Moving to the States with children...cultural differences?

[Gem13]

There's a possibility that we will be moving to the States in a couple of months with DH's work. We've lived there before for short periods but that was pre-children and in a different city. This would be long term.

So, I was wondering if anyone had found it hard/easy meeting other mothers, going to toddler groups, etc. and if there was anything very different from the life they had here. For example the mothers I know here have similar attitudes towards feeding, discipline, etc.

We have a toddler and a baby.

Again, would just like to say, in Boston, I know no one who owns a gun!

I think the grocery store questionlike guns, religion, politics and so much elseis regional, and helps prove the point there's just no way to make intelligent generalizations about the US. You can get much variety/quality food in NYC or Boston or San Francisco etc . . but then when I was living on Cape Cod during the the winter months you couldn't even get FISHand of course Cape Cod is all about seafood. I could never find an organic or even fresh morsel of meat, just this awful looking stuff in the fridge aisle. Yuck yuck yuck. We ate, but it was better if I didn't think too much about it. But August24 and Texyou're right about things improving and about high availability of quality food in many towns, cities. August: I can imagine you must miss Boston and the food there! (I do too! New England Clam Chowder. . .I'm swooning.)

I am american and have lived in berkeley (where I grew up), boston, new york and los angeles. I now live in london. In my 41 years I have seen guns in a domestic setting in two places. Once was a hand gun in boston and the other was a closet full of rifles in a house in london (it was for sale and we were viewing it and my ds opened the closet door).

AND the only person I have ever known who owned a semi-automatic weapon was a 16 year old in london. Or so he claimed.

It may be much easier to legally own a gun in the usa, but it is just as easy to buy one illegally in the uk as it is in the usa. At least the people you are talking about are not drinking while doing target practice in a field.

I adore Trader Joes here in the states, but they don't have any in Florida. We do have something called Whole Foods and plenty of health food stores. Lots of fresh fruit and vegetables too. There is an extreme difference between the Northeast and the South. I adore California, my brother lives in Santa Barbarabut California is very different as well, very free-spirited. Each part of the country also has their own minority groups which adds so much to the culture in terms of the foods that you will find at the local supermarkets. Our local market here is Publix and they do a great job with the ethnic section. We can get Branston pickle, Digestives, Jaffa Cakesyou know all the important things! I found in the UK that they have alot less chemicals added to their convenience foods which is fantastic. I drive downtown to Orlando to the Chinese section to get some fun snacks for my kidsthe jellies and things from Japan have vitamin E as a perservative. I guess the states are coming around slowly. I give my kids Rice Milk or Organic Cows milk and we drink filtered water. It is true about the hormones and the antibiotics in the milk and the meatI think our children are reaching puberty here at a younger age because of this. It is also difficult to explain away the high coincidence of asthma, who knows why? We have so many homes with wall-to-wall carpets full of chemicals to keep them clean--I can't see how folks don't realize how awful it is for their babies who have to crawl on them. Enough of this!

Gem will be able to find a ton of stores that have wonderful foods and she will be naturally attracted to people that won't mind if she screams Jesus when she drops something. The gun thing is a whole other subculture. to me Texas is like another country altogether--they do rattlesnake round-ups and things in Southen Texus, butI am sure it is quite different up in Dallas. That is why it is so tough to generalize about us Americans. We are an interesting bunch, but there are alot of us that are warm and honest, gentle and caring and welcome folks that emigrate and love to "show them the ropes". Gem, I am sure you will meet some lovely people here!

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