As part of my 43 Before 43, I’m reading 43 books.

Let me start with what I liked about the book:

• I absolutely l.o.v.e cultural studies especially with similar cultures. {I am practically clapping my hands and hopping with glee – this is how excited I am.}
• The way the author describes French children as: sleeping through the night by three months, eating well-rounded multi-course meals, and their parents able to carry on adult conversations while the kids played independently reminded me of teachers who have a firm grasp on classroom management. {Hint: they don’t get the “easy” kids or work harder, they make it look easy, but they are managing those kids invisibly. – So exciting! And really, how do they do it?)
• The French words/phrases/concepts: The following are a small, yet powerful list of my favorites.
• The Pause: Making kids wait builds their waiting muscles thus avoiding immediate meltdowns.
• Betise: small act of naughtiness which is considered normal child behavior and parents don’t need to freak out about (Hello, me!)
• Cadre: A frame/framework – setting limits and having plenty of freedom within the frame. {sigh….I miss teaching}
•  Non – no, absolutely not.

A couple of things that weren’t my favorite:

• I wish the French pronunciation (as well as the English translation) would have been in the text. I loved knowing what the words meant without having to turn to the (well placed at the beginning) glossary, but I never looked at the pronunciation guide after my first read.
• I know some people will HATE this book because she writes in a way that implies the French are doing it right thus making everyone else wrong. Although for some reason, my usually defensive self, did not even take it that way. I just read it with a lot of curiosity agreeing with parts and observing other differences.
• The idea of kids going on week-long class trips sans parents as young as 3 or 4 years old gives me hives

The all important question – would I want to be friends with the author?

Yes! We could practice saying no convincingly to our little ones while wringing our hands over sending kids on vacations without us.

Should you read Bringing Up Bebe?

Yes. If you are interested in the lives of little people and if you like to travel or ever want to spend time in France.

You may also want to spend some time reading other reviews of this book. Holy moly, some people HATED it.

Have you read Bringing Up Bebe? What did you think?