tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25502633.post3106913341273658026..comments2024-03-22T14:58:07.239-05:00Comments on Ordinary Time: Master playersthecurrysevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08932092243753160814noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25502633.post-10360367908768554692016-03-31T10:31:35.771-05:002016-03-31T10:31:35.771-05:00What great insights! I was just thinking about thi...What great insights! I was just thinking about this tonight in a slightly different vein. When older children are adopted from China, I often hear comments about how "delayed" or "socially immature" they are. In some respects, of course, this is true as an institutional setting does not foster social skills in the usual way. What I have also learned, however, is that in China children get to be children much longer than in the US. Yes, they have long hours at school and pressure to achieve, but what they don't have is pressure to grow up too fast and be little adults at 10 and 12 and 14. My youngest is 13 and has only in the last year moved away from her Barbies and dolls, but she and her friends still play games with lots of imagination -- things that would be called babyish in the US and raise eyebrows about their "maturity." Without the influence of American media and peers, they are free to be kids and play as long as they want to. I have come to realize that much of what American adopters call immaturity is what we used to call childhood.Donnahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13972328899908212341noreply@blogger.com