Emilie

Can you introduce yourself? Your first name? Where do you live? What do you do for a living? How many children do you have?

I'm Émilie and I've been living in Paris for 17 years now.

I've created a stationery brand called OISO. The idea behind OISO is to re-learn to marvel at nothing and to practice kindness towards us and others daily. I have an 8-year-old daughter.

How would you describe your life with her?

I would say it's a lot of joy, with lots of complicity but also challenges.

It's great to see what she has become at 8. I think it's a cycle.

You feel like you've been with your child for several years already, and you can see the effects of what you wanted to pass on to her.

What is your favorite way to care for Margot ? Why ? What makes you love this moment?

I have always been interested in baby massage since middle school. I had seen a report on child nurse and baby massage. I really like the language of touch. It's a very important emotional language for me. I think I nurtured my daughter with it, and I still do.

Today, it's a little less of a special moment. When she was smaller, there were more daily rituals. Bath time was always a great moment of complicity because she loved it. During the bath, she was really soothed.

Today, I associate care more with attention. It's become more immaterial, but it's anchored in daily life through the rituals of attention that we have.

How would you like her to grow up?

For me, the most important thing is that my daughter learns to trust herself, to listen to herself and at the same time to be attentive to others. I try to pass this on to her.

I also want her to have her own autonomy, to feel that she can count on the people around her. I prefer to be there to guide her, if need be, but let her develop freely. I was brought up that way and really enjoyed growing up that way.

How do you think care can contribute to this?

For the first few years, when she was little, I didn't have a playpen at home. I didn't use one, and my pediatrician encouraged me to keep it that way. As a result, it required a lot of attention, but at the same time, she was free to explore and do lots of things. She knew we were there, but she was learning to find her bearings in space. She became truly autonomous by being stimulated by her curiosity.

When it comes to bath time, in your family is it rather Amour or Tempête? Do you have a little anecdote to tell us?

I'd say that today, it's all about negotiations and reiterations to make sure things go well. But I am proud of the fact that she's managing on her own now.

It's very sweet because I'm not someone who takes a lot of time for myself, looking after myself. But she does take care of her hair. She puts cream and takes time alone in the bathroom. She says, "I'm going to surprise you!

When she was smaller, bath time was a moment I often shared with her. We took baths together. It was great. These were really moments where we took care of each other, very close. She even gave me scrubs and hair treatments.

I don't take baths very often, actually never at all. But with her, we really allowed ourselves to have this ritual, especially on Sundays. We'd spend two hours in the bathroom just the two of us.