Hellobee

Gosh, there is information everywhere these days – books, blogs, Pinterest, friends, the checkout lady at the grocery story – it can be so overwhelming! Not to mention, much of it contradicts each other. Yikes! What is a mama supposed to do? My approach is to follow advice of friends and family, as well as just going with what seems logical and not too stressful.

In an effort to not overwhelm myself, I try to limit the number of things I read. However, I do like to be informed and have some ideas on what and how to be a mom, so over the past few months, I’ve picked a few things to read up on. One such thing was the book Bringing Up Bebe that a friend, also a new mama, recommended it to me. In fact, a few people brought it up, and Amazon gave it 4.5 stars (I’m a sucker when it comes to ratings & reviews).

Overall, I thought it was worth a read, although with all parenting things, some of the advice I’ll take to heart and other things I’ll probably let slide. I think that’s really how this parent thing works — investigate, and then choose what you think sounds right and will work for your family. The author shared some good tips:

La Pause – The Pause. Basically, when your newborn cries at night, don’t jump immediately and rush to your baby (starting when they are a few weeks old, that is). Instead, you should give your baby a moment to self-sooth and then observe your baby. The thought behind this is that it’ll help your baby learn to sleep through the night. Also, we (parents) often mistaken baby’s noisy sleep and by picking them up, they are not learning to connect their sleep cycles (apparently, everyone has 2 hour sleep cycles, even adults). The author asserts that most French babies are sleeping through the night at around 3 or 4 months old. As parents, you are supposed to explain to your baby why he should sleep, and the parents are teaching the baby how to sleep. The author mentions many parents worry about the baby being hungry (yes!), and this quote stood out to me: “She is hungry. But she does not need to eat. You’re hungry in the middle of the night too; it’s just that you learn not to eat because it’s good for your belly to take a rest. Well, it’s good for hers, too.”

– Cadre – French parents aren’t seen yelling “stop” or “quiet” at their kids. Instead they tell their kids to “wait.” Apparently their trick is to make them wait and learn to deal with frustration. Also parents teach them how to entertain themselves. Another thing they do is make their kids say “bonjour” when they greet someone. All of this together is known as cadre – basically a firm framework parents give their kids. They pick what to be strict and firm about, but within that framework there is freedom. It seems this is what makes French kids polite, respectful, generally well behaved.

– Awaken – The French are not so crazy about early development and future SAT scores, but rather let them be kids for a while. It seems French parents don’t push all the developmental stuff like we do in America. They are not constantly attending to the child and praising them for everything. Instead they sit back and let the kids play; let them experience being a kid. They encourage more social skills and worry less about developmental progress. For instance, at swim class, they don’t learn to swim, but to splash around and have fun. They call this “awaken” as in awaking their senses.

– Gouter – Ahh, yes, French food and eating. We seem to idolize the French and their food. There is even an entire book about this as well, French Kids Eat Everything. One of the main methods is getting kids to eat on the same schedule as the parents. They also do not snack, but let them get hungry for the next meal. The only exception is gouter, which is an afternoon snack. In addition, they have the kids eat in courses with veggies first. Other methods include encouraging kids to help in the kitchen, eating a variety of foods, trying different preparations of the same food, and at least trying a food. In France, there is no such thing as “kids’ food” or “kids’ menus” so kids order off the main menu. As you can see, they push the kid to eat more like an adult from a very early age.

My verdict: I can definitely agree on some of these ideas, and may try them out with Lil’ Macaron. I would recommend this book to a new mama as it gives some good tips, yet is more entertaining of a read than many other baby method books. Give it a whirl!

Have you read it? What did you pick up from it that you liked or disliked?