Family life in France

What is the difference between family life in France and family life elsewhere, I sometimes get asked. Well in truth, much less than you would think.

Eating habits and mealtimes are more formal in France, and it is much more common for families to eat together. But, it is also common for a television to be on in the corner, so the notion of quality time and family bonding is not quite as convincing as you might think.

Food is generally seen as more important, and alcohol as less important, than it in the UK. To explain a bit – there is more focus on the quality of food and drink in France, and less on the quantity.

Two proper sit-down meals a day is a bare minimum – grabbing a quick sandwich is an alien concept, certainly outside the big cities. But that doesn’t leave the French with a terrible obesity problem – quite the opposite. Perhaps two good, balanced, meals and a glass of Bordeaux is less fattening than two burgers, a bag of crisps, a mars bar and three pints of lager. I can’t be sure because I’m not an expert in foody things but it seems possible.

Extended families, at least in rural France, are extremely common. Often, families have occupied the same property for generations and those that have left home have only managed to stagger a few hundred metres down the road. Grandmas, aunties and godparents are all close to hand.

This would cause a problem of overcrowding quite soon, except for people either leaving to get married and living in the next farmhouse down the road; or escaping to the big cities and a life of money and stress, commuting and work. ‘Metro, boulot, dodo’ as it is called in France (translated: ‘train, work, sleep’).

There is more discipline in the home than in the UK, which carries forward to generally well-behaved children at school and very little bullying or aggression. Not discipline with a big stick, just a general understanding that children will do as they are told – an understanding that the children also seem perfectly happy with. There’s a funny idea.

I get the impression that children in France help out around the house a lot more in France – cleaning, cooking and so on, but unfortunately I can’t be certain of my facts. Because if I ask my own children ‘Do all your friends do a lot more around the house than you do?’ they seem unable to answer properly, I can’t imagine why.

The French might dunk a croissant in their hot chocolate while other countries are eating coco-pops and drinking tea, or waffles and coffee, but really, and perhaps surprisingly, apart from these little things, there is no great difference between family life in France and family life in other countries.

What is family life like in Britain?
Woodlands Junior School is in the south-east corner of England
Changing Values and Norms of the British Family The family in Britain is changing. The once typical British family headed by two parents has undergone substantial changes during the twentieth century. In particular there has been a rise in the number of single-person households, which increased from 18 to 29 per cent of all households between 1971 and 2002. By the year 2020, it is estimated that there will be more single people than married people. Fifty years ago this would have been socially unacceptable in Britain. In the past, people got married and stayed married. Divorce was very difficult, expensive and took a long time. Today, people's views on marriage are changing. Many couples, mostly in their twenties or thirties, live together (cohabit) without getting married. Only about 60% of these couples will eventually get married. In the past, people married before they had children, but now about 40% of children in Britain are born to unmarried (cohabiting) parents. In 2000, around a quarter of unmarried people between the ages of 16 and 59 were cohabiting in Great Britain. Cohabiting couples are also starting families without first being married. Before 1960 this was very unusual, but in 2001 around 23 per cent of births in the UK were to cohabiting couples. People are generally getting married at a later age now and many women do not want to have children immediately. They prefer to concentrate on their jobs and put off having a baby until late thirties. The number of single-parent families is increasing. This is mainly due to more marriages ending in divorce, but some women are also choosing to have children as lone parents without being married. Family Size On average 2.4 people live as a family in one home Britain. This is smaller than most other European countries.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16