to be irritated by the premise of "French Children don't Throw Food"

[OhdearNigel]

Was in the local children's bookshop and the owner had a proof copy of this
www.amazon.co.uk/French-Children-Dont-Throw-Food/dp/0385617615/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1322218169&sr=1-1
sent to her.

I freely admit that I haven't read any of it but I am irritated by it already. France is not some bloody paragon of sophistication and wonder. I have seen plenty of very badly behaved French children. I love France but the woman are not all Coco Chanel, gourmet, sexy glamourpusses. In fact walk down any street in France and you are unlikely to see such a creature.
My best friend in childhood was French and the most exotic dinner her Mum made was chopped cheese and pepper mixed with salad cream and then grilled on toast. Hardly the Ritz.

As the title is a sweeping generalisation, angry, I think you are entitled to use them in response

I have lived in London and in Paris. I think the Parisians are more conservative than the English. It was quite exciting, for me, to go back to London and realise that people wear whatever they want there, and don't really care (which is quite nice)

I'm not English but for me, as I said above, I loved the fact that children, and grown ups, behaved in restaurants without screaming.

PS The dog poo in the streets in Paris, is still a big issue to be dealt with!

Very true, dreaming bohemian. No truck suits where I live, not even in the bakery of a Saturday morning. No trainers at all (except on kids).

I may try that cheese/pepper/salad cream on toast mix for lunch.

My children are half french and they are lovely, my nephews are french and are lovely too and behaved like normal children, they have their ups and downs like normal children ! To be honest, I have seen lots of english children behaving like little shits but it is notmal and they are left getting on with that sort of behaviour !

No Uggs either. And even little old ladies have the nicest shoes!

I think Swede is right about the conservativeness. Have recently realised you don't see much cleavage here either.

I freely admit that I haven't read any of it but I am irritated by it already

Fave sentence of the day so far

And the French hit their kids, so do the Italians and the Greeks

I've seed it with my very own eyes a lot.

But Italian and Greek kids are still badly behaved because they hit them, then they clutch them and smother them in kisses and it is all very confusing for the kiddlys.

I agree that French children tend to have better table manners than their English counterparts. Perhaps it's because they know very well they will receive an unashamed clip around the ear if they dare to misbehave. Corporal punishment is absolutely the norm here. Being sent to stand in the corner (toddlers) for quite extended periods is usual. Perhaps that's where the English are going so sadly wrong? It'll be a while before I take parenting tips from the French.

I live in France, btw.

This book sounds silly. Just as silly as the French Women Don't Get Fat, even though I truly believe French women are slimmer than their Anglo counterparts. Still a stupid book.

We have a couple of french schools where I live and when frequenting the nearbly park when my DS was smaller a lot of the french children were total little bloody horrors.

Are we going to the same park? DP and I raise our eyebrows and tut and mutter things about the 'feral French kids' - I try NOT to but it's damn near impossible sat there with out of control nightmares rampaging all around us, stampeeding over small toddlers in their wake. Gross generalisation but the kids seem to be so very indulged. We very rarely go to that park now because of this, even though it's our local. Having said that, when we visit France the children are very nice.

Obviously it all depends where you are in France, but in Paris I do find that on the whole the women are better dressed (smarter, and more conservative) and slimmer than British women. occasionally I see badly dressed women, but when I get closer I find out that they are tourists

As for the children, I don't know many British children but all the French children I know are beautifully behaved. My friend's DS (3) is amazing at the dinner table. He cried when he spilt his glass of water all over himself, but apart from that, no tantrums or anything during a whole week. He ate at the table with the adults and ate what we ate. He is a boisterous little boy but not at the dinner table.

Oh gosh, I haven't seen any French kids getting smacked, I certainly saw plenty of kids getting smacked in London though.

I don't think that many Italian kids get hit. Not up this end anyway.

My child feels hard done by cos I have rules, consequences and enforce a bedtime. Not sure he'd feel quite so sorry for himself if all his mates were getting wolloped.

I taught a class of mainly French kids in a Bangkok international kinder. No shortage of food throwing went on. Along with other not great behavior. But the the French kids didn't stand out. Most of the kids were still at a rather uncivilised stage.

Are we talking chopped red/green pepper, or ground peppercorns? Either sounds amazing.

The big difference I've noticed which may lead to French children being better behaved is that in France people feel free to tell off other people's chlidren in public. Our local park, for example, you are not supposed to ride bikes -- pity the poor kid who tries, it will last about 5 seconds before someone collars them for a lecture. If a child acts up in a store the sales clerks will reprimand them if their parents don't.

No uggs? Dreaming bohemian seen a fair few on younger women/girls in Paris and they arent all tourists . It does seem to be a new thing over last year though.

Never seen a French person wearing crocs though

The only experience of French kids at the table that I remember did not involve food throwing, but they were bloody loud. I thought it was nice that the kids were included in the conversation, and to be fair to them, they did sit still, but the volume was HIGH.

I've said on here before how much "oooh, French women are so much better-dressed than British women, they don't wear tracky bottoms, blah blah blah" gets on my nerves. The stereotypical French BCBG look is fine if you like navy blue blazers and looking like a minor member of the Royal Family opening a bypass.

I like cheese and black pepper. I'm going to do it like that. :o

I remember going on the Metro once in Paris. Remarked to my DP how lovely and graffiti-free the station was. He pointed to a poster further down the platform which had some graffiti on it. It was a Printemps (department store) advert - a young woman skipping through a meadow. We walked down to see what the graffiti was. A felt-tip arrow pointed to the girl's groin and at the end of the arrow was scrawled "This is where it's at, Frenchies!"

Diced capsicums :)

I agree that French children tend to have better table manners than their English counterparts. Perhaps it's because they know very well they will receive an unashamed clip around the ear if they dare to misbehave. Corporal punishment is absolutely the norm here. Being sent to stand in the corner (toddlers) for quite extended periods is usual. Perhaps that's where the English are going so sadly wrong?

Yes, this mirrors my experience of living in France too. In fact DH and I had a discussion with two other (childless) French couples recently, they were all comparing their childhood punishments and I (who grew up in a relatively conservative household) was . They all agreed that their parents were right.

We have friends/acquaintances who were sending their 18mo to the corner for misbehaving at a christmas drinks at 10pm at night. Again I was shocked.

French children are expected to say hello and goodbye to every person they meet in a social setting and offer a kiss by the time they are three.

I don't agree with all of this, but neither do I want to get to the stage when we are unable to go out/socialise with our DCs because they are the only ones who can't sit at table and behave like the others.

Just read that apparently 23.9% of British women are obese compared with only 12.7 of French.

flyingcloud- but surely that's right that they should say hello and goodbye to people they meet?

I don't see many children being smacked here, tbh.

My younger daughter is half French. She throws food but only with her left hand.

Can anyone explain the dummy culture to me?

I have nothing against dummies, but it seems quite normal for children of 4 and 5 to have one throughout the day.