Cameron Parham

Marji: One of the ways that I teach my kids about public behavior is connected to the idea of explaining things somewhat as if they are from a foreign country. When they do things that will cause them problems in public I often explain that in this culture, this other thing is more acceptable. We can then discuss how different cultures vary, and how people become accustomed to the things they are used to. We can discuss the difference between courtesy, kindness, and cultural skills. This keeps us away from the feeling that the child's behavior was intrinsically weird or bad. If the behavior was unkind, I'll usually focus on that a bit more, but if the behavior was only unusual for our culture, I like to help them understand that, then leave the rest of the discussion up to them. Cameron





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