French Children Don't Throw Food: Parenting Secrets from Paris
Pamela Druckerman
French Children Don't Throw Food: Parenting Secrets from Paris
What British parent hasn't noticed, on visiting France, how well-behaved French children are - compared to our own?
- How come French babies sleep through the night?
- Why do French children happily eat what is put in front of them?
- How can French mums chat to their friends while their children play quietly?
- Why are French mums more likely to be seen in skinny jeans than tracksuit bottoms?
Pamela Druckerman, who lives in Paris with three young children, has had years of observing her French friends and neighbours, and is ideally placed to teach us the basics of parenting a la francaise.
4.0 out of 5 based on 4 reviews
|
Omniscore:
|
| Classification |
Non-fiction |
| Genre |
Family & Lifestyle |
| Format |
Hardback |
| Pages |
368 |
| RRP |
£15.00 |
| Date of Publication |
January 2012 |
| ISBN |
978-0385617611 |
| Publisher |
Doubleday |
| |
What British parent hasn't noticed, on visiting France, how well-behaved French children are - compared to our own?
- How come French babies sleep through the night?
- Why do French children happily eat what is put in front of them?
- How can French mums chat to their friends while their children play quietly?
- Why are French mums more likely to be seen in skinny jeans than tracksuit bottoms?
Pamela Druckerman, who lives in Paris with three young children, has had years of observing her French friends and neighbours, and is ideally placed to teach us the basics of parenting a la francaise.
Reviews
The Sunday Times
India Knight
"As someone who will not tolerate small children being around at dinner, on the basis that adults need adult time to be adult in, I whooped throughout this enlightening book — but then I was raised in Brussels. I know from personal experience that this approach is frowned upon in some quarters because the British and American approach is so Little Emperor-ish that every child’s needs must come above your own, to prove what a good parent you are. What Druckerman’s book shows is that this is both unhealthy and untrue ... I loved it."
22/01/2012
Read Full Review
The Guardian
Michele Hanson
"[A] self-deprecating, witty, informative but slightly ambivalent bringing-up-baby book. It doesn't seek to give advice, just describes the author's experience — her pain, struggles and triumphs, and sets out the two alternative methods: the calm, pleasant and for the most part enjoyable French experience, versus the fairly hysterical, intense and gruelling Anglophone method, and allows you to choose. She doesn't fall completely for the French method, but on this evidence, I do — though it's three decades too late for me now."
14/01/2012
Read Full Review
The Economist
The Economist
"It all sounds too good to be true. And in a way it is. Ms Druckerman’s France is a particularly narrow slice of bourgeois Paris. Try enforcing the greeting, “Bonjour Madame”, in the tough banlieue housing estates that ring the city. She also underplays the more troubling counterpart to tough French parenting: tough French teaching, that overstresses failure and under-rewards success. But a self-deprecating tone rescues the book from taking itself too seriously."
21/01/2012
Read Full Review
The Financial Times
Carl Wilkinson
"Whether all French children really are so angelic is questionable, but French Children Don’t Throw Food is funny, self-deprecating and instructive without being prescriptive. Yet its core message seems oddly British: keep calm and carry on."
20/01/2012
Read Full Review