Journalist Svetlana Moush, a few years livingin France, she shares her impressions of French family pedagogy: “I have two vivid memories from the beginning of my life in France, and they are connected with French children. ... Slowly delirious along the banks of the Baise river. Mood, as the French say, comme si, comme ça (neither this nor that). Slightly below the path behind the bushes are children, cry and din. Suddenly a black curly head rises above the bushes: “Bonjour, madam!” - with a dazzling smile of a man, pleased with his small, but so vigorous life. Other children’s heads were also promoted, and the children happily stuck into one: “Bonjour! Bonjour, madam! ”And yet they did not see me, but only heard, but were not lazy, rose a little to greet. Of course, you can say as much as you like that they are not from the heart, but because it is so accepted, and there is no warmth in these wishes. This is a very paradoxical argument of many of my compatriots who profess the principle: “Die, but do not give a smile without love!” But ... It became just brighter and warmer on the soul. Like a ray of sun peeking through the clouds. It would seem, why? Just because they greeted you.A photo: Getty Images The second impression is of a different kind. Our friends have a four year old kid. Several times I see him running in the fall with a huge green snot through his lip. Finally, I decide to tell his mother: “You know, I have a good idea of ​​what is sinusitis, such snot is his sign. You should go to the doctor. " “Oh no, that you! It will be over! ”- mom flips away lightly. Well, yes, by the summer, it seems, has passed ... Two situations perfectly demonstrate the foundations of French education. This is a combination of two contradictory, from the point of view of Russian mothers, principles, namely, the severity of upbringing a social and rather careless attitude to the very fact of birth and having a child. Attitude to a child here is not like a precious vessel over which mother, father, grandmother and grandfather are shaking, but as the same family member for whom life does not change, although it is enriched with new colors and emotions.

Survived - well, did not survive - ce la vie

Having children for a French woman is not at alla reason to change your lifestyle. At the same time, all my friends working French women have an average of three children. Having arrived in France with my head hammered with some clichés about the “demographic decline of Europe,” I expected to see one child in French families. No matter how it is! Three children - and this is not the limit. At the same time, it is not customary to dump a child on nannies. "How so?" - you ask. And the child is simply always and everywhere they take with them. He, two months old, lies in a stroller near a table in a restaurant where parents are having a romantic dinner late at night by candlelight. He, older, always accompanies his parents at lunches and dinners in a restaurant - and where else to consolidate the education of good manners at the table? All French restaurants for children have a special children's menu, which is usually half the price of an adult at a price tag. Usually it contains some simple dishes that children love: spaghetti, burgers, minced meat steaks (they are also cutlets). He is in a sling backpack, three months old, traveling with his mother along the mountain paths of Corsica or the coast of Costa Rica (yes, I saw it myself). If guests come, then the children are not at all a reason to end the evening early or put them to bed before the end of the suare. They are seated at the table together with the whole honest company, even if the hands of the clock by the time the guests arrived, stopped at 10 o'clock in the evening. The sister of a French friend, a top manager of a Paris bank, adopted three children, brothers and sisters in Russia. And, returning with them from Siberia, I decided to see St. Petersburg (why not do two things at once, if you are already in Russia?). So I drove on the way to Paris to the Russian northern capital with three newly adopted children of 7, 4 and 2 years old! Without any knowledge of the Russian language. Courageous woman! Incidentally, the impressions of the children, including, were unforgettable. The French child, in fact, lives and survives according to the general laws of the natural world. No greenhouse conditions are created for him. Even before birth. No preservation of pregnancy, when mothers are under observation in the hospital for months, does not exist in France. Survived in the womb - good. He did not survive - ce la vie. Children are not wrapped up. Doctors advise keeping the child, starting from birth, at a temperature of + 18 °, as this is the optimal temperature for health. But the most unusual thing is that the French, with their one of the best social guarantees in Europe, have paid maternity leave only 4 months! If you are giving birth to your third child, you can already count on 26 weeks, that is, a little over six months. In the difficult Soviet times, I remember, our parents also sent us to a nursery for two months.A photo: Getty ImagesIf you think that this is the subject of outrage of French women and their struggle for their rights, you are deeply mistaken. This is OK: a French woman does not want to sacrifice her work and a full social life. Four months of the decree can be disposed of on their own. Usually, the Frenchwoman takes two months before the child is born and two after the child. From three months, babies are waited for the crash - the French nursery. French women believe that this is a great tool for socializing children. In the crash, not all have enough space, so the French women get out themselves, as they can. The state does not interfere with this. For example, parental crashes are created when parents register an association, where professionals are also hired. Such an association may receive additional social assistance from the state. You can simply share the care to look after the child with another mommy, this is called garde partagée: moms make up a schedule when one works, the other sits with the children. And I personally knew a young mother who three times she carried a two-month-old daughter a week for 150 km from Toulouse to Tarbes (300 km there and back!), since she taught economics in Tarbes and lived in Toulouse. In Tarbes lived her parents, whom she left her daughter for the hours of her teaching.

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