Japanese saying about children

[Amy]

I thought that was interesting what Japanese say about how they bring up their kids: "Before the age of 2, the child is the king in the family; after 2, he's a slave." They mean that when the baby is little and cannot take care of himself, they serve him doing everything for him, and do not put any restrictions on him - which lasts until he is two. Then they consider the child old enough to learn some responsibility, and they get real hard on him.

What do you think, ladies? I'd say that after two years of kingship the transition to slavery can be pretty bad... Besides, if you don't put ANY restrictions the brat will be too spoiled by the time he is two!

Amy

 

[Kiwi]

How to raise a child is a very culturally defined thing, I just had to write a lingustics essay on language acquisition in children and how cultural values are taught through how language is taught, this would also apply to disapline. They must have a reason for doing this that fits in with their culture, after all the Japanese culture is close to 3000 years old. I don't know how they would make the transition, would be an interesting thing to ask a Japanese mother.

 

[MizDoulos]

Originally posted by Amy
I thought that was interesting what Japanese say about how they bring up their kids: "Before the age of 2, the child is the king in the family; after 2, he's a slave." They mean that when the baby is little and cannot take care of himself, they serve him doing everything for him, and do not put any restrictions on him - which lasts until he is two. Then they consider the child old enough to learn some responsibility, and they get real hard on him.

What do you think, ladies? I'd say that after two years of kingship the transition to slavery can be pretty bad... Besides, if you don't put ANY restrictions the brat will be too spoiled by the time he is two!

Amy

I find this very interesting. Being Japanese, I have never heard of such a quote or heard of anything similar. The parents from the "old school" bring up their children in a loving, respectful manner with lots of patience. As with any society, there are parents that are not as loving and caring as others; but, for the most part, I have seen quite the opposite.

 

[Million Pieces]

I can not even imagine raising a child to the age of two and never reprimanding him!!! He'd rule the house forever after that!!! I began gently reprimanding certain behaviours at age about 8 months or so. Don't get me wrong, I in no way used the GFI methods, but we began with obvious things like pinching, hitting, biting, throwing toys, that stuff. I don't think my kids even reached their first birthdays without a swat to their pants once.

I will be the first to admit I was very very harsh on my oldest son (I was going through PPD at the time), I cringe when I consider how I treated him after he reached about 2 or so. I'm just THIS lucky no one reported me some days. Once I was confronted with what was happening, it stopped in a darn hurry. I got a lot more advice with the next two, and I'm so incredibly thankful that God supresses children's memories before age two! Praise God!!