Things About America I'm Excited About #1: Family-Friendliness

One thing that makes me happy when I think about our new life in the U.S. is the family-friendliness of American culture. That is of course in no-way to say that the Asian culture is anti-family, in general (I do think it has its anti-family aspects, though those are balanced in many ways by being more pro-family in other aspects than we Americans are). What I mean is that, when it comes to daily life conveniences, it is simply easier to be a parent in the U.S. than it is to be one here. I'm talking about places you can take kids and things you can bring your kids along to do. One small example: the existence of restaurant highchairs.

Generally speaking, restaurants here do not have high chairs. That is because, generally speaking, people don't take their children out to eat. The average Asian household, where we live, consists of two parents, one or two grandparents, and one child. So the parents will go out to eat, often with friends or co-workers, but the child will stay home with the grandparents. Thus, no restaurant highchairs. There are a few American chain restaurants in our city that do have them (McDonalds, KFC, Papa John's, etc.) and one chain of local restaurants that, randomly, has them. Other than that, we just pull Sarah's stroller up to the table and have her eat that way (which she doesn't like), or we try to remember to bring along a little blue booster seat that straps onto the chair for her to use.

This is just one example. I must say, though, that I think Asia is growing in terms of stuff to do and places to go with kids. These little store-front Discovery Zone type places are popping up all over the place, though they are a little on the expensive side. Playgrounds are becoming slightly more common, though parks in general (in my opinion) still aren't super kid-friendly. The newer parks are better.

But America in general, and St. Louis in particular (from what we hear), has a comparable abundance of public playgrounds and parks and libraries and festivals and children's museums and zoos . . . And I am really looking forward to all those things and restaurant high chairs and booster seats too!