An American woman who married her French boyfriend was unprepared for the level of tantrums she’d have to remedy once the couple had kids.
In a viral reel posted to Instagram, Alisa (@multilingual_nest) is seen attempting to soothe her 2-year-old bilingual daughter—who could only be calmed with the promise of a very French dessert.
“POV you married a French guy, had his babies, and now instead of normal tantrums they’re crème brûlée tantrums,” she captioned the clip, which has been viewed over 480,000 times and received more than 16,000 likes at the time of writing.
Alisa, who met her now husband during a study abroad trip to Caen in 2012, now has three backyard chickens at the family’s Salt Lake City home and often makes desserts containing their eggs.
Blonde woman holding toddler daughter with arms around her neck.
Blonde woman holding toddler daughter with arms around her neck.
@multilingual_nest
“Unfortunately, crème brûlée takes quite a while to cook and needs some time to cool off too, and waiting is quite a challenge for a 2-year-old foodie,” Alisa told Newsweek.
The 34-year-old began learning French during her 2012 study abroad year, admitting that she could barely string a sentence together when she started.
And while Alisa’s husband introduced her to many cultural experiences, they didn’t start speaking French together until 2017.
“It was a challenge for me to overcome the shame I felt about how superior his English was to my French and a challenge for both of us to practically get to know each other again in another language. By mid 2017, I started to feel really fluent,” she said.
The couple now share a son and a daughter—and Alisa’s language skills are central to her parenting. Though she and her husband initially tried the “one parent, one language” approach, they eventually switched to speaking only French at their Utah home, where they are raising their family.
Alisa realized that her two kids can easily learn English from their American friends and family. “I decided it would be more beneficial to give them as much French input as possible,” she added.
Now, her children are bilingual and can switch between languages depending on who they’re talking to.
“One day, when our first was younger than 2, he was chatting with us happily in French about his camion de pompiers (fire truck),” Alisa recalled. “My American dad asked him what he was saying, and without skipping a beat, our son switched to English and told his grandpa all about it. I consider myself bilingual now, but it still takes some mental effort to switch back and forth—not for my kids!”
Many of the users who commented could relate to the little girl’s need for a sweet pick-me-up.
“She’s such a mood,” one wrote. Another user who wrote that they’re a bination child living abroad and said she has the same experience with her son.
“I find myself buying him one every week at gold price,” she commented in French.
Thankfully, the clip shows Alisa’s toddler got exactly what she wanted in the end. Her initial request was to enjoy her crème brûlée with a “boo” spoon (cuillère beue) at Target, fully representing both her French and American heritages.
“We dodged another tantrum,” Alisa added.