French American Family

Families from France and America have many similarities and differences in their weddings, values, manners, raising their children, and their over all lifestyles.

According to a study in 2017, by Statista, on average an american family has 3.14 people per household. A study in 2006, by Insee Ile-de-France, IAUîdF, Apur, DREIA, and DRIHL, shows that France has a smaller family average than America at 2.3 people per household.

American parents try to teach their children honesty, love, justice, consideration, determination, and independence, and the French teach their children patience, routine, self-sufficiency, balance, and manners. However, France has a different way of coming to these results than Americans do. In France, they believe

children should be educated not disciplined when they screw up. Teaching you children what they did is wrong and why is believed to have better results to keep the children from repeating their actions. People in France are very strict in following their schedule. For example, they are allowed one snack a day at four in the afternoon, which means if they buy a treat at eleven in the morning they have to wait until four in the after noon to eat it. There is no helicopter parenting in France because evenings are for parents. Parents will do their best to raise their children to best they can be in both countries.
The government will find ways to help support families with working parents with children. In the 1970’s they used to focus on encouraging the male breadwinner model, men work and women stay home, by providing tax cuts and a single wage allowance for households with a single wage earner. Over time, the policies have changed to no longer encouraging the male breadwinner model. Now the policies are more appropriate for the diverse families with men, and or, women working.
American families had the same path as the french. They had started by supporting male breadwinner families, but then transitioned to supporting more diverse working families. They raised minimum wage, and started providing medical care for the entire family under the same household. This has helped strengthen families in America.
In France, people do not “date”.

They have situations where a male and a female are interested in each other and they hang out like a date, bu they do not refer to if as such. They French do not really have a word they use as a translation for going on a date. People in in France starting “dating” around the age of 15, where as, people america will start dating at a much younger age. However, these relationships are not usually serious relationships. Many serious relationships will begin in your high school years. In France relationships are usually kept very private, where as, in America people put their partners name on their social media profiles and will make it aware to all that they are in a relationship. This may make some thing that french people are not as flirtatious as they are in movies, however they are. Flirting is very common even if there is no change it will lead anywhere. Even though woman have become more comfortable with initiation an interaction with a man in America it is still very common that a man will be the one to approach the woman or ask her out on a date, however it is the opposite in France. Women will often make the first move and be the one to approach the man. In America, women and men will often be unclear with their feelings for each other as to not seem needy or undesirable, but in France often they are very direct about how they

feel.
After dating will come marriage. Both countries have weddings, but they have many differences. Weddings are usually old fashioned in France. In all weddings the bride will still wear a white dress. The style of their wedding dress tend to be slightly different. In France their wedding dresses are usually more comfortable and less extravagant. This is to go with the old-fashioned style weddings. Not all weddings are like this, but it will be a common theme that will be seen across France. They do all the legal necessities of a wedding during it, unlike Americans who have it done before their weddings. They are forced to be a civil ceremony in a mairie (town hall) for the couple to be legally married to further the separation between church and state. Then, if they wish they can have a second wedding with their friends and family. In both countries, if either partner is under the age of 18 they need a parent or guardian’s consent.
France and America have different cultures which was evident in each topic. Each has an interesting was of doing things and the world should learn more about each culture more in depth.