Do you teach your children about their heritage and do you think it's important? (grandmother, learn)

[Ginge McFantaPants]

Geez, even if was important, I wouldn't know where to start. I know nothing of my Russian and Ashkenazi roots, and what I know of my British Isles roots is limited to my general interest in history and geopolitics. Same with Mr.Mathlete, who knows all about his Italian heritage, but nothing of his Algerian, Cuban, and Hungarian identity. We do subscribe to Universal Yums though, so eventually all bases will be covered, lol.

[riaelise]

Originally Posted by Ms.Mathlete

Geez, even if was important, I wouldn't know where to start. I know nothing of my Russian and Ashkenazi roots, and what I know of my British Isles roots is limited to my general interest in history and geopolitics. Same with Mr.Mathlete, who knows all about his Italian heritage, but nothing of his Algerian, Cuban, and Hungarian identity. We do subscribe to Universal Yums though, so eventually all bases will be covered, lol.

That's the point I was trying to make. As the years pass, many people won't know where to start when it comes to heritage. Nothing wrong with that. It isn't disgraceful or something to feel bad about. We all came from somewhere along the road.

[GiGi603]

Originally Posted by Katiethegreat

Do you teach them about their ancestors and their traditions regularly,from the various countries they come from.
Or do you not bother?

I did, very much so.

[Ohky0815]

yes

[TheotherMarie]

I'm an adult with no kids, but I'd like to weigh in on this.
My dad is of Mexican decent, but he would never talk about it when we were growing up. It was a taboo topic.
He speaks Spanish fluently, and it's the only language he speaks with his family. But he wouldn't teach me anything past my numbers. Any Spanish I know, I learned from three years of it in school.

Now that I'm older, he's kind of loosening up, and I'm learning more about his background, but he's almost 80, and I doubt I'll ever know much more than I know now, which is sad.
I even did a DNA test to see what my racial makeup is, and I'm 17% Native American on his side! I would've loved to have known that years ago. He really didn't have much to say about it though.

I think all the secrecy has to do with racism against him for many years.

So, don't be afraid to share all you can with your kids.
Everything I'm learning, I'm saving for my brother's kids.

[Nov3]

It wasn't til my adult years that I started listening to my relatives on this topic. I was late on the train..Or so I thought. Turns out many of my grandmothers heritage came out thru the holidays or her devoutness to the family.
I liken my ancestors to modern day soap operas. So much drama and secrecy. It's fascinating to know from a medical side too.

My adult children are just now getting a taste of how their ancestory effects them genetically.

[Jukesgrrl]

Two of my grandparents were born to immigrants after they came to the U.S. and two were born abroad and brought to America as children. All four were from different countries and they all had next-to-nothing when they got here. They all worked hard to achieve their dreams, as most immigrants I've met have. They struggled but they earned what they considered to be the American dream: steady work, home ownership, a car, paid vacation, freedom of speech and religion, and quality education for their children.

They especially appreciated American public education and took advantage of it. Neither of my parents had the money to go to college but all of us children were able to earn degrees with help from our parents WHO BOTH HAD UNION JOBS and scholarships we earned, through academics or athletics. We all got some post-graduate education, too, and earned our degrees free of debt.

I'm sorry to say this same situation isn't available to many young people today, mainly thanks to the disintegration of the great American middle class that has occurred since the Reagan era when our government began favoring the wealthy in tax and benefits policy and taking away from the middle class, formerly the envy of the world. In spite of our quality educations and the fact that we actually work many more hours a week than our parents did, our children have fewer opportunities and a lot of debt their grandparents (only one step away from the "old country") never experienced in their lives.

[UsAll]

I looked up my family tree and found out that I was the sap.

[Natsku]

Definitely. I'm an immigrant so its important to teach my child about my home country and its history and culture. We visit the UK every couple of years, I teach her English and Scottish folk tales and songs, I teach her the language of course, I want her to know where I come from. And I teach her about her Finnish heritage (in a way I'm a Returnee rather than an immigrant), about her grandmother's family up in Lapland.

Its important to teach children about their cultural heritage - its part of who they are. My mum taught us about our Finnish heritage, tried to teach us the language (didn't do so well with that though) and we spent very many happy holidays in Lapland with our extended family.

[IndyDancer]

Originally Posted by jtab4994

My kids' heritage has become a bit splintered. They are 25% Irish, 25% Italian, 25% Ukrainian, and the rest Swedish, Danish, and German.


Neither my wife nor I have ever been interested in dressing up in our "ancestral costumes" or ethnic dancing or anything like that.


It's interesting to know where your ancestors came from, and to imagine what it was like for them coming to America, but we follow American middle class traditions in our family.

Ditto. I have 8 different countries in my background, let alone however many are in my husband's (probably at least 3). No recent immigrants, except possibly 1-2 of my great-grandparents that I never knew. We're such mutts it would be disingenuous to latch on to any of them as a cultural identity. I was interested in reading/learning about other cultures growing up, but my experience was plain American, as was my spouse's.