Vitamin Daily

What we’ve learned from parenting books so far this year: French kids don’t throw food, and French kids eat everything (presumably because it’s still on their plate).

While American Pamela Druckerman has tackled the contretemps (or lack thereof) of French child rearing in her book Bringing up Bébé, Canadian mom Karen Le Billon concentrates on food-related norms in her helpful treatment of the subject, French Kids Eat Everything, out this week.

“If Pamela explains the why, I explain the how” says Le Billon from her Vancouver home, stressing that she is not a fan of French parenting per se, but has been converted to their rules around food.

Part “momoir” of their family’s year in France, part recipe book, and part self-help book for parents, she distills from her experiences a set of 10 rules, including: try everything, no snacking, have dinner together, eating is joyful….

Sounds simple until you remember your last meal was a salad eaten over the sink.

But working mother Le Billon (a UBC prof) finds a golden mean back home that includes treats (like sushi night) and adapts her kids to the Canadian regime of 15-minute school lunch breaks (versus the two hours allotted in France).

But will the kids get Easter Baskets filled with chocolate or fois gras this year? We suspect the former.
—Sarah Bancroft

French Kids Eat Everything (And Yours Can Too), from $16.60 at www.amazon.ca