Yura's mother "Baba Anya" is staying with us too at the moment. She has her own house in town, in the centre. But she came here for a while, when Alona was down south at a University seminar. She has not moved back, partly so she could be here to do Evenki with us.
Baba Anya has never been outside the north in her life. So we are quite foreign to her. Many a time we have been told off by a Babushka on the street in Krasnoyarsk or Novosibirsk, for not doing things by the book according to Russian culture, when raising our kids.
It's been getting a little hard on Melody, because Baba Anya has been criticising her for many little things. Some of the silly ones include "don't give PJ cold milk, that is why he is sick," where as PJ is teething at the moment, in fact a tooth came through today. Melody has failed to make soup to Baba's liking, even though I thought it tasted extremely Russian. Tonight Melody was blamed for the berry jam boiling over on the stove. Melody was also told off for having the kids in bed by 9. Russian kids won't go to bed until their parents do, and it is still getting dark at 11 here.
The fact is, any culture shock we have here is minimal. We are very adjusted to Russian life in the city, and there are just a few adjustments for us in a rural setting. On this occasion it is poor Baba that is suffering culture shock from the crazy foreigners in the house. But I guess we will continue to raise our kids the way we think is best for them. Why? Try explaining culture shock to an 18 month old!
1 comment:
this is why I think bed times can be an issue for me. My kids are too Russian ;) (or maybe it's just that Kolya is!)
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