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Not really. I didn't grow up with any particular cultural traditions or sense of hertigage, so I wouldn't even know where to begin. Unless you count teaching them random New England customs.
Do you teach them about their ancestors and their traditions regularly,from the various countries they come from.
Or do you not bother?
Absolutely.
As a male latino, it's part of our culture to maintain traditions, language, etc.
Nothing makes me quite sad like seeing a generation "lose" traditions, native languages of the family just because they live in the USA. A really poor excuse.
Being cultured, and learning about ones' background, and languages, and cultures around the world is always a good thing, always a positive, always valuable.
If you are going to scoff at maintaining such traditions, you might as well scoff at formal education as well. Scoff at the importance of ethics and equality while you are at it, they are all equally as rich, and stimulating to the brain.
If I knew all of it, yes. My family on both sides are mutts. My father has at least one Native American tribe, French-Canadian, English, Hungarian and Welsh while my mother has Irish and Dutch-German in her blood. A little too complicated.
I grew up with immigrant elder relatives and my husband's father was an immigrant himself so our heritage has been part of our lives. Our children grew up seeing the costumes of their countries of origin and hearing the language, the folk tales, eating the food and hearing music and stories about family in the old country. This was really important to our ancestors even though they were of the generation of immigrants who were anxious to assimilate and happy to be Americans.
I think our adult children have enjoyed knowing about their family's history. And in spite of the stern rule in modern America against generalizations about various cultures our family has many jokes and humorous anecdotes about common traits of the people from which we come. As in all peoples we have inherited certain cultural tendencies that are strengths to take pride in and foibles to laugh about.
Do you teach them about their ancestors and their traditions regularly,from the various countries they come from.
Or do you not bother?
It was discussed when we were young. No big deal. Ancestors happened about 230-years ago.
Like Hillary said: at this point, what difference does it make!
Not really. We tell them stories about their great grand parents, but as far as lineage or ancestry... no. It does not really matter to us. They and we are Americans.
I grew up with immigrant elder relatives and my husband's father was an immigrant himself so our heritage has been part of our lives. Our children grew up seeing the costumes of their countries of origin and hearing the language, the folk tales, eating the food and hearing music and stories about family in the old country. This was really important to our ancestors even though they were of the generation of immigrants who were anxious to assimilate and happy to be Americans.
I think our adult children have enjoyed knowing about their family's history. And in spite of the stern rule in modern America against generalizations about various cultures our family has many jokes and humorous anecdotes about common traits of the people from which we come. As in all peoples we have inherited certain cultural tendencies that are strengths to take pride in and foibles to laugh about.
Lodestar I agree with you. We raised our 4 kids teaching them about our heritage. They were introduced to Punjabi and German language,traditions,customs,cuisine. They spend a lot of summer holidays with relatives from both sides to get to know them. And yes I think it is important.
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