Argentine Kids

Balcony Play

Missing Teeth

As most of us know, child rearing differs from culture to culture.  As Americans, I feel as though we have an underlying attitude of “we’ve got it all figured out.” I worked as a nanny for ten years and as a teacher for nearly two, I have had a chance to observe both the experiments and the results.  Do we in the US have child rearing down to a science?  Of course not, but we do have certain ideas and trends that claim to be the recipe for how to produce a healthy kid.  Just a few for examples: kids go to bed early, the more sleep they get the better. Sugar is BAD, organic food a must, TV depletes brain cells, and hand sanitizer can be found in the purse of nearly every mama in America.  As a nanny, I have been asked to follow very specific verbal and sometimes written instructions that carefully detail exactly how to handle the goods, so that I can aid them in becoming productive and well suited members of society.  I want to note though that many families I have worked for have been wonderful, but I have come across a few crazies in my lifetime.

Traveling presents an opportunity to observe child rearing in a new light.  While living in Buenos Aires, I have been observing and noting trends that differ from the norms in the US.  Here are some examples:  young children in Argentina stay up well past midnight, they guzzle down soda like its going out of style, even caffeinated stuff like Coca Cola, and sometimes coffee. Gasp.  They breath ridiculously polluted air, learn to crawl and walk on filthy sidewalks, they play on playgrounds with equipment that looks as though it were built during the turn of the century, and would have any American parent in a conniption, organic food is incredibly hard to come by, and last but not least, they have shorter school days.   Not only that, but they are sometimes held responsible for walking home, eating lunch, and then returning back to school on their own.  So, what does all of this sugar, germs, lack of sleep, and unfathomable (by US standards) self responsibility produce?  Completely well adjusted, well learned, friendly, worldly and hospitable human beings.  Imagine that.  While no society is perfect, Argentina and the US being far from it, I have personally experienced hospitality and kindness here unlike anything I have ever encountered back home.  As a teacher of Argentine children, I find kids here to be just as curious, kind, intelligent, and sometimes as bratty as American kids back home.  What does this tell me?  That the US does not rule the world with the answers of how to raise a perfect child.  Therefore, we should think twice before we judge and decide without a doubt that our ways are the best. 

Sisters