What is going on with British kids?

[FrenchAreDoingSomethingRight]

On holiday in France. An upmarket holiday camp and we are the only British family here. It was recommended by a French friend and I didn't realise it only has French families on holiday

Dinner is set 3 course dinner. My kids are 5 and 3. My older boy has ADHD we think (referred by school), our younger one doesn't as far as we know. Both kids are trying their hardest at dinner. There is v loud music playing and the pool party bit is still open. They run off after every course for a dance. Older one tries to stand up sometimes. We have colouring in books etc. Really they're fine. At restaurants and pubs they are totally average in terms of being able to sit at the table. No screens.

Not a single French kid has done anything wrong. No screens or even colouring. They might not all be talking to their parents but every single one is sitting through the whole 90 min dinner and waiting to dance at the end. So patient.

Do no French kids have ADHD or ND? Or even just kid like and cheeky? I have always tried my best with dinner times but these kids aren't even considering running off.

What is going on???

touched a nerve did I

My SIL grew up in France. I have 3 nieces/nephews (one is autistic). Occasionally they used to try to throw rocks at each other, it was fucking scary. Happily they are now teenagers and seem to have stopped.

And yes, I did do the sitting at a table thing when they were growing up.

No DD is a teen I've given up.

No doubt things will change again in five years and she will be doing it as if it were a completely new invention...

Who invented railways, steam locomotives, the bicycle, the world wide web, rubber tyres, the flush toilet, accurate marine chronometers, and tarmac? It wasn't the French, it was British people. Obedient (at least in front of the adults) children don't grown into creative inventive adults. And it's inventiveness, not table manners, that changes the world.

😂 that’s okay, I wanted to eat soil when I was pregnant 😁

Now I’ve discovered they do still exist i’m probably going to get some

Oh. Jeeze. Please… not another thread about how fucking the wonderful the French are and how crap the UK is.

Yep we’re talking a culture who has a term for the time of day linked to affairs, with much more serious racism issues and look at those recent riots, great presentation to the world.

Maybe if there wasn’t such pressure regarding how they’re seen by the world there would be more favourable mental health statistics.

maybe have a look at state school menu and compare with our British menus, It's shocking.

You might see a difference with eating the occasional pasta, or chips and being exclusively fed them at pretty much every meal.

It's easy to focus on the "treat" food they do eat but conveniently forget the main meals they eat, and the frequency of their meals.

It’s interesting the French are compliant as children but as adults, they generally don’t like rules and governance

Protesting doesn't mean they are anti rules or governance

Most experiences like that are good though, aren’t they? You’re not afraid to compare cultures, and are not easily offended like some people are. My kids watched Barney, and wanted to try smores/marshmallows. They tried so hard to like it, but no..

There you go, purple, we have finally found the solution to it all.

IT IS YOUR FAULT.

No outrage by the way, too tired.

LOL

I'm trying to remember when my kids could safely sit through a meal out. I think it was from quite young, and they've never had screens at a meal. It was easier with the older one who is docile and loves food. Younger one is a fidget but will happily doodle with a notebook and pen at the table if he gets bored. They can be dreadfully behaved at home to be honest but do tend to be well behaved in public.

Yep is another Mumsnet Franco wankfest.

well I don't know how wonderful the French are, but I can testify at how crap the UK is. I would know, I do live in it!

Education, Health Care, food.. it's bad.

The British didn’t invent the Internet, the Americans did

I have noticed a lot of the French kids are far naughtier when in groups without adults. They like to throw sand at each other a lot!

There is a real difference in how the kids act when their parents are around. My kids are the opposite and act worse with me there! They are the most quiet for other people and loud and scatty when I am around! Where am I going wrong??

I really didn't mean this as a French or English bashing thing. Just I've never been anywhere where we are the only British family and we do stand out a bit!

Can't wait for your kids to be teenagers.

Look forward to your postings on here then.

Goodness drop the judgements. PLEASE

How could I forget the "cinq à sept", when monsieur bones his secretary whilst madame cooks the the dinner.

Asking to "get down from the table"
Was said to my child out at a new friend's for dinner.
I was horrified.
Then her child threw a tantrum that the place setting was wrong.
I wanted to run out the door it was unneeded pretence.
A casual meal but we had to play her game of sophistication.
Mentioned this experience to my strict sit up and put your cutlery together when you have finished mother...who said so irrelevant and controlling.
Kids attention span and lack of being interested is what I think it is.
Good luck to my dinner out next week with the family haha.

are the U.K. mental health statistics better?

😂

You wish. What you write speaks for itself, so no need to go further. Have a good evening.

Me too. We took ours out to eat from babies, ladened with pens and paper and sticker books, and were regularly congratulated by staff on not shoving an iPad at our pre schoolers. At 2/3! This was 10-12 years ago, now kids at tables with iPads are everywhere. It’s awful, all the lovely social chatty fun of a family meal utterly smashed. I love seeing the French kids - they are content, calm, involved in family multi-generational chat, not fussy eaters and look very happy. I’d quite like to be French anyway but they seem to have parenting sewn up too.

I used to wish I was French because my French teacher told us they had croissants dipped in hot chocolate for breakfast.

The world wide web isn't the internet. The WWW is transmitted over the internet, as is Gopher, FTP, Telnet, SSH, ICMP, and the various routing protocols.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the WWW.