kids find the food more appetizing when it’s made with fresh ingredients and it looks good.

In defining limits for kids, French parents often invoke the language of rights. Rather than saying “Don’t hit Jules,” they typically say, “You don’t have the right to hit Jules.”

and the tools to improve.

“When I’m there I give them 100 percent, but when I’m off, I’m off,”

it’s only until the baby is four months old. After that, bad sleep habits are formed.

throughout this the mother should stay in close communication with the child, by embracing him or looking him in the eye. But she must also make him understand that “he can’t have everything right away. It’s essential not to leave him thinking that he is all-powerful, and that he can do everything and have everything.”

they spend a lot of time telling their kids what’s permissible and what’s not.

making kids face up to limitations and deal with frustration turns them into happier, more resilient people. And one of the main ways to gently induce frustration, on a daily basis, is to make children wait a bit. As with The Pause as a sleep strategy, French parents have homed in on this one thing. They treat waiting not just as one important

my children have an emotional life that’s separate from mine, and that I can’t constantly protect them from rejection and disappointment.