By La Mom, a P.S. Featured Paris BloggerFrance’s Sunday newspaper, Le Journal du Dimanche confirmed something that I’ve been thinking for years, with this front page headline:
FRANCE IGNORES SUN DANGER
The headline and two page article about skin cancer increasing and how the French are ignorant when it comes to protecting themselves from the sun was like having a big present wrapped with a beautiful ribbon dropped into my lap!
I just know I’ll be refering to this newspaper article for…the rest of my life in France!
You see, La Mom and her expat friends have been on the receiving end of far too many smarty remarks about how ridiculous we are protecting our kids from the sun.
And then there’s the passive-agressive approach witnessed by Texas Mom. Her kids just spent a month on vacation with grand-maman in Cannes. When Texas Mom picked them up, not only were their faces dark brown, but their noses and eyelids were still sunburned! While emptying their suitcase she found the bottle of SPF 50 pediatric sunblock she packed unopened and in it’s original packaging.
French Mother-in-Law: 1, Texas Mom: 0. Can you say ‘what the heck’ in French?
Tanning is a national sport here. At la rentrée, when people come back from their long summer vacations, Paris turns into one big tanfest. Everyone - granparents, the local butcher, the newspaper kiosk salesman, French poodles, and even small children are all competing to hear, “Oh la la! What a nice tan you have!” The deeper and darker, the better.
So I’ve decided to do my part to help educate zee French! I’m going to photocopy this article and give it to all of my expat friends to whip out when we hear comments from the Frenchies like these every summer:
“Why doesn’t she just dress them in winter coats to go swimming.”
(Muttered behind my back as I was dressing the French Fries in UV protectant swim shirts)
“You never let the kids do anything. Why can’t they play in the sandbox? It’s hot outside.”
(Of course it’s hot, it’s 1PM and the sandbox has zero shade, why would I let them go out there even with sunblock on?)
“Why do you waste so much time putting sunblock on them? They don’t need it. They’re white, some color is what they need!”
“A tan is a sign of social standing. It’s shows everyone that you’ve been on vacation.”
“What do they need hats for? The sun is out, it’s not raining.”
(My point exactly)
And my favorite comment of all courtesy of my very own Big Cheese,
“Lay off the sunblock! I’m sick of being the only one who has kids coming back from vacation white!”
Looks like I have a long road ahead of moi, but education begins at home right?
La Mom is an American mom living in Paris (16th arrondissement) for over a decade. She has a French husband (Big Cheese) and two French Fries (Big Fry & Small Fry). Visit her blog at http://lamomparis.blogspot.com.
