Ever since I read this article in the NY Times, I've been semi-obsessed with the idea that the role of parenting is to impart your culture to your children. A lot of people think Americans don't have a culture, or that we're just a mix of different cultures, but let me disavow you of that notion. American culture is, in fact, quite definable and observable!
Take our relationship with time, for instance. Americans think of time as linear. You can see that in our verb tenses - we have distinct past, present, and future tenses. We also have additional tenses to use when describing exactly when two different things happened (I had been at work for an hour when my client called.)
From a scholarly point of view, American culture is monochronic. That means we tend to focus on schedules, our activities have a set start and end point, and we do one thing at a time. (If you're interested in the differences with polychronic cultures, check this out.)
Now obviously, not every American person views time exactly the same way, and we all have varying degrees of punctuality, but in general, this is how our society works.
Why do I bring this up? Because when the kids and I were watching Daniel Tiger the other day, the episode's theme was, "It's almost time to stop, so choose one more thing to do." (It's Episode 129, if you're interested.) Daniel and his friends were playing together. Daniel's dad showed up and told him it was time to go home. Daniel didn't want to leave, so his dad sang him the little song to encourage him to move along.
I was struck by just how American/Euro/Western this exchange was! I mean, in other cultures, the family wouldn't have such a strict schedule they kept to. They would not find it necessary to sing a song to their child giving them notice that "it's almost time to stop" because that is not how their brains have been acculturated to think! But in our culture, we do want our kids to follow our family schedule, so I appreciate that Daniel Tiger has such a catchy song to help teach this aspect of life.
That's actually my favorite kid show at the moment - I'm always humming their little jingles, and really, they can be pretty profound. One day I was feeling like I wasn't doing a very good job as a mom, and I was dwelling on everything I did wrong. Then the song came on, "Do your best - your best is the best for you." And I was just like, whoa, Daniel, you're right! I don't need to compare myself to other moms. I just need to be the best mom I can be.
Aha, that's another American cultural influence - valuing individualism! But that's a topic for another day :)
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