Welcome to our website!

Rennes Airport is a parents blog that aims to make your family life more enjoyable. Here you will find personal testimonials, practical ideas (to make, set up and play) as well as interviews or guest contributions from women who advocate a commitment-oriented family life and plead for one: More respect for children, please!

Who writes here?

In addition to the many wonderful guest authors, it is mainly me, Josh (34), who writes here. I am a freelance journalist and the founder of Rennes Airport. I live in Zurich with my wife and our daughters (4 and 2 years old). Originally I studied business administration and worked as a consultant for digital communication. I also have a Master of Arts in Religion – Economics – Politics from the Universities of Basel, Lucerne and Zurich.

Why is it important to me to deal with children at eye level?

I always notice how often I hear terms like “writing baby” or “defiant children”, but that there is never any talk of “screaming mother” or “defiant father”. Why does it seem normal for our children to have names that would almost be insults to adults? Why is the appreciation of children in our society so low?

With Rennes Airport, I want to help change that. And provide inspiration that is all about a respectful, appreciative family life. To write about what it is like to respect children from the very beginning. To love them unconditionally. For what they are and not for what they would be most comfortable for me (or society). Not wanting to change or educate them, but trying to accompany them lovingly and attentively. And to convey to them: “You are good just as you are”. Not to encourage or push them, but instead to show them: “You are enough. You don’t have to do this and that in order for us to find you wonderful. Because you already are.”

To write about what it is like to observe children and offer them games and tasks that really interest them and that they can grow from (not to “keep them busy” or “watch them”). To create spaces for them in which they can develop independently and according to their own plan. And to be allowed to accompany them through their childhood. To be allowed to observe how they go their own way, how they make their own mistakes and experiences and how their self-confidence and self-esteem grow. I would like to tell you how incredibly challenging and sweaty, but ultimately extremely enriching this path is for me as a mother.

Why do I blog?

As a new mother, I couldn’t do much with sayings like “Trust Your Instinct” (unless I was advised to scream like my newborn daughter in her bed). There my instinct was quite clearly against it). But often my instincts were silent. And my journalistic research urge made me devour countless parent guidebooks (Remo Largo, Maria Montessori, Alfie Kohn, Arno Stern, Adele Faber, Jesper Juul are some of my favourite authors) and blogs (Parents of Mars and The Most Desired Wishful Child of All Times) were my first and most important mummy sources). And continue to do so. And everything I learn, experience and seem important to me, I want to share with you on Rennes Airport in simple and easy to understand language.

And what does all this have to do with a hen or Rennes Airport?

I was advised a lot by “professionals”, doctors, (childless) friends, midwives and even neighbours, which I instinctively didn’t like. At least I have experienced that my children are not tyrants, but the most wonderful people I have ever met. Even if they drive me crazy every day, of course. (But that usually has to do with myself and not with them.) I also noticed that children don’t want to dance around on our noses (as is often suggested), but cooperate with us and above all: make us happy and want to be loved by us. I don’t like the word “education” very much. For me it has too much to do with change, behaviour control, adaptation. I see my task as a mother in not educating my children, but accompanying them. Mindful, authentic and determined. And always appreciative. Because of all these views, because of my way of being a parent, I am often called a hen. I think it’s great. And I would like to celebrate this happiness here a little and occupy it positively. (By the way, I am of the opinion that a main earner can be just as much a hen as a housewife can be a feminist. But now I digress…)

And now what? For and with mothers!

The life with children is great, strenuous