Book #64: Bringing Up Bebe by Pamela Druckerman

This book isn't necessarily a baby advice/parenting book, although it does end up being just about that. It's more of an anthropological comparison of two different cultures and how they view children, parents, and families--which makes it WAY more interesting. Druckerman is an American expat living in Paris, and after she starts having kids, she realizes the extreme difference between how well-behaved French and American kids are. So she sets out to investigate why that would be, and what French parents are doing that's better (or at least different) from Americans. The differences between the two groups are pretty amazing:

-French babies sleep through the night way earlier (the norm = 3 months)
-French kids eat all the same normal foods that adults eat--no kids menus with only grilled cheese and hamburgers for them
-French kids are more obedient to their parents, don't throw temper tantrums, and are generally more accepting of the rules their parents set for them

I don't know about you, but these are all qualities I want my children to have (especially the sleeping through the night thing at this point in my life). But the great thing is that since Druckerman is American and not French, she is just observing these amazing children and trying to figure out how they became that way, instead of giving you a ton of hard-and-fast rules about how to be a good parent. She's not some "expert" telling you that if you don't follow her rules, you'll REGRET IT FOREVER and your baby will suffer! (Think Babywise and every other parenting book out there.) She's just curious and impressed and hoping desperately that her children will adopt those same characteristics that we're all trying to develop. This tone is what really sets it apart from the many, many obnoxious parenting books that I have skimmed lately. It's also more like a memoir, since she describes her own experiences with her own children and their French friends and acquaintances, and that always makes a book more likeable when it's personal.