Are French kids brought up differently to kids in England or were these just some super kids we met on holiday?

manic crazed drivers!!!! who drive far too fast and don't give a shit for cyclists...

France sounds the place for me.

I used to teach English (as a foreign language) to groups of kids and teens every summer. It’s wrong to generalise, I know, but by far the best behaved kids were the Chinese and Japanese students. The Chinese in particular were very hard-working and serious about their studies. The Japanese kids were very sweet and a lot more innocent than British kids of the same age.

The French were mostly fine. Not hugely different from British kids. The Spanish and Italian kids could be a pain.

The worst behaved students I had were some boys from Saudi Arabia. Some of them were kind of charming but they were extremely arrogant and over-confident. These kids came from very wealthy families.

But I had nice kids and not so nice kids from all nationalities.

I expect that the water thing is partgly exposure. I remember some research that kids who live in homes without stairs struggle to use stairs as well even at 5 compared to children who live in homes with stairs and have to practise every day. I suspect he same is true with water - you choose a holiday with a water element if that's what your kids are raised to do.

Not all French kids, no.

But I do think there are cultural differences and school system differences which do play into the difference and make for more resilient children.

Its really not, if you can find a forest where you can cycle, you'll be charged through the nose to park and ride your bike.

IF you can find a town with a market, you re car will be clamped and towed away if you dare return 10mins late, thats if you can afford the £6 per hour charges to visit the market in the first place.

Care to visit a stately home in the UK? £25 pp to visit, £3 an hour to park, in France we went to Chateau Villandry, free parking, £5 to visit.

They just sound like children with interested and engaged parents that have exposed them to lots of different activities and food so they are resilient, confident and happy to give things a go.

I'd imagine if you were with a very outdoorsy family from the UK who have done gorge walking /coastering activities before you would find the same.

What is it with the lack of reading comprehension on this thread? She's not drawing any conclusions. She's asking if the sample she met are representative or not.

This! It’s so odd.

You clearly haven't read the post properly! The entire point of the post is to ask if these children were unusual or if a lot of French children are like this. The OP is asking if they are representative, or not. She's not assuming anything. She's asking the question.

😂😂😂😂😂

At 5yo dd1 would have happily swim in deep water, jumped on and eaten strange food
At 14yo she would have done none of those
Dd2 would have done all at both ages.
Ds would not have gone near the water at 5, but probably would have at 14yo. He'd probably have tried the strange food at 5, not necessarily at 14.

You met two children and generalised about the entire county's children from that
If they were badly behaved, would you also have generalised

Having done years of holidays on French campsites, i can, on balance, say French kids are way better behaved than UK ones.

UK kids are at times feral in comparison, with parents that continually say "No No No" but then never following it up and let their kids continue with bad behaviors, often with a "well, they are on holiday"

Then again, a lot of France is years behind the UK, they've shops in villages, bustling high streets, police in every town and manic crazed drivers!!!! who drive far too fast and don't give a shit for cyclists... so not all good :(

All that is available in the UK with the same caveats too though

not all french kids are like that. Obviously some cultural differences especially regarding food and stuff, but im pretty sure deprived kids from a banlieu in paris arent going to be diving off boats and eating sea urchins in greek paradise.

Look, I love France, too, and used to live there, have lots of French friends and family by marriage, godchildren etc, but I don’t fetishise it. It’s a country with a rich culture, literature, history, astonishingly beautiful and varied regions, but it’s also a country with significant ongoing problems, like other countries.

I did notice that most people gave you a nod or a hello or a bon soir as we passed. In less busy places I mean, not strolling around a large town/city.

I dunno, I do think having nicer weather makes people less grumpy overall.

The French set a lot of store in high quality, interesting school meals and teaching kids about healthy eating:

www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/karen-le-billion-french-children-eat-anything#

As for the swimming - DC1 would have been able to do that. DC2 was not such a water baby.

😂
You weren't at the Drive-thru MacDonalds just outside Montpellier airport at around 1am on Sunday night/Monday morning then!

Because France is an awesome country. I've lived there. Discounting the grotty bits (outskirts of some of the big cities) it's really civilised - clean, wonderful food, markets, people say hello to you, they sweep the pavements outside their house. The day after the market the place is pristine. Lovely bike routes through forests, beautiful architecture, their govt looks after them, should I go on? They can't make a cup of tea, though.

Yabu to draw conclusions about a whole nation of children based on a sample of one family.

With the swimming... they sound like the kids when we lived in the Med (not France) of various nationalities. They swam daily in the summer months, including in the sea regularly, and were used to it. I have videos of my then 4yo leaping off the top diving board on a boat for example.

I have lived in France for nearly 20 years and can confirm that there are little brats here too! Also grumpy teenagers, babies who don’t sleep through, fussy eaters and toddlers who scream in supermarkets.

Do you think it might be to do with an urban vs a rural upbringing, rather than nationality? City kids have very different life skills than those who have, say, grown up on the coast or in the mountains.

I think you just met a family with lovely kids, my friends daughters are like this, they are outgoing and adventurous and generally a pleasure to be around. They save the bickering for home and the car :P

Only by people who appear never to have met any French people.

OP, you met two French kids who were good swimmers and adventurous eaters. It’s not a big sample size!

French children can also be timid, whiny non-swimmers with restricted diets. French women can be fat and badly-dressed. What are the other myths?