Crianças Francesas Não Fazem Manha (2013) - Plot & Excerpts
Interesting book. As a Finnish mother of two I found my parenting style to be separate from both French and American, so there is a cultural clash in both ways. That made this book even more interesting. Most of the advice given were familiar and more of a common sense to me. Maybe I'm not neurotic enough to be an american mom. But. As a woman who hates to do make up and likes to live in yoga pants, some of the advice seemed too superficial. While reading this book I couldn't help looking at some other reviews on this very page, I found that your opinion on the book seems to heavily depend on your own convictions concerning parenting and, well, if you're American or not. To clarify, if someone wrote about my country the way she does about the US, it might annoy me a bit as well, but this way it didn't bother me.Having been born and raised in Germany with rather typical German parents some of the "French" parenting techniques weren't really new to me, but it felt good to read about them and about how much good it does children to not make them the centre of your universe. Many things the author describes aren't only good for the child either, but are ways for the parents to gain back freedoms and a certain kind of laid-backness.I loved reading about her home-life, about how she found out about all these little things French parents do. You get a real sense of the people she surrounds herself with and their characters. There are also many instances where she states her doubts and problems as honestly as she can. She is by no means a radical mindless adepter of French parenting, she's informed and backs up what she says with studies.As she writes in the last parts of the books, it of course is hard or nearly impossible to adopt every single method, because of a different climate concerning public schooling, maternal leaves, etc. but sometimes small changes in behaviour can mean a break-through.
What do You think about Crianças Francesas Não Fazem Manha (2013)?
Wonderful book helping to understand the French way how kids behave even better.
—Mary
Very interesting comparison between both countries!
—cbrams
All a bit too... middle class for my liking.
—rachael
