Having a Multicultural, Blended Family
About Daniel Jauslin
Daniel Jauslin recently got married and is now in a long-distance relationship. He lives in Switzerland with two of his children, while his wife lives in France with his two stepchildren. In the middle of the pandemic, he has had to balance family, travel, and work. Find out how he is managing this new part of his identity.
How was your marriage?
“It was great! It was beautiful to have close family around and I was very happy that her brother could come, who lives in London, and her mum could join us via Zoom. So that was nice. Before the wedding, we went to see her mom so it was a bit less hard.”
Did the pandemic affect it in any way?
“The number of people was limited, but that ledlead to actually quite a nice party because the people that really mattered were there. I think that was very nice in the end.“
Do you visit often?
“We have the rule to never be apart for more than 10 days and [my wife and I] managed that. Even with rules that sometimes ask you to stay in quarantine for 10 days and something like that but we still managed somehow.”
How are the kids getting along?
“I think now it's getting better. In the beginning, It was a bit complicated for everybody [my wife, my children, and my stepchildren] to get used to the new family, but I think especially on the wedding day, we had a really had really nice time with all the children together. I think it's important maybe not to expect too much or push anybody into something they don't want and just give it time for everybody. And basically, we always said this is our choice and not the children's choice so for the children there's no obligation to get along but it's nice to have.”
How do you think this family will be in the future?
“I don't imagine that everybody will be living together really, But I hope that we get a more steady rhythm. We've been imagining getting… a house in the middle, between our two places with a pool and that we could just hang out there… We feel we feel that everybody is eager to move and to go somewhere so maybe when we get older we will be more in one place and everybody will come to us.
“I think it's important maybe not to expect too much or push anybody into something they don't want.”
-Daniel Jauslin
Have you made plans for the potential home?
“Not concretely but we’ve been planning to make lots of holidays in Burgundy like we were last summer and then, we hope that someday we'll find something. There are lots of old farms and places but at the moment, my wife just moved to a house in France so that was a lot of work and I think we just have to concentrate on finishing that. But also from the move, we have some money left so yeah I think one day we'll find a way.”
“We have the rule to never be apart for more than 10 days.”
-Daniel Jauslin
