Analyse af Pamela Druckermans 'Why French People Are Superior'

On February 4th 2012 Pamela Druckerman wrote the article ‘’Why French People are Superior’’ in The Wall Street Journal. She points out some of the difficulties she and her husband have had with their 18 months old daughter while vacationing in France. She frets over American parenting and takes a closer look at the French parenting as she realizes that the French kids are sitting happily on their butts eating their dinner in the restaurant. What do the French parents do different from Pamela and her husband?

Druckerman starts out with showing America’s hang-up through her own personal experience. While vacationing with her her husband and daughter in France she realizes that they are the only family in the restaurant having problems with their child throwing food around, ‘’Bean would take a brief interest in the food, but within a few minutes she was spilling salt shakers and tearing apart sugar packets’’, (p. 1 line 28 - 31). This is where she realizes the consequences of American parenting. After this episode she begins to take a deeper look into French parenting so that her child can be one of the toddlers sitting contentedly in her own chair waiting for her food to come. This is an example of a contrast between American and French parenting. At this point she begins to understand that America has a hang-up when it comes to parenting. Apparently it is possible to sit in a restaurant with a toddler without a zoo breaking out. This is the very first example of her parenting problem, but also the time where she realized that she actually can do a better job and make her child behave well. At this point she begins to study French parenting to see what she needs to do differently.