International Parenting Traditions

We often disregard the detail of how traditions are shared, taught, and appreciated, tending to forget where it all starts: parents. Parents, caregivers, or guardians are the root to our communities. They teach us responsibilities, manners, life lessons, skills and so much more. Many families have personal, religious, or family traditions, and they tend to have some similarities – and some differences — around the world.

Over time, we have corrected ourselves when it comes to dealing with others, especially when parenting. Teaching, disciplining, and overall understanding is constantly changing with new technology and advances in everyday human activity.

“Taking notes from generations past is natural, but attention should be paid to the fact parenting methods change with the times,” says Natalie Naude in an interview called The Baby Show. As children tend to mature, just like the thriving community, parents should pay close attention to those changes to achieve the perfect, or at least close to, parenting method.

Many different regions of the world have unique, even borderline strange, traditions when it comes to parenting, such as whistling when potty training children as the Vietnamese do, or, like in Mauritania where women and men spit on newborns. In China, some families celebrate the first 100 days of a baby’s life to say thanks for the safety of their child as well as the baby’s first birthday. In this tradition, the baby reaches out to some sort of object while a large feast is put on, and the object they choose will resemble their future.

The tooth fairy is a popular world-wide tradition. While most people are familiar with this tradition, there are some variations around the world. Generally in America, when a child’s baby teeth fall out, they are placed under the pillow before bed. When the child wakes up, the tooth has been replaced with some sort of cash. This may seem quite boring when compared to the tradition in Asian countries where children toss their teeth and shout a wish, typically in hopes of the missing tooth shall be replaced with that of a mouse’s because it continuously grows. Dating to almost the 10th century, the countries Iraq, Jordan, and Egypt have a tradition of throwing their teeth towards the sky. In Mongolia it is traditional to feed your teeth to the dog, expecting their new teeth to be as strong as a dog’s, and if no dog, planted by a near tree.

Let’s face it, no matter our cultures, parenting is tough! No matter where a family lives, or the differences in cultures, parenting always comes with struggles. Therefore, parents worldwide deserve a round of applause for those that work hard for their families to succeed.