The German Way, one of the expat blogs I follow, has a new post on parenting, schooling, and career training as seen in Germany and the USA: More German than the Germans. It looks at overprotective vs. let the kids run mommies, at career choices made at 21 vs. 15. It is well worth reading.
Today as I was making chocolate chip cookies it came to me: these baked treats which any US American child grows up with don't exist in Austria. There isn't a German term for them. Schokoladenstückkekse? The word doesn't exist. German recipes for chocolate chip cookies call them just that, by their American name. The funny thing is Austria is famous for its pastries. I have some wonderful recipes for Christmas cookies: Vanillekipferl, Kokosbusserl, Ischler T ö rtchen, Lebkuchen, Spitzbuben, Nussstangerl... They are all delicious but not one is as easy to make as a chocolate chip cookie. My recipe for chocolate chip cookies is from the Los Angeles Times. I found it in the printed edition many years ago. Unfortunately I cannot locate the online version of the article but here is the scanned original: I make the cookies much smaller than the LAT chefs do, using about one and a half tablespoons of dough per cookie and baking them ten minutes at most. As yo...
Comments
Very good! I guess I'm more German than the Germans (my heritage way-back is German, so...). I like that she said, “Well, this is exactly what they need to learn: how to watch out for each other.”
I'm a firm believer that kids: 1)are allowed to make mistakes, 2)are encouraged to speak to mom of such mistakes without reprimand (if information is volunteered - lying negates generosity), 3)we correct mistakes together, 4)next time the occasion arises to make mistakes, better decisions usually result.
As independent adults now, my kids still make plenty of mistakes, but they understand the consequences and face them head-on. How do they learn this if too protected?
Thank you for your comment. Learning to take responsibility - if we could learn that! There'd be no more bail outs...