My friend told me about a great new playplace she and her kids discovered. “I saw a giant, rotating, inflatable ear of corn in a second-story window, so we set out to find it. We were wandering through dark hallways and eventually walked up a broken escalator covered in trash. And it was the coolest playplace ever! Come on! I’ll take you!”
And… it WAS awesome!
I had to laugh because her story was so… very… East Asia. That would never have come out of her mouth if she lived in America. Who in America leads her kids through dark, abandoned hallways and walks up a broken escalator, all in search of a giant, rotating, inflatable ear of corn???
That led me to think about some of the thoughts (mostly worries) I have about parenting that would be very atypical if we had stayed in America:
- We’re riding in a car for the first time in a month. Will he puke in this taxi driver’s back seat?
- We’ve been traveling a lot lately… will there be adverse effects to all this Dramamine I’m giving him?
- Does he know his relatives actually exist in 3D?
- What are those plastic bags for at the kids’ playplace? Ohhh… kids pee and poop in them.
- Huh. That is very sanitary! I like this place!
- Will he be afraid of black people (or any ethnicity other than Asian and white) because he never sees them?
- What’s the AQI (Air Quality Index) today?
- It’s only unhealthy today, not hazardous! We’re going for a walk!
- Will he grow up to hate traveling?
- Will he grow up to hate us for making him travel?
- Will he grow up to hate GOD for being the reason we travel?
- Will he resent locals for gawking at him so much?
- Will he resent Americans for NOT giving him the adulation and attention to which he’s grown accustomed?
- He’s splashing around in a puddle, but it hasn’t rained in weeks. Is that urine?
- Wait– he’s playing with a cane. From which old person did he steal this cane???
All this and more… the odd thoughts that float through my head as an ex-pat mom.
Straddling Two Worlds 