Why French Parents are Superior

[FBM]

I was with you, Mai, right up to the bell peppers part.

[Bella Fortuna]

Hungry now!!

(but agree about bell peppers )

[Clinton Huxley]

Didn't do 'em any good at Waterloo, begad!

[maiforpeace]

Didn't do 'em any good at Waterloo, begad!

They used bell peppers as an offensive?

[Bella Fortuna]

Didn't do 'em any good at Waterloo, begad!

They used bell peppers as an offensive?

They are offensive, it's true...

[Svartalf]

OP made me lol...

Well behaved children? without the anxieties?

I have friends whose kids (3 and 5) are a perpetual nightmare, never still, don't respect even the basic rules (like no climbing on the living room table when there's bottles, glasses and plates on it), and can't seem to be able to play quietly in their room for more than 3 minutes, or two stay in bed without screaming for something for longer than that for that matter... I hope they learn to keep quiet in restaurants fast... having a half normal meal with them is not yet possible... Of course, the idiot parents started taking them out Far too early, before they had acquired any sense of manners and that behavior that will be tolerated in one place won't in others... so I'm not sure when they'll at last be tolerable by the time they are twelve... I'd have put it at 7 or 8 if restaurant had been treated as some kind of rite of passage in society.

The older kids to be found in the neighborhood (not to mention babies and toddlers I regularly want to throttle in transports) are anything BUT well behaved either...

[Svartalf]

Korean kids don't run Korean households, either.

but Chinese little boys do.

[Warren Dew]

If they were only eating the diet you speak of, eventually that sort of diet is going to give you heart disease...so how come their rate of heart disease isn't off the charts then?

To the contrary, it's the high carb diets that give you heart disease, not the high fat diets. Women on high carb diets are twice as likely to get heart disease:

http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/conten ... /170/7/640

The vitamin C in the fresh fruits and vegetables may also help protect against heart disease while including a minimal carbohydrate load.

[Warren Dew]

I sat next to the four year old, and as many times he grabbed for the wine glass filled with water, it dangled precariously over a set of fine china glass plates - I watched with great trepidation for an accident, and his mother and grandparents just watched carefully and gave him verbal instructions about balancing a wine glass. There was great focus on the management of the food in regards to a fork and a knife, how to hold the glass properly etc. They were given pieces of legs, thigh and chicken with bones in them and again were observed carefully as they ate, and I have to say I marveled at how well they managed the bones with little correction. Nobody was hanging over their shoulders cutting their meat for them, serving them portions whether they wanted it or not. When they did ask for more, they were asked to really verbalize exactly what they wanted...not just more, but exactly a piece this size...mom portioned it off in the serving bowl, and then they were expected to serve themselves that portion. The communication was between everyone at the table, in a very matter of fact way about how delicious things were, how much time Grandma spent cutting the cucumbers so they were nice and thin, the perfect seasoning of the chicken, and how the littlest one loved bell peppers. No histrionics, no special meals for the kids or kids eating separately from the adults. It was such a nice experience.

Their kids still need instructions on how to use a stem glass at age 4? I mean, seriously - grab the glass by the handle. That's why it's there. My 2 year old knows that, and my 3 year old can do it without spilling, no supervision required. And food with bones - kids love that stuff. It's the adults in America that don't like bones.

One of the reasons the French don't have the same obesity issues is simply because they eat much smaller portions. A size medium plateful of tomatoes and mozzarella for the entire group, then Coq au Vin with roasted potatoes - the potatoes for the nine of us came in a bowl a little bigger than a soup bowl, and the one chicken cut up fed the entire group with a thigh piece to spare. Followed by a green salad course, again small, a few slivers of cheese, some fresh fruit all accompanied with lots of bread and a nice Medoc. That was lunch.

You can get a lot of calories in a small portion of cheese, which is pure fat - contrast that with the potatoes, which are mostly water. I bet most of the calories in that meal came from the mozzarella. The French are experts at getting large amounts of calories into portions that look small.

And I notice the bread is missing, again, as it was missing from all the photos.

[FBM]

Korean kids don't run Korean households, either.

but Chinese little boys do.

Little Chinese boys run Korean households? Shit, I gotta pay more attention...

[FBM]

Didn't do 'em any good at Waterloo, begad!

They used bell peppers as an offensive?

They are offensive, it's true...

Fuckin'-a...

office_space_lawrence.jpg (15.19 KiB) Viewed 906 times

[Svartalf]

Didn't do 'em any good at Waterloo, begad!

It was Grouchy's duty to attack the english camp while your soldiers were at meal, but the cad betrayed us.

[hadespussercats]

dup

[hadespussercats]

Mai, the dining etiquette you describe for children is how my sister and I were raised.

In fact, my parents had dinner parties every Sunday night so we'd have experience setting a proper table, eating politely, and speaking withe poise to adults. We had a little wine with dinner, meat on the bone, all that you describe. I never saw a sippy cup until I started babysitting.

And my parents were vocal in their pride that we never ordered from the children's menu in restaurants.

It was lovely. Dinner parties are still my favorite. But I've got to tell you-- they didn't save anyone in my family from obesity.

[maiforpeace]

Mai, the dining etiquette you describe for children is how my sister and I were raised.

In fact, my parents had dinner parties every Sunday night so we'd have experience setting a proper table, eating politely, and speaking withe poise to adults. We had a little wine with dinner, meat on the bone, all that you describe. I never saw a sippy cup until I started babysitting.

And my parents were vocal in their pride that we never ordered from the children's menu in restaurants.

It was lovely. Dinner parties are still my favorite. But I've got to tell you-- they didn't save anyone in my family from obesity.

I still think you are more of the exception rather than the rule for many American families today.

We went to a Vietnamese Restaurant tonight with the kids, and the same scenario repeated, in how they were treated and expected to behave.

Children are not treated at all the same way in a restaurant in the US. Restaurants in France do not have special kids menus, coloring books, crayons, fancy straws, booster chairs, nothing. As soon as the kids started acting up even a tiny bit, they were rounded up and made to hush immediately. Having worked in the restaurant business since the 70's, and as a server for 15 years, I've never seen a child given a wine glass in an American restaurant, and I have had to put up with dozens of parents who allowed their children to run roughshod under my feet while I was carrying hot food and coffee around.