Author Archives: VoiceofReason

Why are Americans unable to raise children?

Americans totally fail to raise their children. This is a fact that can be easily verified by spending a few minutes in any public place in America. Their kids are extremely rude, noisy, entitled, self-centered, and very unsanitary. These characteristics are so common that many people who have never lived in other cultures and were not exposed to polite, well raised children nor to a successful child-rearing process think that they are inherent to all children. No, they are not. They are a result of a parental failure and the easiest way to corroborate it is to spend some time in those societies that yield polite and respectful kids, for example, in sub-Saharan Africa, and compare.

In most societies around the world, people grow up in overcrowded housing developments exposed to relatives’ and neighbors’ kids every day and participate in raising them every day, just as their parents and grandparents once did. As kids are omnipresent, they interact with them a lot while still being kids themselves, they watch the adults discipline and punish younger children and repeat their actions in similar circumstances, learning this way how to raise them. They know when to discipline and punish a child and how: they also know how and at what occasion to praise it. They know what the desirable standard of behavior is as they were brought up to this standard themselves, and they see younger children being consistently brought up to the same standard. They know what behavior is unacceptable as they were disciplined and punished for this behavior and they see younger children being consistently disciplined and punished for exactly the same.

In these societies there are no “parenting styles”, “parenting experts”, or “parenting classes”. People learn all child-related skills while simply living their lives, and usually they learn it before puberty. They do not over-intellectualize the child-rearing process and apply what they have learned while participating in raising other “village” children. Yes, it does take a village, and in village-like, participating societies people have child-rearing skills and lots of experience before they actually have a child of their own.

American kids grow up in the luxury of separate homes, with their parents only, and are deprived of this valuable experience. They are not exposed to child-rearing processes, and the few of them who have much younger siblings usually witness their parent’s struggle and fail. Their contact with children is limited to occasional part-time babysitting in high school, or on holiday visits to their relatives. They are completely deprived of the valuable lesson of witnessing, participating in, and learning from a successful raising process. They start learning how to raise a child only when they have their own, and so often fail terribly.

As if this was not enough, they see outrageous children’s behavior in public places and entitled parents’ hostile behavior defending their offspring’s “right” to be rude being common that a pattern appears in their minds that this is normal, as this is the only way of dealing with kids they can observe. They witness the disregard and contempt Americans have for a participating society without being aware that rejecting the participation leads to failure in raising kids.

When their own children come into this world, they are lost. They resort to “how to” manuals of doubtful quality written by self-proclaimed “experts” who never participated in raising children except for their own and failed, and who never lived in or even visited a society with polite and respectful children. They resort to “specialists” in “child development” or “child psychology” spawned by universities after a few years of theoretical studies, who run their coaching sessions or write their books based on studies with a small sample group instead of lifelong experience in the cultures successful in child-rearing. They spend a lot of money on “parenting classes” and books or magazines of doubtful quality that are designed or written by theoreticians presenting latest fads of “parenting styles” that change every time the wind blows. By the way, did someone ever check how much all that “parenting style” market is worth? I bet there is huge money behind it. The results of following it are deplorable – American kids, extremely rude, selfish, and entitlement-minded are totally unable to live in a society and to respect the society they live in.

American parents should learn from the societies in which kids are really polite and respectful, like the sub-Saharan African ones, but instead, they dismiss these societies with the contemptuous labels of “poor” or “primitive”. Why reinvent the wheel? The wheel is already there, passed from generation to generation, in a consistent, unchanged form and yielding great results. The American attempts to design the child raising wheel, meanwhile fail and become farther and farther from the desired one, resembling a square rather than a wheel at this moment.

American parents need to wake up, rethink their behavior, and start learning from successful societies instead of learning from “experts” of doubtful credentials who earn a lot of money prescribing recipes for a parental disaster.

The unspoken permission that allows changing diapers around food

In respectful societies, the intimate, but abominable activity of changing diapers is performed discretely, in the privacy of a restroom stall, a special room, or another place where no outsider would be exposed to its nauseating smell or germs. Respectful and responsible parents plan their outings accordingly, as to limit the necessity of doing it outside of their home.

In kid-obsessed America, parents not only change diapers in public, in the plain view and to the disgust of other customers, but they seem especially likely to do it around food: on restaurant and cafe tables, on park tables commonly used by nearby office employees to eat lunch on, in airport food courts, on counters, or in grocery store shopping carts.

The first time I have seen (and especially smelled) changing a diaper in public was in an upscale department store’s restroom, where a changing table was located in plain view of other users of the said facility, without a stall. I was nauseated all day long after this experience. In the months to come, I learned that installing baby changing stations without stalls is a common practice of American businesses oblivious to the disgust of other customers using the same restroom. I was shocked! I do my business discretely and respectfully in private in a stall designated for it. Baby poop does not smell like roses either, and its place should be in a stall as well. However, the worst was only about to come. In the restrooms, there is at least no food.

I was left speechless when I first saw a woman changing a baby on a table in a restaurant in Manhattan. Luckily, I was not inside; I was just walking by, looking into display windows with my usual curiosity. The people inside did not react, neither did the staff watching the show from a distance from which it was impossible to miss. The other customers’ faces did not look too pleased, on some of them I could actually see disgust, but they did nothing. There was another lesson for me to learn later on: that people are too afraid to point out the rudeness, harassed into silence by parents’ hostility when their unacceptable behavior does get pointed out.

Overall, I saw diaper changing on tables or a parent putting a kid wearing a diaper only (no pants) on a counter where food is served, around twenty times. Manhattan is not the only place where I saw it, and white, wealthy people (assuming by their dress) are not the only violators, although they slightly prevail in number over people of all other ethnicities and income ranges in the multiple states that I saw this happen. Nobody ever protested. When I told my non-American friends about it, they were outraged and most of them said they would never visit this unsanitary country.

The most shocking fact is that it happens also in those places where you could get to only by car, which means all customers have a vehicle to do it in, yet they choose to disrespect other patrons and expose them to a health hazard. Also, it mostly happens in entertainment places like cafes or restaurants where people go for pleasure rather than for a life saving service, which means disrespectful people with little kids have no emergency to stay in these places, and if they do, they must respect other patrons.

A recent (a few weeks ago) situation of changing a diaper at a cafe is also a good example. A woman was changing a kid in the dining area. The staff, instead of strictly requiring this couple to leave immediately, gave them a rag to clean up but let them stay. The kid’s father became aggressive and the police had to be called. The media covered the case widely but no article ever mentioned whether any of the other customers left offended, which leads me to believe that, as usual, they stayed and did nothing. The management totally failed in handling the problem. They apologized to the violator couple instead apologizing publicly to other customers that were exposed to this disgusting show. I was astonished to read the comments under the articles: the overwhelming majority of them came from people disgusted by the idea of changing diapers in a dining area, many of them parents of young children who declared that they would never do that. Why don’t they then protest when something that unacceptable happens?

Another problem is kids in diapers (the idea of not putting pants on a kid taken to a public place is disgusting by itself and hot weather is not an excuse) in grocery stores’ shopping carts. A surprise can fall out of the diaper at any moment and the scientists verified that in way too many cases it indeed does. According to the research done by the University of Arizona, fecal bacteria were found in 72% of the carts. Pictures of people changing diapers in shopping carts can be found online. Other customers are clearly disgusted by this habit, yet they prefer to take a picture and post it in the Internet rather than bring the problem to the attention of the store management and require them to remove the parent as well as to report a health hazard to proper authorities. The stores do not clean the carts. They offer disinfectant wipes as an excuse, thus, implicitly telling their customers: be our free cleaners, wipe other people’s kids’ fecal matter. This is simply unacceptable.

I have never seen this kind of parents’ behavior in any other country, not even in those countries where most people use public transportation, thus have no car to change the baby in. They simply plan their outings between changing needs, leave the kid at home or in day care, or invite their friends home instead of going to a cafe. In America, where most people go everywhere by car, it is unacceptable that changing diapers around food happens. No changing table at a restaurant is a poor excuse; parents should call in advance and check whether the venue offers the facility or not. They should also stop their entitlement approach and remember that changing stations are offered by businesses as a courtesy, not a must.  If it is not available, that means the business caters more to adult clientele and this choice should be respected.

Changing diapers around food as well as installing changing stations without stalls should be illegal. It is a serious health hazard. There should be high fines imposed for it on both the parents and the companies on whose premises this happens. Businesses should remove unsanitary people with unsanitary kids as a minimum care for their customers’ health, and as a minimum of respect for them.

The most appalling point of this story is that people are disgusted by the practice of changing diapers around food, yet they give the unspoken permission to do it by not protesting whenever they find themselves around it. If you do not protest, you are contributing to this unacceptable behavior. You should reprimand the restaurant or cafe management, strictly require them to remove the violating parent and inform them that you will never spend money there again. There is nothing that hurts the businesses more then losing profit, and treating your credit card as your voter’s card is the best you can do.

Also, report a health hazard to proper authorities. They differ from state to state. The office can be located under either health, business, or agriculture departments. The easiest way to find them is to Google: “how to report unsanitary conditions + your state”. They often have easy to fill online report forms, or special phone numbers for reporting. Do not forget that someone’s health may depend on your report.

Do not shy away, do not let belligerent parents harass you into silence, do not fall into unjustified guilt. You are not doing anything wrong: it is the parent who is the wrongdoer. Protesting against or reporting changing diapers around food is no different than reporting theft – it is your clear “no” said to wrongdoing. Do not give your unspoken permission for unsanitary and inconsiderate behavior in public places.

It does take a village, but…

It does take a village to raise a child, but American parents do not understand this saying right. They want to eat their cake and have it too. They gladly accept privileges granted by the society, like child-related tax breaks and public schools, but they reject societal corrections of their parental failures. In a real village, things do not work this way.

In a village, or, in other words, in a participating society, parents cannot have privileges without having duties or trade-offs. In a village, parents get a lot of help and support from other villages, but they must live by the village’s standards. If they transgress them, they humbly accept and comply with the other villagers’ reprimands as well as apologize for their violations.

In a village, kids obey and respect adults. If they infringe on the adult’s rules, they are disciplined by any adult, be it a parent, an older child, or a relative, be it a complete stranger who just happens to catch the kid’s wrongdoing, or who is offended by it. Parents do not object to the discipline, and by no means get aggressive about it, but also apologize to the strangers for all the trouble. They know that other “villagers” are responsible, consistent, and do not discipline any kids for no reason.

American parents have a serious problem with both complying with the rules established by the society for everyone, and even a worse problem apologizing for their kids’ disrespectful behavior. The best example is the one of kids’ extreme rudeness in public places: Americans not only fail, or even totally refuse to keep the kids respectful, they also refuse to recognize a reason for apology, and become hostile towards any “villager” who gives them a well deserved and justified reprimand. For example, when someone brings a parent to order for allowing the unsanitary kid slobbering all over the fruit in a supermarket, the parent should respectfully apologize for its behavior and start teaching the kid respect and hygiene. There is no reason to get hostile: in a village, all villagers want all the best for your kid.

In a village, kids are often outside on their own, with no constant adult supervision. Adults may take a look occasionally, but not spend the whole time watching kids play. The condition is: they must play in a way that respects the neighbors. In case of serious problems, they may count on any member of the society for an intervention (for example: to inform the parent that something happened to the kid or to call an ambulance). That does not mean that people use their neighbors as free babysitters or servants. This behavior would be unacceptable. Other people step in as a courtesy, out of compassion or if a kid is offending them and depending on the case, offer assistance or discipline.

In a village, parents do not display any sign of entitlement just because they have kids. Any assistance from any “villager” is just his or her courtesy and favor, and even if showed often, it does not mean parents have a right to it. American parents clearly violate this village habit with their entitlement minded approach, raising their also entitlement minded, spoiled kids.

In a village, all members of the society act in a very consistent manner towards kids. They do not have any fads or “parenting styles” created by “experts” of doubtful credentials, and changing every time the wind blows. They know how to do it because they grew up in the same participating society. All of them: a grandfather of 8, a middle aged nun or a ten year old kid have a lot of experience in dealing with children because this is the way they have always lived in the village. They naturally assume disciplining or sometimes protecting children, whenever needed, the same way they naturally assume breathing air or eating food: they have been doing it all their life and it is their nature.

In America, parents have a serious problem. They expect the whole society to accommodate their whims, fads, and “parenting styles”, and their usurped “right” to be rude in public. They also belligerently question other people’s disciplining skills based on the single fact that the person does not have his or her own biological child, as if the mere act of reproduction had any impact on the ability to raise a respectful kid (actually, American parents are the best evidence of the contrary). In a real village-like, participating society, they would have to comply and apologize.

In a village, if taxpayers sponsor child-related facilities, the purpose of it is not to worship somebody’s kid. The purpose is to ensure progress, development, and respect in the society as a whole. In a village, public schools educate and teach, but also discipline the children and correct parental failures, if the young ones show signs of any. Parents respect teachers’ decisions because they know the school has the same goal as themselves: to raise respectful children into a respectful society. They do not undermine the teachers’ work and punish their kids if teachers report to them any misbehavior attempt that was curtailed at school. The same applies to public day care centers (in this case mostly in European societies) that are subsidized by the taxpayers. They are not treated as a low cost child storage, but rather as an extension of home, with consistent supervision, care, and discipline.

In kid-worshiping America, consistent raising of respectful children is sabotaged by helicopter parents blaming the teachers for giving their bratty kids well deserved reprimands for transgressions. Instead of cooperating with the school, these parents seriously harm their children by breaking away from the consistency provided by the village through the school.

In a village, kids learn to solve their own problems all by themselves. Adults are occupied with adult matters, like earning a living, and govern their kids’ behavior from some distance in order to give the children freedom to learn. They do not run after the kids all the time, everywhere, to overprotect their oversensitive snowflakes from what life around other kids may bring. Instead, they let the kids play, argue, and fight, and step in only if there is blood or broken bones. They can count on other villagers who occasionally take a look at the kids, and return the favor whenever an opportunity arises. These kids grow up to be very self-reliant, respectful, and their conflict solving abilities in workplaces are impressive.

Unfortunately, kid-obsessed American parents deprive their children of this valuable experience, thus, hurt their development. Their overprotected, overworshiped little dictators grow up to be incapable of solving conflicts, insecure and self-centered. None of these characteristics are useful in a “village”.

In a village, screaming is a sound of alarm, not fun. Children, from the youngest age, are trained not to make any unnecessary noise that would disrupt other people’s peace or offend them. They scream when something very serious happens, for example, an accident. Villagers know that they should run immediately to rescue the kid whenever they hear a scream. American parents fail terribly to teach their kids to keep respectfully quiet, especially in public places. In a village, both the parents and the kids would be brought to order for this.

In a village, the elderly enjoy well deserved respect. They are given priority and privileges resulting from life experience and wisdom, but also from declining energy and health. Kids, as younger and more energetic, must give up their seats for all adults, but for the elderly especially, and usually do it immediately without any additional requests from adults because they are raised to do so. They also run errands for their elderly relatives or neighbors, or help the lady from the fourth floor carry a heavy shopping bag to her apartment.

In kid-obsessed America, people seem to have a big problem with this village rule. Not only do entitled parents put their small kids on separate seats while adults are standing instead of holding them on their laps, they also take kids out of strollers and put them selfishly on separate seats. To make things worse, people give up their seats for school kids who have enough energy to jump like monkeys and yell outrageously with no reason and logically should have all the energy to stand still respectfully. It does not occur to the eight year old princes or princesses to give up their seats for the seniors. The parents fail to teach them, the schools fail to correct it, and other passengers fail to enforce it and discipline the ill-mannered kids. In a village, this kind of behavior is unacceptable.

It does take a village to raise a child but parents have to take the village as a package. It does not work if only the privileges that suit them are taken out of it.

Kids must be taught how to deal with emergencies

A few days ago, a five year old kid who called 911 when the mother was choking made the news. What is so unusual about a kid calling to get an ambulance when someone is having a sudden and serious health problem? Nothing, but kid-obsessed Americans managed to make a big deal and front page news out of it.

In kid-obsessed America, anything a kid does, no matter how usual, is labeled as adorable and cute. It could not be different in this case. The comments under the news articles were ludicrous: “how adorable”, “so cute”, “most adorable 911 call ever”, “so adorable”, and a thousand more over-sweet adorables. The kid, in fact, did a good job calling for help, but nothing out of ordinary, and nothing more than what should be required from a kid of this age. It was responsible, right, timely, maybe even life saving, very well done, but neither adorable nor cute. This kind of action should be required from a kid of five as a standard, not praised to the skies as if it were a superhuman achievement.

All kids should be trained what to do in case of an emergency. The earlier, the better, for the kids themselves, and for their immediate environment. Calling for help in case of an emergency is essential, and this kind of training should not be omitted by the excuse that the child is too young. If it is indeed too young to know the digits, or even to know how to press a pre-programmed button to make a phone call, it should be able to run to the nearest neighbor and to seek the adult’s attention and help.

I was trained to address emergencies much earlier than at the age of five, and all kids around me were taught it as well. It was more difficult than in America because there were separate phone numbers for each service, like ambulance, firefighters, and police, not a general one which simplifies the training by a great deal. Still, it was not difficult for an average child to learn. I was also trained where the main valves for water as well as where the electric fuses were located in the house. I would not be able to turn them off by myself, but I was required to bring a neighbor to do it, and show him or her where they are located. I was taught what kind of emergency required what kind of action. I did not die from knowledge overload. I did not have a prospective emergency trauma either. My parents, in turn, felt safer when leaving for work, even if elderly relatives were at home at that time.

All other parents I knew efficiently rehearsed emergency situations with their young kids, as well as taught them basic responsibilities. At the age of five, kids were actually left at home or outside for some time and required to watch younger children: their siblings, cousins, or neighbors’ kids. All of them did it skillfully and responsibly. No immature or irresponsible acts ever happened. With proper training, kids are perfectly able to do it.

Americans greatly underestimate their children’s learning abilities, especially if it comes to useful things, and in fact, treat the kids as if they were mentally deficient. They place their offspring on pedestals and worship, instead of teaching them useful, life-related skills. Their kids are allowed to learn to operate devices like video games, TV sets, and other electronic fun gadgets, that require some minimum of skills to use, but the precious snowflakes would, in the obsessed parents’ opinion, suffer an irreversible trauma if they were taught something as simple and useful as how to operate a washing machine.

If a kid learns how to operate a computer, or a TV set, it must be able to learn how to call 911, or how to turn a washer on. These basic skills should be strictly required, not treated as extraordinary or heroic, and published as front page news with the laughable label of “adorable”.

Why are American kids so unsanitary?

American children are very unsanitary. They cough and sneeze without covering their mouths, they drool and spit, hold their hands in their mouths and touch objects, or people right afterwards with hands sticky of saliva, they lick public objects, they throw food all around, they urinate in public pools, or take a bite of food from a buffet available to other customers and put it back to the container. This list could be much longer. I am leaving out public diaper changing as this subject deserves a post of its own.

I hear from many Americans, those offended by this kind of behavior, that kids are simply disgusting. They say it (or write it online, as most often they are too afraid of saying anything face to face) the way that implies that all kids are simply gross. This is not true, but these people were apparently not exposed to other cultures, and they do not know that children can act much better. Kids are not unsanitary by nature. They are so only when adults fail to teach them otherwise. Unfortunately, the said failure happens way too often in kid-obsessed America, so it is very easy to draw a conclusion that all kids are unsanitary by people who have never traveled to other countries.

The reasons for failure to meet basic hygienic standards by American children are simple:

  • Parents fail to teach them and enforce proper standards of behavior both at home and in public places.
  • People offended or disgusted by unsanitary behavior fail to require parents to bring the kid to order or to report this behavior to proper authorities.
  • Businesses fail to enforce strict hygienic standards on their premises and fail to remove parents and kids that do not abide by these standards.

Countless times I have seen kids in America sneezing right into fruit or vegetables in supermarkets. At first, it was too shocking to me to do anything. I just stood there, my jaw dropped to the floor, as I have never seen such behavior in any other society before. Worse, the staff was there, observing it and doing nothing. At that time I had no idea what public institutions have the authority to inspect and fine businesses for unacceptable hygienic standards. Now I know where to report it, and I also require the management to impose order.

Another time, later on, a kid behind me in line at the supermarket drooled copiously on the conveyor belt where customers put their food to check it out, and the cashier did nothing about it. I cancelled my credit card transaction, and left a cart full of products right there, informing the worker about the reason for my dissatisfaction. Now, knowing better how things work in America, I would rather inform the management and the owner about why they lost my business forever. The place where this incident occurred was a health food store, or rather a germ food store; if they label themselves as “health”, they should keep healthy standards.

Another example: at a farmers market, a woman arrived with a kid that sprung wild out of the car, ran right to the stand with strawberries, and touched all of them with hands taken right out of the still drooling mouth. The farmer did nothing: Did not bring the kid to order, did not require the woman who failed to supervise the kid to buy all of them and did not throw them away. They were most likely sold to the next customer, together with the germs. Back then, I only informed the farmer that I will not spend money on her products for this reason. If this happened now, I would have taken her car’s license plate and informed proper authorities about her failure to ensure hygienic standards of the food products she sells.

I will not list all those times on the New York City Subway or NJ Transit when kids sneezed on people, touched them with dirty hands sticky from snots, kept dirty feet on seats, or licked the poles people hold on to, and their guardians did nothing about it. This behavior is simply selfish, as it threatens public health.

I also read about many cases of kids spitting into buffets, or taking a bite of food and putting it back, with the staff standing nearby, and doing nothing. This is unacceptable, and if you see something similar, you should take the steps listed below. Now I do it, too. It took me some time to get out of the shock when seeing this kind of behavior and to learn proper reporting procedures, but now I always take an action; simply taking other people’s health into account: someone who comes after me may not see what I saw and buy the contaminated food product. It is selfish not to take an action.

There is a lot that adults can do to teach the kids sanitary behavior, and millions of people all around the world succeed in training children, without even putting much thought into it. They do it because this is the way they grew up, and this is the way everyone around them does it. Kids, starting at the youngest age, one to two, are perfectly teachable and trainable to meet the standards of basic respect and hygiene. It is enough to simply grab the hand the kid puts into its mouth, take it out and say, in a strict and short manner: “don’t do it”, or take its hand when it starts coughing, bring it to its mouth and cover it, saying firmly “cover your mouth”. Clear and short requests are the key here. If you do it consistently two or three times, I guarantee the kid will learn.

At this point, Americans will, as usual, claim that their bundle of germs (the kid) of this age does not understand neither the teachings nor orders. True, but understanding is irrelevant at this point. A child does not have to understand it at all, it just needs to develop a good habit, or quit the bad habit automatically. With proper training, good habits will become second nature very soon, just like breathing air. Understanding respect and hygiene will come later on an adequate level of maturity. Kids are smart and learn quickly. Unfortunately, American parents greatly underestimate these abilities, and end up having rude and unsanitary kids.

In my elementary school, kids were punished by teachers for unhygienic behavior, and rejected by other kids for the same reason. It did not happen too often because, by the time we went to school, parents, relatives, and day care teachers taught us how to behave respectfully in a society. However, if an accident of forgetfulness occasionally happened, we could always count on the teachers or other children for corrections.

Some people may claim: “but there are so many adults sneezing or coughing without covering their mouths, or doing other disgusting things”. This is the sad truth, but this happens because their parents failed to teach them respectful habits when they were kids, later on their school failed to correct their parents’ failure, and the society failed to protest against their rudeness. Teach the kids respect and they will grow up to be respectful adults.

What can all of us do to eradicate unsanitary kids’ behavior?

  • Require the parent or sitter to respect us and bring the kid to order, and do it strictly, do not accept the “it’s just a kid” excuse. Remember: kids are teachable from the very early ages.
  • Require the business management to enforce proper sanitary standards, and remove the violator, if necessary. If the manager talks back, justifies unsanitary behavior, or does not seem to see anything wrong about it, report it to the owner. If you spend money there, imagine that your credit card is your voter’s card. You can make a difference.
  • Report lack or violation of sanitary standards, especially in food handling businesses, to proper authorities. Since I learned the proper authorities in charge of food safety, I do it every time I see a violation. These authorities differ from state to state. It can be health, business, or agriculture departments. The easiest way to find them is to Google: “how to report unsanitary conditions + your state”. They often have easy to fill online report forms, or special phone numbers for reporting. Do not forget that someone’s health may depend on your report.

Do not be afraid to point out the unacceptable behavior. I know they told you throughout all your life that kids are sacred. They are not, and if they are doing something wrong, it is your right to require to end the violation.

If the above cases of failure to comply with minimum hygienic standards happened in other countries, i.e. in many of the European countries, the businesses would make the parent pay for all the items contaminated by the kid. Also, the customers would report the unsanitary behavior to the authorities, and the businesses would pay huge fines. Whether the sanitary standards in America remain as low as they are, or get better depends on you. You should not hesitate to react.