The fact that child psychologists are expected to be exemplary parents has always annoyed Sophie Marinopoulos, 66, especially when she used to raise her voice at her children and her friends would then mock her: "You're a shrink!" "Because we're shrinks, should our children be smarter and prettier? We're entitled to cry and to fight, just like any other family," she said. When her patients asked her if she had children, she would turn the question back on them: "Why? Is it important to you that I have some?" She would tell them that she had colleagues without children who were excellent professionals. "And that caricature of the shrink who only speaks softly... I'm still Mediterranean!" She's also the mother to four children, now aged between 30 and 40, and a grandmother of four grandsons. One of them features in her latest book, Ce Que les Enfants Nous Enseignent ("What Children Teach Us"), published by Les Liens Qui Libèrent, a publishing house she co-founded.

Marinopoulos no longer has her own practice since moving to Uzès, southern France, but she is still involved with Pâtes au Beurre ("Pasta with Butter"), a parent support association which is present in 17 towns across France, which also provides a telephone support service that is accessible to all, twice a week.

When I was expecting my first child, it was as simple as that. I was in my twenties, studying, and I experienced both the discovery of higher education and the joy of being a mother at the same time. I say "joy" because it seems to me that back then, there were fewer expectations and demands around motherhood. The noises, movements and demands that arise from childhood were more readily accepted. Today, however, people want to have children, but they don't like their children's childhood, which takes up too much time, and they feel that it's an extra burden on top of their difficult lives.

Not so long ago, as I lost my mother, who was almost 102. One of my grandsons, who is 6 years old, came up to me and said, "You cried." He was discovering that pain and sadness also belong to the soul, that we don't just cry when we hurt ourselves when we fall over.

I was 30 years old, I was in the car with my kids, and I saw a little convertible go by, and I said, "When I don't have kids anymore, I'll have a car like that..." And I heard a little voice behind me, saying, "You'll never not have any kids."

You have 65% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.