“There’s something about the way of the French parent that makes it less of a grind and more of a pleasure.”

Druckerman sees French parenting through a biased lens, always viewing her American style of parenting as inferior and the French style of parenting as a superior, effective alternative. Druckerman fails to note the struggles that French parents face, particularly those who are of lower income levels.

“He wanted to be a dad, but he also wanted a croissant.”

Druckerman encompasses one of the overarching ideas of parenthood in France, which is that parents should maintain some semblance of their independent life even after having children. She draws on the example of two parents who disagreed over whether the husband should have left the hospital during the delivery to feed his appetite.

“To believe in The Pause, or in letting an older baby cry it out, you also have to believe that a baby is a person who’s capable of learning things (in this case, how to sleep) and coping with some frustration.”

The pause is a technique that suggests that parents should wait a few moments before tending to a crying baby in the night. This allows the baby to learn to connect their sleep cycles and prevents the parent from accidentally waking them. Beneath this strategy is the idea of seeing babies as being capable of some amount of self-management.