After reading a book highlighting French education, this dad of 2 children decided to use a new parenting method, the result left him speechless.
Parenthood is one of the hardest jobs you can do. Fortunately, there are different aids out there for people who need it, and let’s be honest, everyone does.
In his book Bringing Up Baby, Pamela Druckerman explores the paths of “French parenthood” and shows us why French children are the wisest in the world. And it’s no surprise that people are reading it and embracing the techniques in it.
New rules
Patrick Coleman is a family man who decided to use the “French parenting method” and he was so impressed that he chose to share it with the whole world.
After praising Pamela Druckerman’s book Bringing Up Bébé, which Patrick says is the reason the French have the wisest, most polite children. This father then chose to import into his life and that of his children a whole new method of education.
He wanted things to change at home, so that his 4 and 6 year olds could stop whining all the time, not sleeping and misbehaving. So he decided to “switch to full French” for a while, just to see if that would work. And you know what ? It worked!
By researching “French parenthood”, he discovered the 2 main tactics he would use to tame his children: “Don’t let them be the center of attention and talk to them like they’re adults. “ He explains that he usually didn’t do these 2 things before because there is no solid research that supports these ideas. Despite this, he decided to give it a try.
The first step in his plan was to stop meeting their needs immediately and all the time. He told them to wait and be patient. “I was dismissive … They started to plead louder and more boring. I doubled. They doubled. It sucked, but then, around day four, things finally changed. “ said Patrick.
His sons finally understood that their father was not going to give in to their demands and that he was not going to stop what he was doing to take care of them. It could be confusing, but they finally accepted it.
A new version of himself
“Naturally, I quickly started to abuse my newfound power. One of the things I told them not to interrupt, like when I was talking to my wife about what to watch on Netflix for example ”, did he declare. However, sometimes he felt guilty, especially when his sons asked him something simple like: “can you play with me?” while he made them wait until he was ready.
Patrick admits he didn’t like this version of himself very much, but it was still nice to feel like he was the boss and not his kids. He says he’s never talked to his boys like they’re adults before, but it clearly worked. He doubted he could be a “French daddy” all the time, but he liked the idea of talking to children like adults, and he vowed to stick to it.
Pauline Gaudry
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