Every Country Has Its Phobia
ByLiving overseas has taught me that each culture believes different things about certain issues. One issue that I encounter often is the issue of children’s health. Living in 5 different European countries over the past 5 years has taught me that Europeans strongly believe that children needed to be bundled up at all times. If a child is not dressed warmly enough they are going to get sick (and by warmly enough, I mean that really only their eyes should be showing once the temperature hits 50 degrees)! We tend to go with the American mentality that if we are comfortable dressed in a certain type of clothing, than our children are as well. And if they are a young child (baby-toddler age) and are not crying, than they must be relatively comfortable. I have been scolded in just about every country though for my children not being dressed warmly enough. Thankfully, I have learned to just laugh it off. I do try and prevent Abby from taking her coat off when we are out and she tells me she is hot though. To her 60 degrees feels warm.
It always makes me wonder what we as Americans have a phobia of. I don’t think we think cold water or cold temperatures are going to make children sick (or ourselves), but I am sure we have something else we always blame sickness on. One ex-pat told me that one of his friends visiting the U.S. said that we as Americans seem to think everything is allergies. I could definitely see that one! I can count numerous times I have had a runny nose when another American has wanted to diagnose me with allergies.
For myself, I know any time the kids get sick, I blame it on not enough sleep. That is part of the reason I think you see so many cranky and/or sick kids over here in Europe. I still haven’t figured out how they handle such late bed times!
Any other ideas of what we Americans like to blame bad health on?
5 Comments
February 23rd, 2010 at 9:14 am
Funny post! I’m with you on the allergy thing and now that I have a child with “real” allergies, I do tend to laugh to myself about other people’s self “diagnosis” of allergies when they get a runny nose or an upset stomach after eating something.
One thing that bothers me about Americans is all this antibacterial stuff–soaps, hand sanitizers, house cleaners, etc. We generally don’t use hand sanitizers and we use regular soap. I think I tend to blame people getting sick on them not being exposed to as many germs (so their immune systems are weaker) while many Americans blame sickness on being exposed to germs and so they obsessively wash and sanitize. That’s just my simpleton, non-medical opinion, but in general, I think many Americans are germ-a-phobes.
February 23rd, 2010 at 9:15 am
Erin,
I couldn’t agree with you more - you nailed this post! One of the first thing Jayden’s teacher asked me is why I don’t have tights on him everyday. Tights, pants, and snow pants when its 35 degrees outside is crazy to me. I see some kids walking the streets and they can’t even more they have so many layers on. To me, if I am cold then I assume Jayden is cold, therefore, if I am comfortable, then so he is. Probably doesn’t always hold true but that’s what I try to stick by.
Lastly, about those late bed times. We have a young boy (probably 4) that lives above us and he is playing away at 10:30 pm when Adam and I are trying to go to sleep. When we first arrived in Poland I made sure Jayden was quite when he woke up so we wouldn’t wake anyone else up but I realized after a couple days that the boy was up at 8 am as well. Bed at 10:30 pm or later and up at 8 am… that wouldn’t roll in our house!
Great post Erin! You are right on!
February 23rd, 2010 at 9:46 am
Alex,
As soon as I hit the post button on this I thought about our American obsession with germs! We are definitely the anti-bacterial nation:)
February 23rd, 2010 at 9:52 am
Kearstin,
I think I got the worst scoldings in Poland! I remember thinking, “This place is always cold, aren’t you people used to it by now and know what really cold is?”
February 23rd, 2010 at 10:32 am
I agree with the germaphobe label for most Americans. Another, I think, is that Americans are afraid of preventative care. Hardly any of my American friends want to talk about how to prevent their child’s illnesses, but everyone talks about how to treat the illness.
When I was in Germany, I used to get funny looks for not having a pacifier for TB, though he would never take one, so I don’t know what good it would have done to have one at all times. Also, I got “the look” for not having strumpfhosen (for adults translates pantyhose, but they are a tight for kids generally made of wool) on him. A British woman loved to share her wives tale that I shouldn’t allow TB to bear weight on his legs at a young age or he’ll be bowlegged.
In MN, many of the German ideals live on, because many of the families have German heritage. I remember being told that I would catch a cold if I wasn’t bundled up among other things.