….! And what are you waiting to register? There are already over a million members between parents and babysitters. You’re only missing! Let me know what you think about it, I embrace you.

Buongiorno people love! Come state? Io in questi giorni ho riflettuto tanto, mica è colpa mia se possiedo un cervello che va a 1000 allora anche quando dormo! Sono sempre stata molto riflessiva fin da piccola, anche se ero molto più aggressiva: una forma di timidezza o forse di rabbia che è normale avere in adolescenza. Ora, da “quasi” adulta,  ho imparato a gestirla. Ho ripensato ai miei 15 anni, ai miei amici, ai primi amori, a quel luogo in cui sono cresciuta, Stabio, un paese del Canton Ticino con 3000 anime. Ho dei ricordi legati al cuore che sono indelebili e anche se me ne sono andata, quelli non me li porterà mai via nessuno … Ho  fatto questa riflessione curiosando su Facebook e domandandomi se  nel 1995 vivevamo bene lo stesso senza questa piattaforma. La risposta è stata: decisamente SI.  Mi chiedo che cosa abbiamo perso con l’era dei social e cosa mia figlia non conoscerà mai … Mi viene da sorridere: mi vedo già, io con i miei 45 anni e lei con i suoi 15, io che le spiego che alla sua età avevo un diario segreto e uno sul quale tutti i miei amici mi hanno lasciato una dedica … che noi non avevamo il cellulare e che facebook (o chissà cos’altro inventeranno) non esisteva lontanamente … E lei mi risponderà che i diari hanno smesso di metterli in commercio secoli fa! Lei forse non saprà mai che cos’è la Smemoranda, che per me all’epoca era tutto. A quindici anni avevo la bicicletta per andare a scuola, un pallone da pallavolo per allenarmi 4 volte a settimana, delle amiche del cuore inseparabili: Michela, Isabelle, Maria e la Patty . Dei ragazzi che erano come fratelli: Raffaello, Daniel e Jorge. C’era il  Serfontana, un centro commerciale di Chiasso, dove scappare quando si bigiava e … la Smemoranda per scriverci tutto ciò che facevo! Ma quel diario era soltanto mio, non era un “salotto facebookiano” dove  condividere stati e pensieri. E’ questo che mi sembra strano: io avevo bisogno di chiudere la mia vita dentro a delle pagine scritte che rimanevano mie e di pochi altri. Oggi questa intimità sembra svanita nel nulla, non tanto per noi adulti, ma proprio per gli adolescenti. Vedo ragazzini che postano foto sui social in cui si baciano con il loro grande amore del momento e penso a come ero io. Anch’io baciavo, ma ricordo che con Luca M. a ricreazione andavamo a nasconderci in posto solo nostro. Stavamo lì a chiacchierare e a  darci qualche bacetto. Se mio padre mi avesse vista, mi avrebbe ammazzata!!!  Non ho conosciuto il bullismo. Certo, c’erano un paio di ragazze alle superiori che mi prendevano in giro. Credono ancora oggi che non sappia come mi chiamavano allora!Ma ero già abbastanza incavolata per aver cambiato casa ed essere approdata a Vicenza per badare a loro … che poi il  problema era che io avevo un sedere 10 volte migliore del loro, per intenderci. Loro mi prendevano in giro ed io le compativo … Ma  l’aggressività verbale e psicologica, la sfogavo nel mio mondo, ossia sul mio diario, non certo addosso ai miei compagni o ai miei insegnanti. Da adolescente avevo delle regole, una madre sempre presente nonostante fossimo in 5 figli, diretti come fossimo  militari. Oggi esistono ancora quelle regole? Mia figlia dice sempre “grazie” e le persone si sorprendono.”Che , che educata!” Che brava? Che educata? Ma minimo che deve imparare a dire “grazie”! Prendiamo un altro esempio? Ginevra saluta tutti, chiunque incontra, conosciuti e non. Le persone ridono e la maggior parte rimane di stucco, ma io sono cresciuta in un paese in cui tutti si salutavano e si guardavano negli occhi per dirsi “Ciao”. Arrivo all’ asilo a prendere Ginevra, entro  e saluto tutti, ma voi credete che le altre mamme mi rispondano? Mai! Mi guardano come fossi un alieno! Poi, con il tempo ti conoscono e ti dicono che sei una persona tanto solare. Non sono così solare, anzi, mi sveglio con delle lune a volte! Il discorso è che ho ricevuto un’educazione, che vivo e faccio parte di una comunità e che io sia positiva con gli altri credo sia il minimo. Poi le stesse persone e qui riprendo il discorso di prima, ti scrivono su facebook per parlare e rimango a bocca aperta e penso: “Ma se due minuti fa manco mi hai salutata?”. Non capisco, giuro, non ci capisco più nulla! Resta il fatto che io ho una Smemoranda che rimarrà con me fin che campo. E’ lì nel mio cassetto, esiste ,è concreta e mi permette di rivivere sorridente e felice i miei 15 anni. Oggi e domani cosa cavolo avranno i ragazzi? E poi dite che non ho fatto bene a mettere al mio ultimo libro il titolo” Un passo indietro”…. Mi sono sfogata! Ora vi abbraccio e vi saluto. P.S. Salutatemi quando mi incontrate, io regalo sorrisi a tutti!.

Good morning Love People! How are you? Me, I have reflected a lot in the past days, it’s not my fault if I have a brain that goes 1.000 miles an hour even when I’m asleep! I have always been a reflective person since I was little, even if I was way more aggressive: some sort of shyness, or maybe anger, that comes natural during adolescence. Now, being “almost” an adult, I have learnt how to control it. I thought about when I was 15, my friends, my first crushes, the place where I grew up, Stabio, a town in the Canton Ticino, with 3000 people.I have many memories in my heart that are unforgettable and even if I left, nobody will ever take them away from me…I thought about this as I was scrolling my Facebook and asking myself whether in 1995 we still lived just fine even without it. The answer is: absolutely YES. I wonder what we have lost with the Social Network age and what my daughter will never see… it makes me want to smile: I already picture myself, 45 years old and she will be 15, I will be telling her that when I was her age I had a secret diary and one on which all of my friends wrote something… that we didn’t have a cell phone and that Facebook (or whatever else they will invent) was far from entering our lives…She will answer me that diaries have been withdrawn from the market hundreds of years ago! Maybe she will never know what Smemoranda is, which for me has been everything. When I was 15 I used to go to school by bicycle, I had a volley ball for practicing four times a week, inseparable best friends: Michela, Isabelle, Maria and Patty. I also had friends that were like brothers to me: Raffaello, Daniel and Jorge. There was the Serfontana, a mall where we used to go to when we skipped school and … my Smemoranda, to write everything I was doing. But that diary was only mine, it wasn’t a “facebook-like social thing” to share status and thoughts. That’s what seems weird to me: I had the need to lock my life in those written pages that only myself and a few others would see. Nowadays this privacy  seems to be vanished, not much for adults, but for teenagers. I see kids posting on their socials photos of them kissing their big love of the moment and I think about how I was. I kissed as well, but I remember that at recess, with Luca M., we used to go hide in a place that was only ours. We would just stay there talking and kissing. If my dad saw me, he would have killed me!!! I’veneverexperiencedbullying. Well, of course there were a couple of girls picking on me in high school. They still think I didn’t know what they used to call me! But I was already mad enough about having moved to Vicenza to care about them…basically, the problem was that my butt was 10 times better than theirs, you know. They were making fun of me and I just felt sorry for them…but the aggressiveness, verbal and psychological, I would give vent to that in my own world, my diary, certainly not towards my school mates or my teachers. I had rules as a teenager, my mom was always there even though we were 5 kids, we were supervised like soldiers. Do rules still exist today? My daughter always says “thank you” and people are surprised.“How polite!” Well-behaved? Polite? Saying “thank you” is the least she has to learn! Another example? Ginevra always says “hi” to everyone she meets, no matter whether she knows them or not. People laugh and most of the times are shocked, but I grew up in a place where everyone would always say “hello”, and would look one another in the eyes to do so. When I go pick up Ginevra from kindergarten I always say “hello” to everybody, do you think the other moms say it back? Never! They look at me like I was an alien! Then, after some time, they get to know you and they tell you how cheerful of a person you are. I’m not even that cheerful, in fact sometimes I wake up in such a bad mood! The thing is, I was educated, I am part of a society and I think that being nice and positive with other people is the least I can do. Then the same people, going back to what I was saying before, contact you on Facebook to have a talk and that just leaves me speechless and make me think: “why are you texting me if two minutes ago you wouldn’t even say hi to me?”. I really do not understand! The fact remains that I own a Smemoranda that will always be with me. It’s right there in my drawer and it allows me to happily revive my 15 years. What are today’s kids going to have? And then you say that naming my book “A step back” was not a good idea…I had to let it out! Hugs and kisses.

P.S. Say “hello” to me when you meet me, I give away smiles to everybody!