Cultural Observations of Children

[peachtess]

I thought I'd talk about the area of Antiguan cultural that has given me the biggest culture shocks as an expat. That area would be children's safety and treatment. Things are very different here then they are in the states. Some of the stuff still gives me pause even after a year of living here. There are two things that bug me the most about the

Comments

[dothethingsucan]

I'm american and none of that freaks me out. I grew up that way. All my friends grew up that way. We're alive. I was hit as a child when I was bad and I don't consider my parents child abusers. I deserved it when they did it to me

[moireach]

If you know how to control your kids, they won't get up.

Yeah, but the point of car seats isn't to keep your kids from getting up, it's to keep them from dying in an accident.

[bezigebij]

Wondering how safe the Dutch circus performers (I mean mothers), on bikes with three kids (one up front, one in the back and one connected by a carriage type thing behind) and some groceries thrown in for good measure, are. I just imagine falling and shudder.

[praguegretchen]

Its not so much that I have an issue with kids being around drinking. I think that seeing adults drinking responsibly is a positive thing. I also don't have a problem with smoking, as I am a smoker, but I still wouldn't take a small child, with developing lungs, into a smoky bar.

And as for the car seats, it gets taken too far in the states (some places are trying to make it up to age 12!), but with babies, you cannot hold on to a child and protect it in an accident.

[baggyk]

I too grew up without car seats too, but we had to sit down and behave in the car. It still freaks me out to see kids hanging out of car windows when I go to Bulgaria. I even sitting in the driver's laps. The thing is, I am not sure that fatality stats have improved since car seats were introduced because minivans are so unsafe and roll over so often.

That said, here in Germany I often see people leaving their kids strapped in while they run into stores for "just a few minutes." I find that really dangerous too.

[jasondrogers]

"The thing is, I am not sure that fatality stats have improved since car seats were introduced because minivans are so unsafe and roll over so often."

Minivans are not unsafe. Unless we are having a communication issue here and you are referring to what Americans call SUVs.

"Design is a major reason minivans are less likely to be involved in fatal crashes than other vehicles. They ride lower to the ground than sport utility vehicles and tend to have a wider base, making them more stable. In recent rollover risk rankings that the government assigned to vehicles for the 2004 model year, minivans were assessed a rollover risk of 12% to 16% in single vehicle accidents, while many sport utility vehicles had a rollover risk of 20% or more."

http://www.aiada.org/article.asp?id=21790

[dyfferent]

Depends on the minivan. I know in the 90s the Voyager scored a *zero* on the front-end collision test.

[smittenbyu]

I never grew up with car seats, don't think they even had those in India at the time. And I rode in a care very rarely! But it does surpris me how the kids are allowed to move freely about in the car. When we rode in cars, however rare, we were always told to stay put and not distract the driver.

Funny you post this though. The other day while I was riding in front as a friend drove, a car ahead of us had a label on the back (slghtly different from "Baby On Board" stickers, which also are famous these days here in Kuala LUmpur). But the one we saw went as follows:

"Children on board, please drive carefully"

However, when you looked inside, you had two kids in the back, one in the front, one kinda moving from front to back as dad was driving! The parent is asking us to be careful because kids are on board, but he's not doing anything to try to keep them safe! *sigh*

[nellwyn]

My husband and I have a theory about these 'baby on board' sorts of signs. We figure it means you need to drive carefully around the car because who knows what the driver might do while they're distracted by their baby/child.

[smittenbyu]

he hehe..that makes all too much sense! :)

[lizr0221]

In Ireland, according to my husband, carseats are available and are constantly used. I couldn't imagine not having one- it's just unsafe. Even a toddler in a seatbeat will get seriously hurt, if not killed, in an accident without one. Where are they putting the infants when they are driving

[jasondrogers]

I wouldn't agree with you that the US and Canada have identical policies or attitudes towards spanking. There is no federal US policy on the issue, whereas in Canada corporal punishment is covered under the federal Criminal Code, so that makes any comparison tricky. I say this because while some states in the US have outlawed corporal punishment by schools and began to limit the amount parents can do, others believe parents are the sole judge of what punishment is appropriate- to a limit.

The existence of public spanking in the US may have decreased since early in the 20th century (supposedly around 90% of parents spanked in the 1930s), but it will certainly not result in state intervention except in the most rare of circumstances. As I mentioned, many US states still allow for schools to use corporal punishment against students, so we're far from banning spanking. Child Protective Services won't show up at your door for plain-old spanking, to put it succinctly.