Bringing Up Bebe: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting - Hardcover

Druckerman, Pamela

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1594203334 ISBN 13: 9781594203336

Publisher: Penguin Pr, 2012

Synopsis

The secret behind France's astonishingly well-behaved children.

When American journalist Pamela Druckerman has a baby in Paris, she doesn't aspire to become a "French parent." French parenting isn't a known thing, like French fashion or French cheese. Even French parents themselves insist they aren't doing anything special.

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. French kids eat well-rounded meals that are more likely to include braised leeks than chicken nuggets. And while her American friends spend their visits resolving spats between their kids, her French friends sip coffee while the kids play.

Motherhood itself is a whole different experience in France. There's no role model, as there is in America, for the harried new mom with no life of her own. 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. They have an easy, calm authority with their kids that Druckerman can only envy.

Of course, French parenting wouldn't be worth talking about if it produced robotic, joyless children. In fact, French kids are just as boisterous, curious, and creative as Americans. They're just far better behaved and more in command of themselves. 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.

With a notebook stashed in her diaper bag, Druckerman-a former reporter for The Wall Street Journal-sets out to learn the secrets to raising a society of good little sleepers, gourmet eaters, and reasonably relaxed parents. She discovers that French parents are extremely strict about some things and strikingly permissive about others. And she realizes that to be a different kind of parent, you don't just need a different parenting philosophy. You need a very different view of what a child actually is.

While finding her own firm non, Druckerman discovers that children-including her own-are capable of feats she'd never imagined.

About this title

Review:

"Marvelous . . . Like Julia Child, who translated the secrets of French cuisine, Druckerman has investigated and distilled the essentials of French child-rearing. . . . Druckerman provides fascinating details about French sleep training, feeding schedules and family rituals. But her book's real pleasures spring from her funny, self-deprecating stories. Like the principles she examines, Druckerman isn't doctrinaire." -- NPR

"Bringing Up Bébé is a must-read for parents who would like their children to eat more than white pasta and chicken fingers."

-- Fox News

"On questions of how to live, the French never disappoint. . . . Maybe it all starts with childhood. That is the conclusion that readers may draw from Bringing Up Bébé."

-- The Wall Street Journal

"French women don't have little bags of emergency Cheerios spilling all over their Louis Vuitton handbags. They also, Druckerman notes, wear skinny jeans instead of sweatpants.The world arguably needs more kids who don't throw food."

-- Chicago Tribune

"I've been a parent now for more than eight years, and--confession--I've never actually made it all the way through a parenting book. But I found Bringing Up Bébé to be irresistible."

-- Slate

About the Author:

Pamela Druckerman is a former staff reporter for The Wall Street Journal, where she covered foreign affairs. She has also written forThe New York Times, The Washington Post, and Marie Claire, and appeared onThe Today Show and NPR's Morning Edition. Her previous book, Lust in Translation, was translated into eight languages. She has a master's degree in international affairs from Columbia. She lives in Paris.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Pr
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1594203334
• ISBN 13: 9781594203336
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 284