4 ms·

So why Mexican Siblings Don't Fight?

• sterlinm 6y ago
  I didn't really remember this part particularly well and have no opinion on whether it's true, but I was curious so I looked up that part of the book. Also, the way it is presented in the book it's pretty clear that they're talking about a rather specific subset of Mexican children. It looks like this part was based on research that took place in rural Mexico in the 1980s. The context is that one of the authors of the book (Sarah LeVine I think) spent time observing families in Tilzapotla. The book describes the children in the book as being shockingly tolerant of their younger siblings (shocking to an American, I mean). Here's the authors' description and theory as to why the kids didn't fight: > "When, after ten hours in the house, she turned off her video recorder, Sarah still hadn't seen the children squabble among themselves, much less come to blows...After watching their astonishingly good-natured behavior, it occurred to Sarah that Carlos had once been the apple of his mother's eye; and before him, Pablo, and so on all the way up to thirteen-year-old María. Rosa had given the best of herself to each baby, but once a new baby arrived, her attention had to shift. From then on, the only sure way the replaced child could earn his intensely busy mother's approval was by being with the baby who now filled his slot. To become a full member of the family 'team', he had to learn patience and kindness and to find delight in his 'follower.' Thus, the agrarian world contains examples of toddler environments that promote sibling solidarity and emotional relationships with multiple adults...American parents cannot simply borrow wholesale practices predicated on large households with hierarchical values, but we might be able to learn from them..." That's the theory anyway.