Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Why French Parents Are Superior

Well guess what, I am French (so first of all I apologize for my English which I know is not quiet good)

I get to this forum because one of my children is 2e (I think so) and I want to find information about that. But I accidentally read (not thoroughly) this post concerning my country ... I just want to add a few words from France on that.

First, I find it completely ridiculous to compare US parenting and French parenting : I guess there are as much good parents in the US as in France and as much bad parents in the US as in France. Well, before discussing this point, the question behind that is what is good parenting ? Anyway, I am French and I do not have the feeling that I am a superior parent (superior is just a stupid qualifier)


Of course, the social safety is a French advantage over the US and I am proud to pay taxes to help this system to survive ... But what is the relation with being a good parent ? You can be poor, raise your children with values and love them ... Well, it is just my point of view of course ...

Besides, let's kill all these stereotypes about France. The state takes care about more things than in the US, but this doesn't mean that it takes care about everything.

And finally guess what : the reason why I am on this forum is that I discover a few days ago that what my child "suffers" from is already known apparently for a long time in the States. He is 2e (gifted + dyslexia + ADHD) and French psychologists are just mostly incompetent in front of my child (most of them are just still wondering about the true existence of giftedness or ADHD ). Those people just made me lose a lot of time and money ... Seeing that 2e is even defined in wikipedia just let me stunned. So as far as understanding the children is concerned, I guess the States are superior to France

Money isn't the only reason people don't have houses full of babies you know!

In fact, if I recall correctly France and Germany were recently begging people to have more babies, offering them cash sums, because the birth rates are so low.

IIRC, money is a huge reason why people don't have houses full of babies. SES is negatively correlated with birthrate.

Sigh, I've refrained from wading into this one, but suffice it to say it is too easy to say "System X is much more effective than system Y for better/stronger/smarter/faster kids."

Perhaps things have changed, but I lived in France for a year between HS and college with a French family - and since I'd attended a GT public high school, found my HS year in France to be a real social eye opener. Maybe because I was an American, I hung out with some smart kids but also some of the "cool" kids who were probably right in line with typical American public HS kids of the time (got in some trouble, partying, etc). Imagine MY surprise to find out they were not all pondering international relations, focused on the selection process for University, or even just doing their schoolwork on time. They were a varied group of teens! Many fought with their parents regularly and were plenty disobedient. I'm happy to discuss my experiences of the French vs US education system, but this has little to do with how toddlers behave in restaurants or how well her own kid listens to her. There's no French parenting style that magically solves problems.

This is probably another thread as this issue is very complex and not well understood. I also find it very interesting.

well, I am not aware on how the kids are in the states right now ... I assume they are not all like Bart Simpson !! At least, I hope so.
What I know is that in France, you can easily see children disobeing their parents (I am pretty concerned with that), running through restaurants, crying in supermarked places, and so on ...

Besides, when kikiandkyle said : I do not remember something like that. Cash sums is given for newborn kids since a long time and it is just to help them at the beginning of the child life, not to enhance the birth rate... France is quite different from germany speaking of birth rate. France is described (at least in France) as a european enigma because of its high birth rate (>2) without any special reason compared to other similar countries ... And it is defenitly not because people are self confident in the future of their toddlers. Anyway, I am not specialized in demography.

I totally agree with sunday_driver :. If there is one, please send me the formula back from the US. I will defenitly try to apply it on my 7-year-old 2e child who starts all his days by challenging me ... and also on many of the kids that I professionnaly meet (I am a lecturer).