Pamela Druckerman Quotes
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The main thing my bookcase says about me is that I'm not French.
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I spent most of my adolescence feeling awkward but never once mentioned it.
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I've got letters from all over the world saying what you're describing as American parenting is Chilean middle-class parenting, or it is Finnish middle-class parenting, or it is Slovak middle-class parenting.
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Although I wrote a book about infidelity around the world, I ended up concluding that fidelity is quite a good idea.
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Being an immigrant mother can be hard, but being a poor immigrant mother is much harder. You don't generally get to sit in cafes polishing your French by reading 'Le Monde.'
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It's fine to discuss money in France, as long as you're complaining that you don't have enough, or boasting about getting a bargain.
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When I was 41, I had a very bad back pain, and it turned out to be Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
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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.
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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.
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The question on my husband's birthday is always, What do you get for the man who has nothing?
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America's parenting customs can shock foreigners.
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I think kids in France, and certainly in my household, don't necessarily stop interrupting when you tell them, but they gradually become more aware of other people, and that means that you can have the expectation of finishing a conversation.
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I always knew the French had a penchant for criticism and abstract thought. Usually, that just meant they complained a lot.
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There's this idea in America that you can be whatever you want. That remains an ideal in terms of how you dress too - when you go shopping, you try on all possible selves and then decide.
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I hear people in their 20s describe the 40s as a far-off decade of too-late, when they'll regret things that they haven't done. But for older people I meet, the 40s are the decade that they would most like to travel back to.
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If you want to know how old you look, just walk into a French cafe. It's like a public referendum on your face.
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The French aren't known for being hilarious. When I told Parisians I was interested in French humor, they'd say 'French what?'
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If you had asked me what I wanted when I was 12 years old, I probably would have said, 'To marry a plastic surgeon.' You can hardly blame me: I was growing up in Miami.
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Teach your kids emotional intelligence. Help them become more evolved than you are. Explain that, for instance, not everyone will like them.
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As an American married to an Englishman and living in France, I've spent much of my adult life trying to decode the rules of conversation in three countries. Paradoxically, these rules are almost always unspoken.
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I'm not an early adopter. I'll only start wearing new styles of clothing once they're practically out of date, and I won't move into a neighborhood until it's fully saturated with upscale coffee shops.
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How hard or easy it is to raise kids, especially while working, is a big part of people's well-being everywhere.
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Like practically everyone who grew up in Miami, I knew little about its history. We were more worried about mangoes falling on our cars.
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I'm speaking in very broad brushstrokes, but in France, there's generally this idea that you should look like the best version of the age that you are.