Bringing Up Bébé

One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting

By: Pamela Druckerman

Narrated by: Abby Craden

Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

The secret behind France's astonishingly well-behaved children is here.

When American journalist Pamela Druckerman has a baby in Paris, she doesn't aspire to become a "French parent". French parenting isn't a known thing, like French fashion or French cheese. Even French parents themselves insist they aren't doing anything special.

Yet the French children Druckerman knows sleep through the night at two or three months old while those of her American friends take a year or more. French kids eat well-rounded meals that are more likely to include braised leeks than chicken nuggets. And while her American friends spend their visits resolving spats between their kids, her French friends sip coffee while the kids play.

Motherhood itself is a whole different experience in France. There's no role model, as there is in America, for the harried new mom with no life of her own. French mothers assume that even good parents aren't at the constant service of their children and that there's no need to feel guilty about this. They have an easy, calm authority with their kids that Druckerman can only envy.

Of course, French parenting wouldn't be worth talking about if it produced robotic, joyless children. In fact, French kids are just as boisterous, curious, and creative as Americans. They're just far better behaved and more in command of themselves. While some American toddlers are getting Mandarin tutors and preliteracy training, French kids are - by design - toddling around and discovering the world at their own pace.

With a notebook stashed in her diaper bag, Druckerman, a former reporter for The Wall Street Journal, sets out to learn the secrets to raising a society of good little sleepers, gourmet eaters, and reasonably relaxed parents. She discovers that French parents are extremely strict about some things and strikingly permissive about others. And she realizes that to be a different kind of parent, you don't just need a different parenting philosophy. You need a very different view of what a child actually is.

While finding her own firm non, Druckerman discovers that children - including her own - are capable of feats she'd never imagined.

©2012 Pamela Druckerman (P)2012 Random House

I still want to move to France...

I really enjoyed this book and the narrator. The French accents can be silly at times, but it's nice to hear a narrator use different tones and voices. It reminds me of being young, when my mother would read to me.

Thank goodness someone wrote this!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, anyone having a baby needs to read this if you are from the US.

Any additional comments?

We are conditioned to think that having a baby means what we see around us. I work in psychology and so many people write about the subject of how to raise a kid, and it has not made this new generation of children any better. Instead, it seems as if we as parents have become more scared of our children and loosing the power of what it means to raise a child.

lovely

really enjoyed this audio book. it was fun, quick and enlightening. I enjoyed hearing about the narrators experiences with her daughter and the other characters in the living compound showing the contrasts between American and French parenting.

Excellent

Where does Bringing Up Bebe rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I can't stop talking to people about this book. I wish I would have read it when my boys were babies, but it is never to late to calm down as a parent. I am already seeing an improvement in my young kids and the way they are eating...so simple!

Useful information for child rearing

I love many of the suggestions in this book and the observations of American versus French parents. I found it useful as a parent. The narrator did a nice job differentiating between the author and her French contributors using accents.

Another Style of Parenting

It was interesting reading that as a parent compare your parenting style with other parents.

A fun listen

Maybe it's because I'm perceived as strict, but now I feel that maybe it's because I was supposed to be a French parent. I've even written a book about getting super picky kids to eat real food, and so much of it was mirrored in this book. I suggest expectant mothers read this before any of the popular fear inducing tomes, in order to gain some perspective. I still advocate breast feeding though.

Fabulous book

So glad i listened to this before my son got older. Fed going to be implementing some stuff from this book and i had my husband read it and he is enjoying it. There are some things i will leave and don’t agree with about French parenting but most of it is a good idea to create a calmer happier home.

this is the best baby book I have read.

it is really more about raising an infant toddler child, but I look forward to reading it again as we get closer to our due date. The information is absolutely invaluable.

Enjoyed it. Learned a lot.

It was fun and informative. A good listen full of great parenting tips from a different perspective that resonated well with me as a NY mom, lover of French things, and a toddler mom. Highly recommend it!