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Post by Raoul Duke on Sept 24, 2005 18:28:40 GMT 7
Susan and I took The Saloon Brat (Hope) over to the baby playground in the apartment complex across the street today.
An interesting microcosm of society. The average baby was on foot. The middle class ones were on bikes (tricycles that double as strollers and scooters). The upper crust was in baby cars, where they would sit for long periods blaring the horn and then speed off to almost immediately crash into something.
Just like the grownups.
One little girl was really sweet. She looked to be maybe 3 or 4; pigtails and a mock-silk tradtional kids' suit. I talked to her a little in Chinese and bounced her on the teeter-totter (one seat is broken so it's more like a pump now) and soon she was calling me 'Uncle'.
She was wearing a pink plastic toy folding mobile phone around her neck. I asked her if I could see it, and she opened it and handed it to me. Inside was a picture of a simpering ultrablonde Barbie-type girl with the legend in English- I swear I am not making this up- "Benign Girl".
I somehow managed to keep a fairly straight face as I told her it was cool and handed it back to her.
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Post by George61 on Sept 24, 2005 18:42:38 GMT 7
WOW!! Roll on, October! I can't wait to see Uncle Rayool on the see-saw(English English), chatting on a toy mobile!! BTW, does the Octoberfest Agenda include a drunken party at Chez Raoul?? just wondering...  |
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Post by con's fly is open on Sept 24, 2005 20:12:57 GMT 7
Casa Con might be more appropriate: crappier decor, but fewer toddlers.
Or maybe we can scandalize a hotel.
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Post by Raoul Duke on Sept 24, 2005 21:13:30 GMT 7
Yeah, all hell has broken loose at El Rancho right now. It's completely dominated by toddler. Hope is at the stage where she gets into everything and literally has to be watched every second, 24 hours a day. It looks as if someone has been raising goats in here. Trust me: you don't want to have a party here right now.
However, I do hope you'll all come by and see her. She's awfully sweet.
And I will be at the party and other things.
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Post by Mr Nobody on Sept 24, 2005 23:21:44 GMT 7
Then wouldn't it be wiser to get hotel rooms near to Cons condominium of condescending concupiscience (Sp?)
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Post by Raoul Duke on Sept 25, 2005 2:09:44 GMT 7
A concupiscent consideration.
Con lives way over to the west of the city in the New District. Nice area but can be pretty far from the rest of Suzhou.
Also pretty far from me, unfortunately...
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Ruth
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Post by Ruth on Sept 25, 2005 6:58:17 GMT 7
Well, the taxi drivers are going to get rich from us next week, then. So, based on the tips from this place, I'm guessing Hope and her entourage of Mom and Dad were on foot? I've seen the baby vehicles you described, Raoul. Nice synopsis on the economic structure. The other day I saw a toddler sitting in the wire mesh baby seat on the back of Grandma's bike. Grandma was walking and pushing the bike. The little tyke had his arms crossed and his feet up on the bicycle seat, looking for all the world like a little emperor. I laughed out loud. So cute. I learned a little about having babies in China last night. No - don't even go there  Lei Shan has a very attractive young mother as a student. (He's not stupid.) He was showing her pictures from our summer visit to Canada. Pictures included a 4 week old baby at his son's wedding. She was shocked that so young a baby would be out in public. Apparently here babies are kept inside for 100 days. Moms stay in bed or on the couch for the first 30 days and someone else does all the work. She isn't even supposed to shower. Mrs. Student said she broke that tradition and both her grandmother and mother were very upset with her. She also broke the tradition of wrapping the baby's legs in red cloth to 'keep them straight'. Her mother and grandmother weren't happy about that either, but she said her son's legs are just as straight as any other two-year olds. So - anyone know what's behind these traditions? I kind of like the one where someone else does all the work. I took my 2nd baby home from the hospital after three days. Home included a just-turned-2-year old, a husband and 4 teenaged foster sons. My mother-in-law was there for a few days, but nothing like a month. Meeting Hope and her Daddy are definitely on my to-do list for Suzhou. I'm counting the days. |
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Post by Lotus Eater on Sept 25, 2005 8:44:56 GMT 7
It's the bamboo prams I really love - the ones with two seats in them facing each other. Later they are used for carrying all sorts of stuff around.
And the split pants. Little tiny behinds popping out.
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Ruth
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God's provisions are strategically placed along the path of your obedience.
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Post by Ruth on Sept 25, 2005 22:03:42 GMT 7
and other stuff. I was walking into the little local store a few days ago when a mom yelped and held her baby away from herself. Kid made a puddle on the floor, right in front of the door and the cash register, before mom was able to rush out into the street with him. I jumped back from the splash zone. No one wiped it up during the time I made my purchases. Accident waiting to happen, not to mention cleanliness factor. Can you imagine that in the USA? Someone would slip in it on purpose and sue someone.
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Post by Raoul Duke on Sept 26, 2005 11:59:20 GMT 7
I once saw a man deliberately squat his little boy down to take a leak in the middle of a KFC restaurant!!!!     I made it a point to stand there and stare at the guy in stunned, disbelieving slack-jawed amazement as he sat there and munched his chicken...and slowly turned red with embarrassment. Or something. |
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Wolf
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Though this be madness, yet there is method in it.
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Post by Wolf on Sept 26, 2005 12:15:21 GMT 7
Ah, chidren.
A barbie cell phone, eh?
If I had a daughter, I'm not sure I'd want to train her from birth to (think she has to) fit the Barbie Doll Image of blond, busty, and stupid.
I'd want her to demonstrate basic human intelligence, as well as evidence of a personality; so that I wouldn't need to weep openly in my old age.
Yeah, they're a mitt full when they're two or so, aren't they?
The split pants thing is something I don't think I could condone, even if I lived in China and had few options.
Raoul, how do you handle that in your family? Diapers? Star Trek transporers that beam it into the CCP inner sanctum cafeteria? ;D
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Post by Kurochan on Sept 26, 2005 20:13:35 GMT 7
Moms stay in bed or on the couch for the first 30 days and someone else does all the work. So - anyone know what's behind these traditions? Ever heard the "pregnant women shouldn't watch TV because the magnetic waves will damage the baby"? My friend's in-laws believed that, so she couldn't watch TV when they were around. Then, when she had the baby, her parents and her husband's parents all came, and argued constantly over baby care. My friend's parents are Hakka, and insisted she should give the baby hot water when it cried (  Is this why Hakka people are so small?), but her husband's parents, who are Cantonese, insisted she give it milk. Eventually she freaked out and told them all to go home and quit "helping" her. |
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woza17
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Post by woza17 on Sept 26, 2005 20:15:54 GMT 7
Personally, I like the slit pants thing, it's environmentally sound no nappy rash.
Barbies have been in the world for yonks, just in different forms. What can you do?
On my granchilds first birthday I will buy her or him the state of the art mobile phone
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Post by George61 on Sept 26, 2005 20:18:43 GMT 7
You old sentamentalist, you!
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woza17
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Post by woza17 on Sept 26, 2005 20:34:26 GMT 7
I certainly won't buy it leggo. Sentimental, of course at times especially when it doesn't matter.
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Post by George61 on Sept 26, 2005 20:37:41 GMT 7
What's wrong with Lego?? Stimulate their creativity, don't encourage them to bloody talk!
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woza17
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Post by woza17 on Sept 26, 2005 21:03:37 GMT 7
George let me take this a bit further, absolutely no fairy tales, no black and white, teach the child the grey areas.
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Post by Raoul Duke on Sept 26, 2005 22:56:02 GMT 7
We're doing the split pants thing. Took some getting used to. Gradually getting the wife to use a basin with her by explaining that a key difference between people and animals is that people generally don't pee on the floor of their own caves. Still, though, some advantages. No diaper rash, indeed. And toilet training seems a snap. Hope is halfway there already...very few accidents. Wish the wife were as trainable. She still doesn't want the baby around TVs, and we're, like, 18 months postpartum now. God help me. If George had been given Legos as a kid, just imagine what this place would be like now!  |
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Wolf
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Post by Wolf on Sept 27, 2005 6:04:31 GMT 7
We're doing the split pants thing. Took some getting used to. Gradually getting the wife to use a basin with her by explaining that a key difference between people and animals is that people generally don't pee on the floor of their own caves. Woza, this is basically my big problem with the split pants thing. I'd want there to be at least some sort of sanity, and I'm not sure how much of an uphill battle I'd have as Dad to get it. TV hurts the baby? You know, if TV gave off enough alpha waves to mutate Junior into a member of the Fantastic Four, then odds are us old fuddys (or is that "fuddies") wouldn't last a lifetime in front of the thing. It's magic waves can rot your brain, though. ;D |
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Ruth
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Post by Ruth on Sept 27, 2005 8:34:50 GMT 7
My two munchkin boy students (ages 4 and 5) get a kick out of kicking the wall in my spare bedroom, which is their classroom and which I spent some time painting. I've been giving them a wet cloth and making them wipe their footprints off the wall. Not sure how they live at home, but in my world, if you make a mess, you should be responsible for cleaning it up. I can see the advantages of the split pants thing, but I feel a parent should at least clean up the mess if a child does something in a public place - like KFC or the grocery store. And at home - yes accidents will happen, but teaching a child to use a potty, or basin, or big toilet is all part of the civilization process. Most cities back home have a 'poop and scoop' law for dog owners. China should adopt the policy for kids. |
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Post by con's fly is open on Sept 27, 2005 20:21:14 GMT 7
Your mouth to God's ears, Ruth.
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Post by Mr Nobody on Sept 28, 2005 7:56:41 GMT 7
I think fairy tales and other aspects of our culture are vitally important. I think kids need to learn black and white before they learn about grey. (Aristotlean logic before multiordinal).
I think lego is great, too, once they are old enough to not try to swallow it.
And yes, man is the animal that puts himself as far as possible away from his own sewage. Make the parents responsible for the children's mess would be good. Pooperscoopers are made in China already, anyway, aren't they?
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Post by Lotus Eater on Sept 28, 2005 9:10:35 GMT 7
And yes, man is the animal that puts himself as far as possible away from his own sewage. Letting man get too far away from his own sewage encourages many of them to think that they don't smell. A little reality check now and then never hurts. |
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Post by Mr Nobody on Sept 28, 2005 9:19:42 GMT 7
Too true, but I don't want to live in it. Maybe organized trips to the treatment works every ten years. Look into the pools. Have loudspeakers say "This is where you come from. This is where you go. Remember it."
Or something like that.
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Post by con's fly is open on Sept 28, 2005 18:07:34 GMT 7
Too much removal from sewage is not a danger in China.  I agree with Nobby on the B & W mentality for starters. Relativism is an advanced concept: let them discover subtlety on their own. They feel clever. But you can get the giant Lego blocks- Andre the Giant couldn't get one in his throat. The real downside of Lego is stepping on them periodically.  |
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Is this why Hakka people are so small?), but her husband's parents, who are Cantonese, insisted she give it milk. Eventually she freaked out and told them all to go home and quit "helping" her. 