Mais, Bien Sur

{Violet this time last year, not acting very French}

The French do a lot of things right: food, wine, fashion. Now, according to last week's Saturday Essay in the online Wall Street Journal, parenting can be added to that list.

The part of the article that interested me most was about delayed gratification. Basically you want your kid to be able to embody the adage "short term pain, long term gain." If they can do that, they can apply the same self-control in a host of other situations. Heck, I wish I could embody that adage! The article provides an example of French parents who buy their children bonbons but make them wait until a scheduled snack time to eat them.

Wait, does this mean the parents have to wait to have their treat too?

The article suggests little things parents can do that help them raise a child who has the ability to wait. A child who can wait knows they are not the centre of the universe (*she covers Violet's ears at the sound of the words*), and knows a thing or two about boundaries. Those are attributes I can get behind. 

I am going to give this approach to parenting (parenting strategy?) a try. As evidenced in the photo above (and this post) delaying gratification is not Violet's strong suit. She can't really be blamed for this. We rarely ask her to do it; we rarely ask ourselves to either. 

Violet is a woman of action, this lesson will not be an easy one, but I think in the end this will be good for us.

The test will be if I can handle the short term pain (massive temper tantrums, some of which will undoubtedly take place in public) for the long term gain (a child other people can stand to be around).

I'll keep you posed! 

xo