Reply to Is this an American mom thing or specific to my kids school?

Forum Index » General Parenting Discussion

Reply to "Is this an American mom thing or specific to my kids school?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think it’s a DC thing where many of us have wonky policy backgrounds and see parenting as a series of problems to be solved. I think you just have to keep trying and find your people. I have one mom friend who I enjoy because we have the same perspective on schools - we’re both kind if tiger-parenty, which is VERY frowned upon in our neighborhood (apparently you’re supposed to go straight from “play based” schools to your child being naturally “advanced,” with no effort). I have another mom friend who shares my take on the nature of tween boys. But a lot of mom friends in between where I would never broach any parenting subject at all, because I don’t know what’s a hot issue with them.

Another cultural aspect is that Americans don’t always understand “taking the piss” … especially about kids! That’s my form of humor personally (maybe thanks to Grandma from Dover?) but a lot of Americans don’t get it. If I heard you complain about your youtuber kids I would get it! But there are a lot of, erm, humor impaired people around here. [/quote]

op - haha you get it!
yes i find if i ever do the british thing of being honest (eg saying that some of my kids art is terrible and deserves to go in the bin immediately) I get a lot of raised eyebrows. [/quote]
I got so much flack the other day for laughing about my kid’s aspirations for the NBA. I don’t laugh at him, but I don’t think this is plausible, they acted like I was insulting him and the worst mom. [/quote]

Some people are extremely sensitive to this kind of thing. I think it's a pendulum swing from how many of us were parented in the 80s and 90s where there was more sarcasm and meanness directed at kids. Like in the 90s I remember it not being that uncommon for parents and teachers to mock kids in a way that would absolutely not be okay not (and I'm glad for this -- mocking is immature bully behavior).

But I think some people have swung so far that they aren't able to listen to any parent say anything about their kid that could be interpreted as negative or mean. Including like a gentle joke (out of your kids hearing) about their NBA aspirations. Recently my kid (age 7) stated that she would like to attend an Ivy League school. To her I told her that I support this goal and think that if she keeps working hard she will wind up somewhere great because I know she's smart and curious and dedicated (and I meant every word). But to my husband I joked that I'm not sure "multiplication is stupid" is the statement of a future Yalie. I still believe in my kid -- I was just making a joking complaint about her recent bad attitude about math. But I wouldn't say this to anyone outside my husband because people are touchy and they might take me to be putting down my kid or think that I say stuff like that TO her.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics