 |
| Lisbon 2014 Photo by Tobi.P |
Let's take two very well behaved 6 year old boys. One German and the other Kenyan. We give each boy a cigarette and ask them to smoke.
Were it not for the obvious skin color differences, i assure you to tell the differences between these two boys just by the reaction they give.
The German boy will be relaxed. He might even take the cigarette into his hands, even study it a little and even go to the extent of placing it between his lips and mimicking the smokers. But at the end of the day he will tell us something like this:
"Nee, das Zeug macht krank Alter!" Which translates; No, this stuff can make us sick dude!
Sighting the cigarette, the Kenyan boy on the other side will sense alarms everywhere and will not dare touch it. He will look to all directions to make sure no one saw him near that cigarette. And then he will tell us something like: Aha! Nikismoke mothey atanichapa! Which translates; No, If i smoke my mum will beat me! And will secure the air once again, because he never knows which neighbor will tell his mother.
Even though these two cute little boys are well disciplined and at their best behaviors, they were brought up differently.
German parents explain to their kids reasons why they should or shouldn't do stuff, and this is done from a very young age.
"Don´t tough the candle you will burn your fingers" a mother will tell her 6 months old baby
"Don´t walk on that wet floor, you will fall and hurt your self" she will call to her two years old girl
"Don´t stay out past 11pm tonight, tomorrow you have to wake up really early" a dad will tell his teenage son
Were they in Kenya, these kids would get the following orders instead;
"You touch that candle and i´ll slap you"
"You walk on the wet floor and i´ll pull your ears"
"If its past 11pm don´t even come back here because i´ll beat you"
So, when when a German kid does something, he actually knows why he is dong it. Kenyan children will mostly act out of fear....the fear of major beatings! May it be at school or at home.
Its so easy to take care of kids, at least that what i thought back in the days. Whenever i wanted my little brothers to do something; all i needed to tell them is that if they don´t, i will tell our parents and they will be beaten. This worked most of the time, until they were of age and realized i was just bluffing.
Imagine how my poor German Au-pair kids that i was looking after must have looked at me when i told them: "Clean your rooms! If your parents come back and you are not done they will beat you!!!"
They looked at me with those...`what the hell is she talking about?` eyes.
I did not not know that beating kids in Germany is illegal. You beat your own child, even once and you might find yourself in jail and your kids taken by the child protective services. No joke!
German parents tend to have a more or less friendship relationship with their children. This will lead to children some time having the audacity to say stuff to their parents that a Kenyan kid would never dare. Not even in their sleep. There is a whole level of respect between a Kenyan child and a parent. A respect that no other person could ever gain may it be the president or the pope.
I sometimes wonder what would have been of me if i were brought up the German way? Would i still be the same person i´m today?
I guess we will never know, but one thing is for sure; i would not be rich with so many stories to tell :-) !
Wishing you all a productive week!
Lots of luv
ItsRose_Beth
Comments
Post a Comment