![]() ![]() While some American toddlers are getting Mandarin tutors and preliteracy training, French kids are - by design - toddling around and discovering the world at their own pace. They're just far better behaved and more in command of themselves. In fact, French kids are just as boisterous, curious, and creative as Americans. Of course, French parenting wouldn't be worth talking about if it produced robotic, joyless children. They have an easy, calm authority with their kids that Druckerman can only envy. French mothers assume that even good parents aren't at the constant service of their children and that there's no need to feel guilty about this. There's no role model, as there is in America, for the harried new mom with no life of her own. Motherhood itself is a whole different experience in France. And while her American friends spend their visits resolving spats between their kids, her French friends sip coffee while the kids play. French kids eat well-rounded meals that are more likely to include braised leeks than chicken nuggets. Yet the French children Druckerman knows sleep through the night at two or three months old while those of her American friends take a year or more. Even French parents themselves insist they aren't doing anything special. French parenting isn't a known thing, like French fashion or French cheese. When American journalist Pamela Druckerman has a baby in Paris, she doesn't aspire to become a "French parent". The secret behind France's astonishingly well-behaved children is here. ![]()
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