![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
There's something to be said about the fact that when you travel to a different country you get to see very different things. Culture changes and sometimes it clashes, you may found something that is horrible in your country but common in the one you are visiting; That's what happened yesterday.
Read More
See, I went for an ice-cream with a couple of friends. At the shop there was a young American couple that barely speak Spanish, a Mexican family and us. Well, you see, the family had a young boy, probably eight, he was screaming and jumping and pretty much being a brat, because he wanted his ice-cream right away. His mother talked to him and asked him to be quiet, at least five times, after that the father just smacked him. And then the cultural clash happened. The American couple was more than angry, they screamed to the parent that hit the children and wanted to get the police. The Mexican father was quite upset at the Americans not only for screaming but for messing with the way he educated his children. It was a mess, people screaming, a child crying and we just standing there, trying to help.
After a while the woman arrived with a police officer, and then she tried to explain what had happened, to her surprise the police officer shrugged, told her it’s okay, and then leaved. Her boyfriend was still berating the man for hitting a children, that’s when I decided to step in.
I explained the man that in Mexico hitting a children as a parental right in order to educate him is not only tolerated but expected, and that seeing something like that is not common but certainly not a rarity. I proceed to explain him that most generations in Mexico (Mine included) had been raised under the idea than hitting a children is not wrong, and therefore isn’t something illegal.
Then I had to explain him that no, violence and abuse against children isn’t something allowed, and it was severely punished, but smacking, hitting, pinching, pulling hair or ears or other “discipline methods” that wouldn’t really hurt a child were more than allowed, that it was part of Mexican culture.
I must agree that it was a very interesting discussion. The couple was quite worried about it and then they asked the same to my friends, who actually answered them by recalling all the times they were hit, why and how.
Is funny how this kind of things happen, how living in other countries means being educated in different ways and therefore thinking and acting differently.
I honestly can say that I don’t see anything wrong with hitting a child that is misbehaving, as long as it isn’t hard enough to hurt. As a Mexican I can recall a lot of times I was hit for a wide variety of things, and most of the time I remember it somehow fondly, because once you look back you see that it wasn’t that bad and it actually helped a little. When I remember how it happens I can’t help but to laugh, really, and that’s what we did while talking about it.
How did the American couple reacted? Well, they were quite surprised of the fact that we laughed about all the times we were physically punished. It was a whole new cultural crash, because we Mexicans have one of the weirdest sense of humor you’ll ever find…I’m reading a very interesting essay about it, when I finish I’ll write something about it, about the dark humor we Mexicans show.
Right now I’ll go to fetch something to eat.
Read More
See, I went for an ice-cream with a couple of friends. At the shop there was a young American couple that barely speak Spanish, a Mexican family and us. Well, you see, the family had a young boy, probably eight, he was screaming and jumping and pretty much being a brat, because he wanted his ice-cream right away. His mother talked to him and asked him to be quiet, at least five times, after that the father just smacked him. And then the cultural clash happened. The American couple was more than angry, they screamed to the parent that hit the children and wanted to get the police. The Mexican father was quite upset at the Americans not only for screaming but for messing with the way he educated his children. It was a mess, people screaming, a child crying and we just standing there, trying to help.
After a while the woman arrived with a police officer, and then she tried to explain what had happened, to her surprise the police officer shrugged, told her it’s okay, and then leaved. Her boyfriend was still berating the man for hitting a children, that’s when I decided to step in.
I explained the man that in Mexico hitting a children as a parental right in order to educate him is not only tolerated but expected, and that seeing something like that is not common but certainly not a rarity. I proceed to explain him that most generations in Mexico (Mine included) had been raised under the idea than hitting a children is not wrong, and therefore isn’t something illegal.
Then I had to explain him that no, violence and abuse against children isn’t something allowed, and it was severely punished, but smacking, hitting, pinching, pulling hair or ears or other “discipline methods” that wouldn’t really hurt a child were more than allowed, that it was part of Mexican culture.
I must agree that it was a very interesting discussion. The couple was quite worried about it and then they asked the same to my friends, who actually answered them by recalling all the times they were hit, why and how.
Is funny how this kind of things happen, how living in other countries means being educated in different ways and therefore thinking and acting differently.
I honestly can say that I don’t see anything wrong with hitting a child that is misbehaving, as long as it isn’t hard enough to hurt. As a Mexican I can recall a lot of times I was hit for a wide variety of things, and most of the time I remember it somehow fondly, because once you look back you see that it wasn’t that bad and it actually helped a little. When I remember how it happens I can’t help but to laugh, really, and that’s what we did while talking about it.
How did the American couple reacted? Well, they were quite surprised of the fact that we laughed about all the times we were physically punished. It was a whole new cultural crash, because we Mexicans have one of the weirdest sense of humor you’ll ever find…I’m reading a very interesting essay about it, when I finish I’ll write something about it, about the dark humor we Mexicans show.
Right now I’ll go to fetch something to eat.
