The method
This approach isn't a claim that French parents are better. They aren't - and having seen what American families do well, I can also talk at length about what France gets wrong. It's a claim that French households are organized differently, and that this organization is the transferable part.
The French Family Framework is a five-part framework for redesigning how a household runs. It works on the family system rather than on the child - which is why it requires no diagnosis to begin and no clinical training to apply.
The five frames
One
limits and household rules
A handful of limits, set once, that don't move because you're tired or because someone cried. French parents say "This is the defined rule. Period" and then stop explaining. Inside that frame, children get far more freedom than most American kids ever see.
Two
meals
Children eat what adults eat, at the same table, at the same hour. Not because French children are less fussy - they're exactly as fussy. Because a second option was never on offer. One meal, one sitting, and dinner becomes a conversation instead of a service.
Read →Three
waiting, and the evening rhythm
French children are taught to wait. Not as punishment, as a skill. A child who can sit through a meal, hear not now, and be bored without being rescued is easier to live with - and, later, easier to be.
Read →Four
independence
Dressing, pouring, walking ahead, failing at something small. French parents step in later and less. Not to save themselves time, but because a child who does things comes to believe they can do things.
Five
the parents' own life
Your evening, your couple, your friendships, etc. In France it's treated as a design constraint from the beginning, not as what's left over once everyone else has been served. While it's a fragile balance, this setup exists.
✓Decide without arguing.
◎Get your life back without guilt.
♥Love more calmly.
Only partially. A frame that one adult holds and the other doesn't isn't a frame. That's why the opening session usually includes both of you, and why a large part of the work is agreeing on a small number of rules you will both actually enforce.
The method is built for households with children roughly eighteen months to twelve years. Below that, almost all of the useful work is on the adults' rhythm rather than on the child.
No. It's design work on the household. Limits are one output of Le Cadre, and it's the part I'm most conservative about - if what you're describing sits outside the ordinary range, I'll refer you rather than coach you.
Most families notice the evening change within two to three weeks. The full sequence runs six to eight.
No. See what I do and what I don't, or the comparison of coach, therapist and paediatrician.