Letters to the Editor
MomoCat
Published Letters: 39 Editor's Choice: 15
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French?
[Read the article: Opus]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I live in France. I would love to have an electrified SmartCar & then charge it from solar panels. Cool! I'd settle for a little electric Renault, though, cause folks around these parts loves to buy and drive their own national manufacturers. They're funny that way. SmartCar is a bit - German - if you know what I mean.
Doesn't matter what you drive though - it's just plain pricey to drive anything with a motor. Cause our gas prices are at $8/gallon. That's right, dearies. I wouldn't even mind the Hawaiian grooviness of Steve's model, though it's not very French either. A bit - how you say - 'loud', 'feminine' and 'American', all at the same time.
Anyhow, just saying, Steve's car doesn't look particularly 'French' to me, but I would drive it around in France any day of the week, in spite of its Germanity. And I would never, ever hit it with anything harder than a buffer cloth.
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Ingrained expectations
[Read the article: Happily never after]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]All very interesting, but let's not forget that the Euro-Christian religious culture upon which the latter discussion of the wifely role is based here is the same culture that gave us several female heads-of-state in the past thirty years, including the very successful Margaret Thatcher and now Angela Merkel.
Not being ready for a female head-of-state may be rooted in deeply ingrained expectations of women's inferiority, but some states have apparently moved on nonetheless.
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And don't
[Read the article: Happily never after]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]think, please, that by saying Thatcher was 'successful' I imply any approval of her policies. But she was politically successful in her party and country for many years.
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Hadn't realized we were so lucky
[Read the article: What happened to the real Olympics?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]We watched the Games on EuroSport via satellite - EuroNews and EuroSport are broadcast in all the major European languages, with a minimum of commentary. Sports events are often broadcast live, and the Games were no different. Whatever was going on, that's what was broadcast for hours on end, cutting in between the various events. Very low key, few ads, no flash. We watched the racing qualifying, the pole vaults, high jumps, etc. cause we like that stuff. Not much national bias because the broadcaster targets such a large international market.
Don't know if you can somehow get EuroSport in the US (we're in France). Worth trying, though. US coverage sounds awful.
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Tune out, tune in
[Read the article: Is my kid a jerk, or is he just 2?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Agree with all the advice about discipline, rational consequences for bad and good behaviour, and so on. Worked for us: Our daughter knew by 2 years old that we meant what we said and said what we meant. She got a choice to either behave appropriately (i.e. not shitting on my feet in bed, ewww) or face immediate consequences she could understand. She can TRUST US to fulfill our promises, whether they are positive ones or disciplinary ones.
At the risk of being blasted by every exhausted parent reading this, I missed one major suggestion.
Turn off your television.
Two years old is too young to be over-stimulated by US media, and by no means should a little kid be watching alone at 6 am so you can sleep in. Sorry, you accepted this person into your life, he is your responsibility. Foisting him off on tv and then the rest of society is not responsible.
Part of parenting, I find, is growing up from letting yourself be the lazy kid now and then to being the adult each and every time you have to be - especially when it's most inconvenient (i.e. 6 am, or at a party where you want to relax, or in the restaurant where you just want to finish your damn steak before retrieving your child from underneath the neighboring table). Do your job thoroughly and well NOW, at age two, so you won't have so much trouble later, when that same kid can drive and knows what to do with your credit cards.
Turn off the tv, engage, get a cup of coffee and sit with him while he messes around with blocks or applies crayon to paper. Get that kid exercising until he drops off to sleep from exhaustion every night (and hopefully every afternoon).
Be the parent.