Argentines love children and appear to indulge them constantly with sugary treats, Coca Cola, and toys. There is a holiday in late August called "Día de Los Niños" where children get lots of gifts and treats. Children (and adults) here seem to be constantly overstimulated by caffeine, sugar, loud music/sounds/people, and lack of sleep.
Small toy stores are abundant in Buenos Aires. Newsstands sell stickers and candy at child-eye level, which makes it difficult to walk down the street. Candy and Coca Cola are given to young children, even at preschool. Cookies are the rule, not the exception, for school snacks. Several shopping centers provide huge play areas with arcade games and rides.
Two weeks ago Boy had a "healthy choices" presentation at school from someone at Quaker (Oats, which I believe is owned by Pepsi Co.). He came home that day with a box of Honey Grahams cereal. Sugar is the primary ingredient. Boy wants it for breakfast daily, convinced that it is a healthy choice, even though it "tastes like candy" and the cereal milk "tastes like melted ice cream." We cringe but cannot dissuade him from his "healthy" cereal.
Except for some ex-pats, dinner is eaten after 9 p.m. Our maid Gabriella finds it very strange that we give our children dinner at 6 p.m. and that they are in bed two hours later. Younger Argentine kids take naps, but older kids seem completely exhausted most of the time since they do not go to bed before 9:30 or 10 p.m.
The "perfect-storm" example of the sensory overload here is birthday parties. We have been invited to five parties so far, and each was so intense and over-the-top that it was hard for someone from the U.S. to believe. (Because our kids attend a private preschool/kindergarten, our experience is not indicative of the wider public.)
Each birthday party has contained all or most of these elements:
- ear-splitingly loud music
- hired entertainers, usually a creepy older guy and a few young adults
- over-amplified entertainers shouting into microphones
- only Coke or other soda to drink
- buffet of fruit loops, cocoa puffs, potato chips, and cheese puffs
- mother-of-the-birthday child dressed for a cocktail party
- only women (casually dressed) in attendance -- mothers and some maids/nannies
- happy birthday song played (extremely loudly) at least three times in a row while everyone shouts the words at the tops of their lungs
- boys vs. girls games
- "Benny Hill" theme song as background music for games
- piñatas
- party favors: large goody bags filled with candy
Presents are given to the birthday child as soon as guests walk in the door. Even if the child is engaged in a game or with other children, the gift is forced into his/her hands, whereupon the child tears off the paper and casts it aside.
At a party last Friday, paid entertainers danced, sang, and performed skits while dressed in costume. One skit involved "Handy Manny" from a kids' television program. Not being familiar with the program and with my limited Spanish, I had trouble following the overly complicated story (I mean, come on--the kids are only three and four years old!). Instead I focused on the equally confused Girl -- who was snuggling in my lap -- and what appeared to be a large cigarette behind the puppet's ear. I think it was supposed to be a pencil, but it amused me to believe that it was a cigarette…that a costumed blue-collar worker was maybe telling the children about unions and the pleasures/dangers of smoking.
This skit was followed by a long "Toy Story" skit complete with dancing, singing, costumes, and a dark storyline, which had something to do with Jessie being kidnapped. To accentuate when evil was lurking, the light display would go black then swirl around manically while about 15 or so of the 50 kids in attendance would scream and run for their mothers/nannies. This skit went on for at least 20 minutes while the kids squirmed their caffeinated, sugared bodies around on the floor, eager to be free of the scary, long skit.
At another party, I reasoned with Girl that she could have more Coke only if she drank some water. The maids were shocked when I came into the kitchen and requested water. (I wasn't sure if they were surprised that I wanted water or that I came into the kitchen -- maybe both). A maid filled a pitcher and brought it out to the buffet table. Within minutes, the hostess mother snatched up the water pitcher and replaced it with two bottles of Coke. I hypothesized that I had embarrassed her because offering water indicated that you had run out of Coke.
All of the parties have ended with the children sitting on the floor while the birthday child releases candy and confetti from a piñata-type vessel that opens up over partygoers' heads. At the Coke-situation party, the piñata was a huge balloon that the birthday boy couldn't pop -- then someone gave him a knife. I was horrified with the thought of the four-year-old birthday boy cutting himself/dropping a knife on his classmates below. Everyone seemed to think it was outrageously funny. "Felipé! Felipé," they screamed.
Since our life in Columbus does not include constant gifts or much sugar and certainly not Coke, it is tiresome to say "no" all the time. We have compromised, of course, but try not to make a big deal out of it. At least shopping at Trader Joe's will give me the excuse than I cannot buy Coke or the sugary Quaker Honey Grahams cereal.
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