Reply to AP constantly telling us what is better about her country

Forum Index » Au Pair Discussion

Reply to "AP constantly telling us what is better about her country"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Having an opinion and sharing it are two different things.  Anyone with a modicum of grace and social awareness knows that constantly (or even occasionally) disparaging a country where you are a guest is ill mannered. [/quote]

I agree with this.  The other thing that gets me is the generalizations about entire large countries (hers and ours) based purely on experiences in our one city and her one village.  Our au pair is very close-minded and doesn't seem to have a world view.  I've heard that my au pair can't believe how poorly American's eat, how healthy everyone in her country eats. (really?  everyone?  all the time?)  I've heard how they don't have "this soft, sliced, tasteless" bread in her country, in her country everyone eats delicious crusty bread all the time. (would you like me to point out where we can purchase different bread at the store if you don't like the kind we keep in the house?  Also, I've been to her country, albeit not to her village, and they do have the same kind of sliced bread.)  In her country, hair stylists are highly regulated so everywhere you go, you can get a really great haircut for less than $10.  (shocker - getting your haircut in a large American city is more expensive than getting it cut at the one place in your tiny village; but let's try something other than Hair Cuttery if you want a great cut).

[/quote]

Ha, I hear you about the haircuts and bread issue!  It's funny that our AP who makes similar generalizations also focuses on those two issues!  On the bread issue - I actually hear this from a lot of Europeans, or generally from people who come from towns where the culture/way of life is that families shop for each meal every day - stopping at the market on the way home from work to buy fresh bread, veggies, etc. each day.  Yum - totally wish I could do that, but unfortunately don't have the time.  We explain to our au pairs who have the fresh bread issue that we don't do this because we just don't have time to shop for each meal everyday, even though that would be tastier and involve less preservatives.  So we buy sliced bread that will last us the week.  Interestingly, when we have bought good fresh bread on occasion, it just goes stale - the AP doesn't eat it!  (But that is also another cultural/family issue; we do not have family dinners most nights because of work schedules and kids' ages.  If you have a big family dinner each night, you might finish a loaf of fresh bread with each dinner.)[/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