handling crying kids

over time, i had observe how parents of different races handle their difficult children and i saw a trend. i suspect the differences in behaviour is due to culture. here's what i saw and some of my thoughts about it:

• local (generic term to include singaporean and malaysian) chinese parents tend to tell off their kids when the kids cry. not uncommon to hear the parents go "quiet! don't cry!" firmly - no opportunities given to the kids to reason or respond and so we often see local chinese kids pout/ looking sad. of cos there are some that do spoil their kids outright and give in whenever their kids cry but these are the exceptions and not the norm. as such, in public places, i do not see many wailing and spoilt local chinese kids... ok, maybe a few, but not the most... compared to...

• Indian indian parents tend dote on their kids. the parents will respond to them whenever their kids cry. at the other end of the spectrum of response, Indian indian parents let their kids continue to scream and wail and they won't really entertain them. in another words, i have never seen any Indian indian parents get firm on their kids. as such, in public places, whenever i hear screaming and wailing kids, more often than not, they are from india indian families. (note: i use "indian indian" to differentiate with singaporean indians. singaporean indians tend to behave more like local chinese [see above]).

• local malays tend to have many children and often whenever one child cry, it is the elder siblings that respond (surprising right?)... this is interesting cos malays tend to move around in family units and as their family units are relatively larger than that of chinese and indians, their internal family support is usually very strong. so, in public, i tend to see malay families being very noisy but seldom have crying children.

• caucasian (generic term for all westerners regardless of nationalities) tend to have a good balance between being firm and letting their children cry on and on. more often than not, i see the parents trying to reason with their child and if it fails, the parents will end up being firm. and if the child continue to cry, the parents will just leave them be. so, most caucasian families do not have crying babies but babies that, in a way, behave rather "maturely".

well... these are just observations of the behaviours of the different broad racial groupings. i do think the different responses is a reflection of the different cultures. interesting right? so... for me naturally, whenever i hear kids wailing, my natural quick conclusion would be - must be indian babies. what do you think? do you have similar observations?