Last Tuesday I made play dough for our Mommy and Me class. It was so much fun! All the ladies asked me how to make it which was easy to explain minus "Cream on Tartar" - which they don't even have here!
The greatest part was realizing AGAIN the big cultural differences between us and the Chinese. I was showing them how to 'use' play dough and I started rolling a little piece in my hands and said, "Look I am making a little ball." To which they all got excited and told the kids, "Look LaoShi [teacher] is making tang yuan [a little sticky rice ball]." From then on they made all sorts of play "Chinese" food, dumplings and pot stickers and stuff like that.
Can you see Caedmon 'protecting' all his things in this picture. Despite the LONG talk we had before class about sharing the play dough... Oh Boy.
After class I went to a neighbors house with another woman and their grandkids. As the kids played I was talking with these two ladies who both have daughters that were born in 80' and 82' (I was born in 81). Both of their daughters are only children, as the one child policy was instituted in 79. And so they both have only one grandchild each (who are Caed's age). I asked them if China hadn't made the policy would you have liked to have more kids.
[side note - Caed spilled gatorade on my computer and now the 'question mark' key doesn't work - so from here on out no question marks on my blog]
One woman said YES, she for sure wished she could have had more. The other woman said no. She said that her husband worked in the city and she had to work too, so having more kids would have been to difficult with her lifestyle. I found it so interesting to talk to these women, who are my mom's age. I obviously know what it feels like to be restricted in family planning due to infertility, but I can't imagine how it would feel to be in their shoes.
After class I went to a neighbors house with another woman and their grandkids. As the kids played I was talking with these two ladies who both have daughters that were born in 80' and 82' (I was born in 81). Both of their daughters are only children, as the one child policy was instituted in 79. And so they both have only one grandchild each (who are Caed's age). I asked them if China hadn't made the policy would you have liked to have more kids.
[side note - Caed spilled gatorade on my computer and now the 'question mark' key doesn't work - so from here on out no question marks on my blog]
One woman said YES, she for sure wished she could have had more. The other woman said no. She said that her husband worked in the city and she had to work too, so having more kids would have been to difficult with her lifestyle. I found it so interesting to talk to these women, who are my mom's age. I obviously know what it feels like to be restricted in family planning due to infertility, but I can't imagine how it would feel to be in their shoes.
2 comments:
Really interesting story and great that you are a real part of the Chinese community where you live. How's your Chinese, by the way? Pretty good, I'm guessing :)
Love Caed shooing away the kids. Hehehe.
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