@ Beans, beans the magical fruit

[crimsonandclover]

So everyone knows those little cultural things that kids learn on the playground, right? Like the little ditty mentioned in the title.

The other day I found myself singing it to DD1 (she loves kidney beans), and I realized how silly it was to actually be teaching that song to my child. On the other hand, I feel like it does belong in my cultural heritage, and if she doesn't learn something like that, she will miss out on an occasional cultural reference. Not the "beans beans" in particular, but other things like that.

Parents with little kids in a foreign-language country, do you (purposefully or just by chance) find yourself teaching your child these things? Are they things you consciously avoid and are happy that your kid isn't going to learn them? Things like "I'm rubber and you're glue, whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you" - stupid, but something I probably said several hundred times as a child when fighting with my brother. For something like that, though, I can't even imagine how I would go about "teaching" it to my children or if I would even want to. Plus, who knows if kids are still saying it on the playground  

[Deleted]

lol It is weird to think that our kids might miss out on a lot of the cultural playground references.I've already been thinking about what books, songs and stuff I want my daughter to have around so that she can have something in common with her american side of the family.

[Deleted]

I mean really, who is going to teach her what a cootie shot is??

[crimsonandclover]

Exactly! Circle, circle, dot, dot...
("...now you got your cootie shot," in case some of you non-Americans / non-native English speakers weren't sure what that meant )

I think some things are not a big loss, but some of them, I don't know. It feels strange to get sentimental about a cootie shot, but I think it's because it's representative of this whole wealth of cultural context that they will miss out on.

[Deleted]

I'm not even sure if we asked a 7 year old today if she would know what a cootie shot was Some of it might be a cultural loss, but I bet a lot is lost between generations. Think of things your parents said when they were little and you probably wouldn't have been caught dead saying them when you were with your friends at the playground!

[anna7602]

I have no idea what the beans, beans thing is? Maybe it's because my parents aren't American, but I did spend my entire childhood in the U.S. of A. 

But yes, I am constantly teaching DD all the Spanish-language songs and stories I grew up with. Being married to DH reinforces that these songs/rhymes/stories are not commonly known. Happily, it's pretty easy to get find the words/songs on the internet these days if I blank out on them. 

[crimsonandclover]

Dec 18, 2013 15:38:48 GMT -5 anna7602 said:

I have no idea what the beans, beans thing is? Maybe it's because my parents aren't American, but I did spend my entire childhood in the U.S. of A. 

But yes, I am constantly teaching DD all the Spanish-language songs and stories I grew up with. Being married to DH reinforces that these songs/rhymes/stories are not commonly known. Happily, it's pretty easy to get find the words/songs on the internet these days if I blank out on them. 

It's like a chant that goes "Beans, beans, the magical fruit, the more you eat, the more you toot; the more you toot, the better you feel, so let's have beans for every meal."

Yes, that is what I was saying to my daughter the other day. She loves beans.

[Dorothy Zbornak]

Dec 14, 2013 2:03:43 GMT -5 crimsonandclover said:

So everyone knows those little cultural things that kids learn on the playground, right? Like the little ditty mentioned in the title.

The other day I found myself singing it to DD1 (she loves kidney beans), and I realized how silly it was to actually be teaching that song to my child. On the other hand, I feel like it does belong in my cultural heritage, and if she doesn't learn something like that, she will miss out on an occasional cultural reference. Not the "beans beans" in particular, but other things like that.

Parents with little kids in a foreign-language country, do you (purposefully or just by chance) find yourself teaching your child these things? Are they things you consciously avoid and are happy that your kid isn't going to learn them? Things like "I'm rubber and you're glue, whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you" - stupid, but something I probably said several hundred times as a child when fighting with my brother. For something like that, though, I can't even imagine how I would go about "teaching" it to my children or if I would even want to. Plus, who knows if kids are still saying it on the playground  

Ha. This is something I think about, too. Sometimes I say "Liar, liar pants on fire" or "Cheater, cheater pumpkin eater" but that's about it.

[crimsonandclover]

Dec 19, 2013 4:30:55 GMT -5 Dorothy Zbornak said:

Dec 14, 2013 2:03:43 GMT -5 crimsonandclover said:

So everyone knows those little cultural things that kids learn on the playground, right? Like the little ditty mentioned in the title.

The other day I found myself singing it to DD1 (she loves kidney beans), and I realized how silly it was to actually be teaching that song to my child. On the other hand, I feel like it does belong in my cultural heritage, and if she doesn't learn something like that, she will miss out on an occasional cultural reference. Not the "beans beans" in particular, but other things like that.

Parents with little kids in a foreign-language country, do you (purposefully or just by chance) find yourself teaching your child these things? Are they things you consciously avoid and are happy that your kid isn't going to learn them? Things like "I'm rubber and you're glue, whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you" - stupid, but something I probably said several hundred times as a child when fighting with my brother. For something like that, though, I can't even imagine how I would go about "teaching" it to my children or if I would even want to. Plus, who knows if kids are still saying it on the playground  

Ha. This is something I think about, too. Sometimes I say "Liar, liar pants on fire" or "Cheater, cheater pumpkin eater" but that's about it.

Haha! They haven't gotten to that phase yet, but I would imagine those are things I might say, too I'm glad I'm not the only one thinking about this topic, though.