To feel depressed that exW took DSSs to Miami

[Bonsoir]

for a fortnight at Christmas and for them to have come back having gained a huge new Abercrombie & Fitch wardrobe and 4kgs apiece?

would it just not be easier to slightly adjusts the boys diet when with you and find some sport activity they like , that amount of small weight will soon drop of if no big issue is made of it.Rather than set them of with a life long worry of their weight .

SofaQueen - were people 'proud' of Segolene Royal? In my social circles, most of the people I knew thought she while she was a good-looking women, she had very little intellect or political expertise. I hesitate to use the word bimbo.

Proud is not a word that most of my Parisien friends would associate with her.

slim22 - "Upgraded Sentier, I presume" - that is so rude and racist (and totally incorrect, though that is secondary)

I will add, in all seriousness, that she is a very very well educated woman and clearly extemely intelligent having gone to ENA.

On the election front then, perhaps it was actually her good looks that clouded things? Maybe she would have won if she had been less attractive??? (tongue firmly planted in cheek)

I can see that Bonsoir is desperately trying to fit into bourgeois Parisienne circles. Immigrants are often criticised and feel the need to keep up. Belgians are generally derided in France for 'eating in the street' and having the wrong kind of accent. We all try to fit in and we all care about our children's health and education. But she is becoming obsessed about trying too hard. And as I said before - the kids' weight, the obsession with 'education' (ie getting into the right grandes ecoles so DP and I can brag about it at dinner parties (rather than eating, obviously!)) - has a lot to do with her own self image. I think her insecurities come out all over the place - she says the reviled exW was same background and religion as DP - so the sons are the ones with the same religion as him, then, - a further insecurity. You need to get over it all, Bonsoir, and realise that life and childhood isn't just about 'health and education' - it's also about HAVING FUN.

ENA is not universally considered to be a "good education" in France, though. A lot of people won't touch it with a bargepole. A bit like Sciences Po.

bellissima - you are quite wrong about "trying desperately to fit in to bourgeois circles" - I don't move in those circles at all, personally; I have been in France for yonks and have all sorts of friends and colleagues from lots of countries and backgrounds, both long standing and more recent.

I am, however, extremely interested in sociological and cultural variation and adore dissecting its minutiae!

Ah, Bonsoir - now you are just being contrary - you are indeed the first person ever who I have heard argue that ENA and Science Po does not provide a good education -if this is the case, then it is clearly worrying for the intellectual elite they accept.

I live in the deep, dark and unstylish sticks (Provence), but I can testify that Ségolène Royal was considered by almost everyone I know, rich and poor, stylish and scruffy, thin and fat, as an embarrassment to women. DH went to one of her rallies and was stunned by her vacuity and her lack of political sense. Almost everyone I spoke to around election time was disappointed that the first real female candidate was ultimately so pathetic.

Not that that is really relevant to Anna's problems with excess clothing and kilos. Just wanted to put my provincial oar in.
Though I might add that here in the backwaters weight is not a common topic of conversation. I can imagine that for bored and neurotic Parisian parents it might well be, sadly enough for them.

"No, really, I am an exemplary stepmother"

HAHAHAHAHA

It is not for you to say this, or the people around you.

The only people who will be qualified to judge this, are your stepchildren, when they are of an age and maturity to do so.

Same as any parent. It's not for us to say if we're good, it's for our children. When they understand what "good" is of course.

I am now convinced this is just a wind-up.

Maybe you should try a few different social circles?

The école de commerce brigade (HEC, Essec, ESCP) loathe Sciences Po with a vengeance and won't even consider someone who has been there for a job. Normale Sup grads similarly despise the ENA sort. Not that there isn't some cross over among all the schools - some people in France are still fond of accumulating a mass of degrees and diplomas and like to think of themselves as polymaths/Renaissance men...

Sorry last post full of gramatical errors - clearly I did not attend either school!

AuldAlliance i'm sorry but I think that as you are provincial, we can safely discount anything you say.

Bonsoir - practically every post you have made on here demonstrates a need to fit in and to be seen as succeeding (as well as a bit of fetishism over body weight).

I have never talked to anyone who considered Ségolène anything other than an embarrassment, either.

I never said they were the only options for the intellectual elite - but that I had never heard anyone before say they were not considered as 'good education'! (And my original point was that Segolene Royal, having attended ENA must be intelligent - which is not at all the image she projected during the election)

bellissima - I think you need to hone your analytical skills a bit if you think that someone who quite obviously enjoys controversial debate as much as I do is demonstrating a desperate need to fit in!

I'm not personally super-convinced about Sciences Po (and I have some lovely friends who received part of their education there). I think an awful lot of intellectual masturbation goes on there.

At least we all seem to agree on Segolene Royal, if little else

A controversial MN internet debate is hardly exposing oneself in real life. As others have pointed out - you could be making everything up (although I think I've analysed your MN persona, whether real or imaginary, reasonably accurately!).

No you haven't bellissima - there are plenty of posters on this thread with reasonable insights, but not you !

That's for us to decide!

But you don't know me in RL! There are plenty of posters who do, you know!

God I do so loathe the smug superiority people acquire when they move to France. There is nothing wrong with making sure your children have a healthy diet and maintain a healthy weight. SofaQueen - I live in North London and can assure you I do not know a single child (or indeed a parent) who is overweight - we are quite capable parents. But you can do that without subjecting the family to a bizarre weekly weigh in which is just going to lead to an unhealthy relationship with food IMO.

I worry for Anna's daughter, I really do

Ah - so tell us which parts of my description are untrue???