As an American mother of two, living in France, (thanks to a semester abroad which has ended up lasting fifteen years), I'm a source of great envy for my friends back in the U.S. They've bought into the notion that France is the perfect place to raise children, because they believe the following: You can drink wine when you're pregnant. Childcare is free. Kids are fully integrated into adults' social lives.
In other words, you can still do everything you used to do before kids, and you can spend balmy summer evenings at the local fete, financially unburdened, while you listen to the sound of children dancing in the village squares.
If everything they thought about France were true, parenting guidebooks would be one sentence long: "Marry the first Frenchman you meet." Unfortunately, it's a little more complicated. Here's the truth behind those three big legends:
1. Wine and Cheese While Pregnant
For understandable reasons, one of the most popular myths about France is that French women eat runny cheese and drink wine during pregnancy.
If everything my friends thought about France were true, parenting guidebooks would be one sentence long: "Marry the first Frenchman you meet."
The truth is not all that far off. There are government campaigns here to get pregnant women to stop drinking alcohol and smoking, but they seem to be about as successful as the campaign to get Parisians to curb their dogs.
For plenty of French women, the notion of going without wine, cheese, cigarettes or caffeine for nine months is as crazy as saying a French man must go through forty years of marriage without taking a mistress.
One hot summer day when I was about eight months pregnant, I was having lunch with a friend in a cafe and dying for an ice cold Coke. But I saw another pregnant woman at a nearby table and worried that she might judge me for drinking caffeine. So I resisted — and she promptly pushed away her plate and lit up a cigarette.
©2008 Rachelle Atkins and Nerve Media
About the Author
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Rachelle Atkins is a freelance writer living in the south of France with her husband, 2 daughters and 2 Jack Russells. Her work has appeared in Living France and France Magazine, and her blog can be found here. |
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