Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How Children in a Maya Village Do Chores

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 215 posts

Re: How Children in a Maya Village Do Chores

#91

Post by [deleted] »

cambalache wrote: post #52
jordigh wrote: post #27

I know this is a bit petty, but I've stared to resent a little that even though I'm Mexican, I'm not considered Western. What am I, then? Eastern? Central? Southern? I'm not just arguing about the geography, but about the culture. I feel much more like a Canadian or a USian (or a Guatemalan) than I feel like an African, Middle Easter, East Asian, or South Asian. I speak the same languages as Europe, have been mostly…

My friend, this was something that surprised me 15-20 years ago when thanks to the Internet I started to interact with Americans. At the end Western is a code word for White dominated places or sometimes just Anglo. This came from Huntington's Clash of Civilizations a profoundly ignorant work. As you wrote you can live in Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo or Mexico City, huge cosmopolitan places, maybe you have some recent rel…

[deleted]

Re: How Children in a Maya Village Do Chores

#92

Post by DoreenMichele »

edanm wrote: post #84
DoreenMichele wrote: post #35

"The Mexican-American kids, aged 6 to 7, were doing about twice as much around the house as the middle-class European-American kids, on average," It's implied but not outright stated in the above quote: We are talking about households that are much, much poorer on average than "middle-class European-American kids." This is backed up by the photos in the article. So, if you have nothing else to do because your parents…

I agree with the implication, but I think you're at least somewhat wrong, and I still thought it was a great article. Specifically, I think that I'm going to be taking this idea to heart with my own child. The reason I think you're wrong, btw, is that even my son (2 yrs old), who is certainly not lacking in things to do, seems to be very interested in helping us around the kitchen. Every time I'm cooking, he comes to…

I was just noting what I felt was an important detail that the framing was glossing over. I think to some extent you are reading in things I did not intend.

This will vary some depending on the child and the circumstances, but children tend to be interested in what other people are doing. I wouldn't characterize it as trying to be helpful per se. I would characterize it as trying to engage with others in some way and trying to understand the world.

If you have only one child, then the parents are the people that child is going to tend to want to engage. If you have more than one child, they may take more interest in their older siblings, who are more developmentally accessible. They are closer in size and ability, thus easier to mimic.

My oldest was always wherever I was and he wanted to engage with the objects I engaged with, such as pots and pans or my books. He wasn't terribly interested in his toys. My second child both liked toys more and also had an older brother to follow around. He wasn't constantly underfoot.

But I'm glad the article was good food for thought for you. Happy parenting.

Re: How Children in a Maya Village Do Chores

#93

Post by sudhirj »

newnewpdro wrote: post #15

Until the kids all got smartphones... what chores? Raise your kids in a single shared room without any convenient forms of unlimited entertainment, where they must either witness all the work they're not helping with while bored and guilty or participate, and see how magically helpful they are.

Raising my kid in a house full of books, massive TV, most iPads, iPhone and MacBooks released lying around. The ideas still work. Cleans the floor, takes a great interest in making sure we’re all well fed, keeps stuff tidy, tries grooming, and stirs my coffee and blows on it if it’s too hot. A year and a half old.

Re: How Children in a Maya Village Do Chores

#94

Post by sudhirj »

okket wrote: post #86
sudhirj wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s plenty of mentions of sons in the article, just no pictures.

Plenty? I read the article again and found only one.

Sorry, misread. Only the dish washing example is a boy, but I don’t think this is inherently gender specific.

Re: How Children in a Maya Village Do Chores

#95

Post by okket »

sudhirj wrote: post #94
okket wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plenty? I read the article again and found only one.

Sorry, misread. Only the dish washing example is a boy, but I don’t think this is inherently gender specific.

Mexicos (and many other) current culture is not exactly known to be gender neutral on most (all?) things. Sorry, but I am a little skeptical about your assumption...

Re: How Children in a Maya Village Do Chores

#96

Post by michalskop »

jordigh wrote: post #27

I know this is a bit petty, but I've stared to resent a little that even though I'm Mexican, I'm not considered Western. What am I, then? Eastern? Central? Southern? I'm not just arguing about the geography, but about the culture. I feel much more like a Canadian or a USian (or a Guatemalan) than I feel like an African, Middle Easter, East Asian, or South Asian. I speak the same languages as Europe, have been mostly…

I'm from central-eastern Europe and I feel the same. I've spent a few years in Latin America and I'd call both the regions "new" or "satellite" or "not-core" West. Germany or the US may be the original core West, but LatAm and CEEurope are West, too.

Whether to include also Russia, that would be my question.

Re: How Children in a Maya Village Do Chores

#97

Post by lbriner »

Excuse me while I just go and write a motivational talk about your Developers encouraging "acomedido": "It's not just doing what you're told, and it's not just helping out. It's knowing the kind of help that is situationally appropriate because you're paying attention."

Gold dust!

Re: How Children in a Maya Village Do Chores

#99

Post by unixhero »

michalskop wrote: post #96
jordigh wrote: post #27

I know this is a bit petty, but I've stared to resent a little that even though I'm Mexican, I'm not considered Western. What am I, then? Eastern? Central? Southern? I'm not just arguing about the geography, but about the culture. I feel much more like a Canadian or a USian (or a Guatemalan) than I feel like an African, Middle Easter, East Asian, or South Asian. I speak the same languages as Europe, have been mostly…

I'm from central-eastern Europe and I feel the same. I've spent a few years in Latin America and I'd call both the regions "new" or "satellite" or "not-core" West. Germany or the US may be the original core West, but LatAm and CEEurope are West, too. Whether to include also Russia, that would be my question.

Russia is certainly out since they don't share even the same alphabet.

Re: How Children in a Maya Village Do Chores

#100

Post by Double_a_92 »

mmjaa wrote: post #83

I found it infuriating to read this article and realise there was no mention of Dad. Maybe his absence is an overlooked part of it? As a father, I do chores with my kids, and the trope that only mothers and house-wives do chores is really tiresome. Maybe there's another way to get kids involved in chores - make sure Dad doesn't get away with not being involved, too. The family that cleans together (that means Dads to…

If your wife is a house-wife (i.e. doesn't have any other job, while you have a fulltime job) why would she not just do all the chores that she can do?
Post reply on HN