French best-selling psychologist causes uproar over her claims that children as young as 1 should be sent to their rooms, single parents can’t impose discipline and some attention disorders are just ‘bad parenting’

A psychologist has come under fierce criticism in France after hitting out at American-inspired ‘gentle parenting’.

Caroline Goldman believes that an ‘infantile insurrection’ is happening in the European country due to the parenting style, because it encourages parents to offer their children understanding and respect over discipline.

The French child and adolescent psychologist has become a controversial figure due to her ideas – which include punishing misbehaving children as young as one with time outs, whereby the child is sent to their bedroom without any devices or toys.

Mother-of-four Caroline has even punished one of her own youngsters with the method when they were aged just ten months old, according to The Times.

She also faces criticism over her idea that some children diagnosed with neurodevelopmental disorders, such as Autism Spectrum Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), should instead be classified as ‘badly brought-up’.

Another notion she offers is that single parents will struggle with successfully disciplining their child unless a second adult is there to help. 

She said: ‘There is one [parent] who cares for the child, who receives the attempts at negotiation – “yes but I want more time on the tablet” or “I want a second dessert” – and you just need a lateral voice to say, “No, no, no, do what the first adult says,” for the situation to be unblocked.’

The psychologist – whose father is singer-songwriter Jean-Jacques Goldman, who is hugely popular in the French-speaking world – suggested single parents should lean on a relative for help.

But despite backlash from her critics, Caroline’s book (above) File dans ta chambre! (Go to Your Bedroom!) is a bestseller and her podcast, soon to be translated into English, is widely listened to

But her methods have caused an outcry in France, with 280 psychologists, doctors and child development experts denouncing Caroline’s time out idea for children so young in an open letter published in Le Monde in March.

‘This practice is an excellent illustration of ageism’, child psychologist Héloïse Junier, one of the signatories, said in an interview, reported The Washington Post. 

‘The tendency that we as adults have to do things to children that we would not do to other adults, such as forcing them to finish their food, isolating them in their room when they’ve broken a rule, or forcing them to kiss adults on the cheek when greeting them.’ 

But despite the backlash from her critics, Caroline’s book File dans ta chambre! (Go to Your Bedroom!) is a bestseller and her podcast, soon to be translated into English, is widely listened to. 

She told The Times: ‘What I observe… is that children are suffering from having too much freedom, which anguishes them and which does not prepare them for the good manners that help social relationships to thrive.’

The expert also discussed her idea that the list of neurodevelopmental disorders fails to include children suffering from having ‘too much freedom’.

She said this doesn’t help the children because ‘their relationship disorders and suffering are being left untreated’. 

‘What I observe is that these great catch-all diagnoses, which I find extremely cloudy, are sometimes composed of problems of educational limits that are not identified because the badly brought-up child does not exist in any [classification],’ she said.