Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Book Review - Bringing Up Bébé: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting, Pamela Druckerman




Bringing Up Bébé: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting

 

Pamela Druckerman


Category: nonfiction, parenting, memoir, France

Date finished: 17 January 2013     

Synopsis: An American bringing up her children in France, Druckerman contrasts French and American parenting styles.

Rating: ****½

Comments: I enjoyed this book. With the clear dichotomies between French and American parenting styles, I realized I am more French parent than American parent. That’s how I was raised, and that’s how I tend to parent and grandparent. Believing in schedules, manners, and a firm “no’s” ability to stop misbehavior, believing permissiveness and too much leniency for a child’s wishes and feelings creates chaos in the family, valuing a strong framework of expected behavior, putting an emphasis on alone time for the child as well as the parent—these are all central to French parenting. They assume it’s common sense. And to me, it is. To most Americans, however, it’s heartless, authoritarian, and impossible. Was glad to see that the parts about how children eat in France mirrored the information in French Kids Eat Everything. Doubly glad to see she has another book coming out this year.

Would you recommend this to a friend?
Yes, especially mothers.

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