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As a First-World Parent, Am I Setting My Child Up to Never be Content?
Parenting lessons from developing countries.
I was brought up by Nepali parents in Japan in the 1980s. I witnessed both cultures firsthand.
In Tokyo, we had an abundant array of colorful TV channels. Back in Kathmandu, my cousins had a choice between two black and white channels.
Restless and bored — that’s what I remember sitting cross-legged in front of a TV with my Nepali cousins, their eyes glued to the screen as if they were watching Spiderman.
As I raise a 3-year-old son with my German husband in Germany, a first-world country, I think about those vacations in Nepal playing hopscotch and throwing a small ball at a makeshift rock house built from scratch.
I wonder, in a country that has everything a child could want, am I raising my son to never be content?
Choices
My dad walked 10 kilometers to and fro school as a child in Kathmandu. His shoes wore out quickly, but the family had no money to buy a replacement.
He sewed them up but they fell apart in no time. Forced to walk bare foot, he was covered in sores and blisters.
