French children don't throw food!

An American married an English man and lived with him is Paris, where she had a baby. In England or America she would have found sympathy from other sleep deprived new mums. But motherhood in Paris was different.

Babies slept through the night from 2 months old they eat a varied and sophisticated diet and didn't throw their food around. The mums were not knackered and covered in sick. Thy looked sexy and had their own grown up lives.

Do the French make parenting look like a breeze?

As a mother of a 2 year old I am intrigued.

In a study done by Princeton discovered that mothers in America found parenting twice as unpleasant as mothers in France.

When a French baby cries at night the parents go in wait and observe for a few minutes. left alone it might self-sooth and go back to sleep. If you rush in your training it to wake-up properly.

French Babies wait. long stretches from one feed to the next and when they are older they wait until 4pm for treats. Toddlers will wait quietly for food in a restaurant. This waiting, according to the French is a early lesson in self-reliance and that your baby is capable of learning and cope with frustration.

There are no children's menus in restaurants, French children are trained to eat everything.

All in all French mothers are more detached they sit at the edge of the playground chatting to friends, while leaving their toddlers to get on with in.

I do exactly that when I'm out with S at a park or soft play or at a mums and tots group, I just let her get on with it rather than follow her about.