Reply to Sooo am I just the best parent ever or are the others complete duds?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This is partly a cultural problem. Current American culture is pretty child unfriendly. People don't like to interact with a stranger's kid, and expect kids to be quiet and mostly out of sight (just look at responses in this thread). They expect their flights to be quiet and everyone to be self entertained, as opposed to chatting up strangers like yesteryears. We had a recent flight where not a single person or flight attendant even smiled at my young kids. In this environment, screen time is really a must for parents because no one wants to feel your kid's existence.

In other cultures, it could be different. I don't expect strangers to gush over my kids but when we are on flights or places with a lot of Asians (esp older Asian), for example, the adults love to try to interact with my kids. It is just a more child friendly and centered culture, and my kids can pass some time interacting with these adults. I was once on a flight when my son was 5 months old and he basically played peekaboo with an elderly foreign couple for the entire 2 hour flight. It was great for us parents.

American parenting is just exhausting, lonely, full of judgement.[/quote]

Funny you mention this. On our most recent flight, during which I let my 3 year old watch unlimited Peppa Pig, there was an old Thai lady sitting next to us at the terminal. She played stickers with my daughter for a half hour. I did not ask her to; she did not ask if she could, she just started playing. It was so sweet. I used to live in a different part of Asia back when I was childless so I never appreciated it at the time, but this encounter reminded me of how wonderful that aspect of Asian cultures is. They normalize children and everyone is great with kids in public.[/quote]

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