Fascinating article, definitely food for thought: “Why French Parents are Superior”. The American author, living in France, is analyzing her own parentings styles, comparing her experiences of child rearing with that of French mothers surrounding her and pinpointing to the downsides of American approach. Here is a summary of her new book:

Pamela Druckerman’s new book “Bringing Up Bebe,” catalogs her observations about why French children seem so much better behaved than their American counterparts. Pamela Druckerman’s new book “Bringing Up Bebe,” catalogs her observations about why French children seem so much better behaved than their American counterparts.

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Thanks to SleepbyConnection for sharing this wonderful personal insight in our Sleep Training discussion (see “Crying it out” may damage baby’s brain and Cute parenting technique or child abuse?)
As a retired sleep trainer and now a sleep deprived mother, my knowledge of the brain, years of sleep training, years of working with all kinds of children, and now a new mother, I know deep in my heart that developing the limbic brain is very important. We as adults impose our own needs onto our children without much awareness of the long term effects.

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“Don’t talk to strangers.”

Don’t you talk to strangers all the time? Don’t we force our kids to break that rule all the time?   “Say hello to the nice lady.”  “Introduce yourself to this nice neighbor.”    “Come and meet your aunt Maggi!  Common, give aunt Maggie a kiss, don’t be rude.”

“If you are lost – go to the police station.”

Do you really know where the nearest police station is?  Is it worth running around trying to search for one while there are more safe and efficient solutions available?

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We had a rear and wonderful opportunity to spend the weekend with friends. Aaaah, the awesome pre-children days (did they ever happen?), when we could spend so much time just chatting, admiring the nature, the music… Now most of our friends are getting kids of their own and we finally get to see them more often: our kids enjoy a playdate; parents, as my teenage nephew put it – enjoy hanging out together. Though, I’ve got to admit that this time we came back with really mixed feelings. I can’t stop thinking about it.

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Aha, another terrific book on positive discipline. I thought, that if you read one good book, you’d be as good as it gets. Apparently not: I still often feel the urge for a good old fashioned yelling, stomping my feet and loosing my patience. I try to avoid all of the above. Yelling feels good… but often comes with a nasty friend: guilt. That one is eating her prey raw… My kids long since forgotten and I am still torturing myself… But why, why, why do parents get to feel so frustrated and annoyed when we love our kids more then the life itself? We are ready for every possible sacrifice for them… and just as ready to strangle them with our own hands at some point. I guess, most important question is – what do we do about it.

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Spanking – this is a highly debated issue. Some believe a good swap on the butt can’t do any damage. Some believe that the damage can be quite substantial.

The study is published in the September/October issue of Child Development is analyzing if the spanking one year olds can result in a more aggressive behavior as the children grow. The researches noticed that spanking is considered more appropriate in the low income families, then in high income, so 2,500 white, Mexican American and black children from low-income families were analyzed. The low income families have been chosen also because some behaviorists claim that if spanking is considered to be a cultural norm, it doesn’t have an effect on the level of aggression in a growing child.

Apparently, these behaviorists were proved wrong.

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My baby is catnapping. It’s driving me nuts: I spend 40 minutes getting him to fall asleep, and then he wakes up 20 minutes later! He wakes up with a broad smile, his arms and legs wiggle vigorously, so I reluctantly take him out of the bed… just to have a very cranky baby hanging on my shoulder until the rest of the nap. How come?

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I do. I really hate to say the word “NO!” Yet I don’t believe in anarchy – saying “yes” all the time is just as troublesome. Or even dangerous! How do you say yes to a kid, who is about to run over a busy intersection? How do you say “yes” to a toddler who is about to sample some household chemicals into his mouth? How could I say “yes” to my own two year old who got very upset that I did not allow him to cut my tablecloth with scissors?

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As much we dislike it, we absolutely SHOULD talk to our kids about sex. Unless, of course, you prefer some Mr. Know-All enlighten your innocent little one on a school bus. Here you can find some suggestions and resources that I could find on this topic.

My friend just shared a fantastic story about her own kid:

My friend’s 7 year old, Jacob, comes home from school, rushes over to mom and screams excitedly: “Mom, where did I come from?”

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