Reddit reviews Children Just Like Me: A Unique Celebration of Children Around the World

This will probably never get seen, but I'm a nanny/college student who has seen some awesome parents and some terrible ones. (Plus, I just started working for a new family with 4 terribly-behaved children- the result of lazy parenting- and I'm frustrated.)

-No one likes a picky eater. I'm not saying that your kid has to eat massive platefuls of food when he/she is not hungry, but do not let your kid think that he has control over what is being served for lunch/dinner. With the family I'm currently working for, it is so bad that the kids will ONLY eat peanut butter white bread sandwiches (no crusts) for lunch. Other than that, they will eat cookies, candy, etc. Tell your kid what you're having for dinner and teach him to eat what he is served (this goes both ways- don't give excessive portion sizes either.) Another family I worked with in the past did not give in to their children's demands- their kids are healthy, active, and eat great food.
-It's been said before, but READ CONSTANTLY. Don't go to the library for videos, go there for books. Don't censor what your kid reads, and create an environment where your child will become a voracious reader.
-There is absolutely no reason for a toddler to have a television in her bedroom- yes, the family I'm currently working for has a TV in EVERY child's bedroom. It's lazy parenting.
-Don't allow your kid to become too materialistic. Buy things at tag sales, avoid modifiers that place emphasis on something being new/expensive ("Look, Santa got you a brand-new bicycle!")
-Lead by example, always. Teach them that appearances are not the most important thing. If your 4 year old sees you spending hours on your appearance, she's going to learn to be similarly obsessive. The media foists enough messages of sexiness/beauty on your kids- don't add to it. (Example, I have witnessed one mother I work for turn her car around on her way to a PTA meeting because "I forgot my jewelry!" All of her children are excessively concerned with appearances and materialistic things, and judge others by invented standards- for example, "[Cousin] doesn't have stairs in her house, probably she can't afford a bigger house." "[Friend] doesn't have a pool, do you think she can't afford it?" "Doesn't [playmate] dress kind of messy? He doesn't dress very nice.")
-Your kids are NOT too young for trips and excursions. I'm not talking about going to an amusement park- they're fun, but they're 'invented fun.' Not everything has to be excessively planned. Go on an adventure. Go to the city and go to a museum that looks interesting. Take the subway to Chinatown. Visit a farm. Stop by the side of the road and look at stuff. Nothing bad is going to happen, and you and your child will both learn something. Go out of your comfort zone and stop going on day trips to the beach or the carnival. Your kid is capable of enjoying more interesting things. Go to a concert, even if you don't know anything about the music. And none of it has to be expensive- don't feel that you need to make a massive deal over taking your kid somewhere interesting. Find out when your local high school performs their musicals and plays. Go to a concert of the community orchestra. Go to the local Greek/Irish/Italian/Indian festival, even if you're not Greek/Irish/Italian/Indian. Instead of going out for pizza, try a Thai/Ethiopian/new restaurant- even if you're not sure you'll like it yourself.
-Every kid has the right to hear the word "no." It's a fact of life, and kids need to learn to deal with it just like everyone else.
-Teach your kid that certain rules can NEVER be broken, and follow through with punishment when they are. For example, last week I took four children (yes, the abominably-behaved ones mentioned above) to a large city zoo. The youngest decides that she simply doesn't want to walk with the group, so she turns around and takes off running in the opposite direction. She ignores my calls for her to stop, I am forced to abandon the stroller and her 3 siblings to chase her and grab her before I lose her. Meanwhile, she's screaming the whole way. My point is that this is not simply a behavioral issue- at this point, it turns into an unacceptable safety issue. Your kid must be able to behave in an acceptable manner in public, or learn that until he does, he will not be able to partake in those excursions.
-"A dirty kid is a happy kid." Letting your kid make mudpies/treehouses/forts/gardens in the backyard is okay. Encourage creativity in all forms.
-Spend as much time with your child as you can- but not at the risk of making him socially awkward. Go to playgroup, hire a babysitter, drop him off at a friend's house- even if you're a stay-at-home parent. I have seen detrimental effects on the social abilities of very young children who have the most devoted parents in the world. Let your kids be comfortable with other people.
-Make sure your kids know that they are (in all likelihood) a lot luckier than other kids around the world. Read books about other cultures, make sure your child knows that not all kids have the toys and loving parents that she has. If you want to buy a book about children from all over the world- my "kids" love a book that UNICEF produced called Children Just Like Me. It has profiles of children from all over the world, with pictures of their schools, their places of worship, their homes, their favorite things. It is fascinating and eye-opening, and enjoyable for kids/adults of any age.
-MANNERS. Use them and teach them. And don't be a hypocrite- even if you were not taught to use manners in every circumstance possible, make sure you say "Please," "Thank you," and "You're welcome" every chance you can get.
-In a similar vein, make sure your child knows how to speak appropriately. If you respond to whining/shouting, you're teaching that it is okay and a legitimate way to obtain your attention/response. Even a very young toddler can learn what "no whining" means. Tell him that you will not listen to whining, but he can ask in a normal manner. (I sound like such a stick-in-the-mud here, but seriously, it works. The two year old I've watched since he was a baby gets it because his parents and I will not tolerate whining. The four-year-old that I just started watching will whine, scream, and have a tantrum because he knows his parents will respond to it, and he'll get what he wants.)
-Care about your kids' lives. Do you know their teachers' names? Their favorite subjects? What new things they want to try?

This got ridiculously long- can you tell I was frustrated whilst watching four spoiled kids today? But do your best to be a great parent. You're not going to be perfect, but go with your gut and always try to do what's best for your kid. It may not be what he wants at the time, but it's what's best for his life and well-being.

I think I had that book as well. Was it about UNICEF and it showed kids from all over the world? I think it was called "Children just like me".

Children Just Like Me

As a kid, my little sisters and I used to love seeing how kids around the world lived. This book is a gem

https://www.amazon.com/Children-Just-Like-Me-Celebration/dp/0789402017/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1522097689&sr=8-2&keywords=children+just+like+me

The Paper Crane by Molly Bang. I loved this in 2nd grade, it was an East Asian styled tale involving origami and magic
https://www.amazon.com/Paper-Crane-Reading-Rainbow-Book/dp/0688073336/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1522097844&sr=1-2&keywords=paper+crane

Malala's Magic Pencil
https://www.amazon.com/Malalas-Magic-Pencil-Malala-Yousafzai/dp/0316319570/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1522097952&sr=1-1&keywords=malala%27s+pencil

Children Just Like Me?

If she is reading younger then I would suggest picture books.

Ones by Robert Munsch like Paper Bag Princess or The Fire Station. They have pictures and are short but they are not babyish. I still find them funny.

A book my daughter adored was Children Just Like Me: A Unique Celebration of Children Around the World. It shows how children around the world live, where they go to school, what they eat, ect.

If she has a specific interest in a topic (like horses), any of the Dorling Kindersley books are great.

http://www.amazon.com/Children-Just-Like-Me-Celebration/dp/0789402017/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1418141127&sr=8-2&keywords=children+around+the+world

Something like this might be helpful :D

Unicef did some good ones like this. Is it:

Children Just Like Me: A Unique Celebration of Children Around the World

or

A Life Like Mine: How Children Live Around the World

I think it's really normal at 4-5 for kids to be thinking about sameness and differentness and try to make sense of what they see.

The approach I take--after a lot of thought and research--is to teach and talk about skin color the same way we would about eye color or hair color. There are some good books that talk about the science of skin color - First Encyclopedia of the Human Body touches on it--my kid is obsessed with that book, All the Colors We Are takes a matter of fact and scientific approach. The book Children Just Like Me is another really useful resource when talking about different cultures and people.


I've also made a point to buy black, brown and Asian baby dolls and Barbies (not just the standard white ones) since she was about 2. At first I felt really self-conscious about doing this, but I think it's helped her see variety as the norm instead of thinking of her whiteness as normal and everything else as "other."

At this stage, that's the message you want to be instilling - everyone has lots of differences and they're all pretty darn normal and cool.

And finally--how to deal with loud kid comments in public. A few days ago my daughter shouted and pointed, "LOOK MOMMY! A little person!!! THAT'S NOT A KID!" I was embarrassed and felt bad and I told her in the moment that it's not nice to yell out people's differences because it might make them feel like everyone is looking at them--she got that--attention can be embarrassing.

When we got home we talked about dwarfism just like hair color or normal height -- it's something about you that get when you're born. I think I said something like, "even if a person is born to be a little person, their brain grows up just like yours or mine as they get older and when they're grown ups they have jobs and families just like any other grownup." She thought it was really really cool.

I'm sure she'll do it to me again. I don't know if there's a better way to handle it in the moment to be more respectful of others--but my main focus is trying to get a message of inclusiveness to my kid.

I dunno. This stuff is hard.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Children-Just-Like-Association-Childrens/dp/0789402017#