If you are someone who happens to be both A) a parent, and B) American, chances are pretty good that, at some point, at least one person in your life has told you that you need to start parenting like someone from a different country.
Exactly which country you should try to emulate in your parenting style, however, is up for debate. Some popular options are Denmark (where both parents and children are purported to be happier than their American counterparts), Germany (the parents there "encourage kids to play with fire," to supposedly great results), and, of course, the old favorite France (French children are famously well-behaved).
One country that tends to be left out of this aspirational parenting narrative? England.
This, as it turns out, is not exactly fair. They may not be as publicized, but the Brits do have more than a few useful parenting tips up their collective sleeve. And, unsurprisingly, most of their techniques are quite different than those you might come across in an American parenting handbook. Check out what they are here:
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Brits get more maternity leave.
According to The Telegraph, it is possible to get up to 52 weeks of maternity leave in the UK. This is certainly a substantial lot more than the United States, where some working mothers aren't guaranteed a single day of maternity leave. (And, for what it's worth, it's also a lot more than the rest of the EU, where new mothers can expect to get about 14 weeks of leave.)
Cursing is more common.
In many American households, using foul language of any sort as a child is a good way to get in big trouble. (Or, at the very least, have your mouth cleaned out with soap.)
In the UK, it's less of a big deal — according to BBC America, swearing isn't as much of a taboo as it is in the states, so if a kid lets a bad word slip, it's not exactly the end of the world.
It’s not uncommon to find kids in pubs.
In the UK, it's not out of the ordinary to walk into a bar and see a few kids running around. Many pubs in Britain have a more lax, open feel than American ones (and maybe even a garden in the back), so it's easier for parents to head to an occasional happy hour. Instead of paying for a babysitter, all they have to do is bring their kids with them to the neighborhood bar.
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