I would be a bad mum... if I still lived in Germany! Or: differences in traditions and guidelines

Upto you let them drink milk??? .
You DO know this is the worst thing ever to do too don't you?

I know a few Chinese medicine practitioners (who aren't Chinese!) who would completely agree with your family. Anything cold is bad. So are dairy products and raw foods.
Also I know that Chinese women would never accept to have a fan on when they are giving birth, even if it's 35C outside and they are overheating.

Parents and grandparents are Italian.

Don't know about the masturbation one (probably because I had a girl,) but everything else, spot on. Esp wrt to baby slop, wool for all seasons, and napping. Oh, and the rules about babies outside. My grandparents are horrified that DD loves playing out in the snow for hours. (We're in Canada)

I must pierce DD's ears, but she simply cannot be wearing an amber necklace. She could choke!

Though my DGF was wholly supportive of breastfeeding. He let me have the Lazyboy!

This thread has just cost me £5.71 to buy the book mentioned upthread about the changes in customs over time. Dream Babies.

My DD was brought up in Turkey and I was thought very odd because I didn't dress her in 6 layers in the middle of august, because I put her in a car seat rather than let her crawl around the front of the car and because I didn't give her loads of sugar in everything, including milk. Also I used to put her in bed at 7.30 rather than 11pm!

They don't send children to school until they are 6 there.

tanukiton

ha ha I let mine eat ice lollies when sick with sore throats, parent fail in japan.

I'm a bad Chinese (or maybe just my particular background) parent because I let my children argue with me, I let them go in the rain and get wet , I let them eat cold things in winter, I let them eat cold things when they are ill (not instant death, like someone posted about consuming melon after sundown, but close), I let them drink cold milk in the morning, I let them drink cold milk in the evening.

Actually just avoid the cold stuff.

"Bed time is between 10 and 12. They couldn't go earlier, because the shopping centres don't close until 10. "

Yes! Also because it's less hot at night so you go out and socialise then. But lots of them have afternoon naps.

Also very big on being polite to grown-ups. Must call all relatives by the right title.

And about corporal punishment.

It's been posted already, but this thread is absolutely fascinating :)

I come from a West Indian background

And I am a bad mum because

I cut my sons hair before he could talk
Don't wrapp up my kids in layers when it's like 30degress outside

Oh, also they add sugar or syrup to fruit juice, and everything is sweet.

Here (Malaysia) kids are spoonfed mush while they are babies. Babies are any aged kids up to about 5.

Bed time is between 10 and 12. They couldn't go earlier, because the shopping centres don't close until 10.

Children are often beaten :( for doing anything that might lose the parents face. Education is a big one.

I gave birth in Germany and was told I couldn't have a bath for 6 weeks after (and the wards didn't have them). I felt such a rebel sliding into the bubbles back home 5 days later!

Something I noticed when we lived in Cyprus was the lack of horror towards a child drinking juice/squash instead of just water. DD was a water refuser, to the point of hospitalisation and the Cypriot Doctor went absolutely bonkers at me. Proper spitting shouting at how stupid I was trying to push the water issue. He wrote a letter to the British pre-school chastising them and calling them neglectful. They actually changed their rules after we left.

Ladyindisguise we are in France at the moment holidaying. DD was covered in lunch yesterday (she's almost 3 and refuses to let me help her- it was spaghetti) but the look we got from the waiter was just..appalled. hehe

In France, epidural is the norm for giving birth, birth pols are unheard off.
No such strict routine re bed times. It's OK for a 2yo to still be up at midnight if her parents are having a meal with friends. Also normal if this happens every other weekend.
Children are keeping their nap much later on (4~5yo) but they also go to bed later than here (7.00pm bedtime is unheard off. makes sense as a lot of women do work and won't be back home until 6.30~7.00pm anyway).
Smacking
Feeding on demand for a bay is again very unusual. babies are fed every 4 hours more or less right from the start. The result is that the baby bottle are actually bigger than here (clearly babies then have bigger feeds less often).
But they will expect to feed their baby until after 2yo so they don't get all dirty. Mines were holding their own spoons by 10months old (and were covered in food from head to toe lol).

Norway - I was chastised for not dressing DS in head to toe wool, (Which it turns out is very practical) and for giving up breastfeeding at 6 months.

The kids walk to school from an early age and the nursey is very relaxed quite often turn up when they are outside and get told 'he is around here somewhere'.

Also SAHM is not a thing here everyone 'contributes' to society so no mums and tots classes etc, but the childcare is very reasonable and the working hours are brilliant and very flexible (lots of child days etc)

We love it reminds me of my childhood, more free range then the uk.

as to childbirth in Italy;

I gave birth in a known maternity centre in the north and yes compared to the UK it was very medicalised apart from the epidural which I didn't get . After birth I was advised to not have a bath until six weeks as you do have an open wound in your uterus (which made sense to me) so also in the UK I only had showers after birth. No sex until ar least the first 6 weeks or later if preferred.
I noticed also that italians are very wary about foods having influence on your milk, I just ate everything

Melon? Instant death if consumed after sundown.

Constipation? Stick a parsley stalk up your arse!

I think that must be where the origin of it lies, can'tremember. But I was on an expat forum back in the day and all the mums-of-boys had been told to fiddle until ejaculation.

I don't want to come across as nasty about my adopted country- I still think, bonkers rules and all, it is still a wonderful place to be bringing up a child otherwise I'd have shipped out and left 'em to it years ago

There are just so many mad rules that there don't seem to be in the UK.

Oh, and their bums are clean enough to eat your dinner off, with all their intimate washes etc, but you sniff their hair and their pits. Minging. Seemingly as long as your arse is antibacterial-wiped every hour, all is well in the world.

Sangria - you are hilarious! I have a friend here in Paris who is from Southern Italy and I know, from frequenting her for a long, long time, that she doesn't dare admit to a zillion mad mamma practices that the vast majority of Parisian expat mummies would find positively medieval

dranksangria
no italian doctor ever told me to touch in any way my ds' bits!
however I know that my mil's generation was told to 'open' the penis for cleaning purposes. I am very happy that that's no longer the advise and they now just wait until the foreskin slides open naturally and the child cleans himself.

dodi1978 - I am English living in France and encountered many conflicting child raising rules when my DD was little (fewer now that she is older - or maybe I have just made my own decisions now!).

FWIW, I think the UK is extremely unreliable when it comes to weaning. Good advice and practices on many things, but not on weaning.

When my American friend thought her son had meningitis (he didn't thankfully) she took him to A and E and was really really shouted at for knowing the word. 3rd degree interrogation "who has told you that word?" "how do you know the symptoms?"

Norway: the kids can ski and use a whittling knife before they are potty trained. (Normally get out of nappies at 3.5yrs.
They walk home from school by themselves before they are fluent readers. (walk home from 6-7yrs, which is the 1st year of school)