Pamela Druckerman

“We're understandably worried that staring at screens all day, and blogging about our breakfasts, is turning America into a nation of narcissists. But the opposite might be true.”

“French children seem to be able to play by themselves in a way.”

“The whole point of a commencement speech is to say something encouraging.”

“When we're in the U.S., my kids instantly start snacking all the time. I don't know how it happens. There is just more food available all the time. There aren't all these little different varieties of snack foods in France.”

“Where Americans might coo over a child's most inane remark to boost his confidence, middle-class French parents teach their kids to be concise and amusing, to keep everyone listening.”

“There's an American idea that you want to look as young as you can for as long as you can. If you can be mistaken for a teenager from behind into your 50s, then you've won; you've succeeded.”

“America's parenting customs can shock foreigners.”

“In the Nineties, there was all this new research into brain development, with evidence saying poor kids fall behind in school because no one is talking to them at home, no one is reading to them. And middle-class parents seized on this research.”

“Babies aren't savages. Toddlers understand language long before they can talk.”

“My husband is so upset by President Trump's scapegoating of immigrants and Muslims, he refuses to even visit the United States.”

“You know you're in your 40s when you've spent 48 hours trying to think of a word, and that word was 'hemorrhoids.'”

“I always knew the French had a penchant for criticism and abstract thought. Usually, that just meant they complained a lot.”

“The overarching conventional wisdom - what everyone from government experts to my French girlfriends take as articles of faith - is that restrictive diets generally don't make you healthier or slimmer. Instead, it's best to eat a variety of high-quality foods in moderation and pay attention to whether you're hungry.”

“Having lived in America and France, I've been on both sides of the picky-eating divide.”

“Your child probably won't get into the Ivy League or win a sports scholarship. At age 24, he might be back in his childhood bedroom, in debt, after a mediocre college career. Raise him so that, if that happens, it will still have been worth it.”

“I'm a third-generation Miamian. I'm fond of it. I'm an expatriate, so it's the only American city I can still legitimately claim.”

“Around my neighborhood, I'm known as the American who talks to her computer while she types.”

“One of the many problems with parenting is that kids keep changing. Just when you're used to one stage, they zoom into another.”

“If you want to know how old you look, just walk into a French cafe. It's like a public referendum on your face.”

“I gradually understood why European mothers aren't in perpetual panic about their work-life balance and don't write books about how executive moms should just try harder: Their governments are helping them - and doing it competently.”