With a notebook stashed in her diaper bag, American journalist Pamela Druckerman sets out to learn the secrets to raising a society of good little sleepers, gourmet eaters, and reasonably relaxed parents. She discovers that French parents are extremely strict about some things and strikingly permissive about others. And she realizes that to be a different kind of parent, parents don't just need a different parenting philosophy, they need a very different view of what a child actually is.