This is true and is evidence that you are bringing up kids who will make the right choices in life.
Thanks. I don't have kids yet, might someday, or might just adopt. Haven't decided yet. It's also why I can be a bit more objective about the topic than some of my same-aged peers who've had kids already.
There are things which I have done and learnt from which made me a better and more responsible adult. This helps me when I talk to my children about the right and wrong. This is also dependent on the child as well and whether or not they will take advantage of their parents trust.
Parents of course, want to shield their kids from all problems, all the ills of the world. It's evolutionarily necessary as human children mature a lot slower than other animals' children. It takes a lot longer for a human's brain to develop to the point where he or she can survive, feed, clothe and shelter him/her self than it does for most other animals. This trait though becomes overblown in some people.
What you have said above is the type of conversation I have had with my relatives, particularly the "aunties ji's" in my family. In the city I live in, the indo/pak community always try their best to live in close proximity to their own people. Many a time I have heard those who have come to this country complain that their kids have gone astray. Now this comment can be as trivial as "she wears skirts" or as large as (in their eyes) leaving their religion. I have always asked these people, what do they expect? The same as what you have said above regarding coming to this country. You know, you come to this country initially, not integrate with the locals and with some not bother to learn the language and then expect your kids to not have any foreign culture being rubbed off on them. If you want to come to the western hemisphere then be prepared for this to happen.
This is part of the problem, especially with Islamic based cultures. For example, in general, non muslims from South Asia integrate with their host countries a lot faster and more easily than muslims from the same area. Believing that "your people" are superior to everyone else and that it's *your* habits others must take on and you need never consider the validity of other people's points of view, makes for little to no understanding or integration. And integration is necessary and inevitable. Doesn't mean you lose "your" culture but multiple cultures get infused and frankly, people from multiple cultures are more interesting, and can be more ambitious and productive because they are able to see both cultures more objectively. Practically speaking, someone e.g. born in Egypt and raised in China, is bound to have parts of both cultures in their personality and memories, depending on the age they were in either place. Older immigrants (the auntie-jis) usually resist cultural exchange but if they expect their kids' and grandkids' generation to remain stale and never infuse parts of the diversity they are exposed to, they're setting themselves up for a lot of angst and heartbreak.
Yes indeed, all cultures have good points and bad points. Some of the good points of our culture is respect for elders and not placing them in an old folks home just because it's a "burden". I find this abhorent and I wouldn't do it and also expect my kids not to do it. Then again our culture is riddled with all types of hypocrisy which at the top of the list is the treatment of the ladies. Another thing that I find disturbing about our culture is that our people simply don't mind their own business. They always try to find fault with others and always have to try and out do the other, not in education or academic achievement but in petty matters like clothes, bangles and cars. They also have a tendency to treat their adult children as though they are children.
I agree about the old people in nursing homes being left to die.... I worked at a nursing home in New York for a few years and it was so sad to see these old people with so many stories just decaying away with nobody caring for them. That's a problem many in western cultures themselves oppose. There has to be some planning on the side of the parents for their own old age, but kids who just throw their parents away like that are also being cruel and are actually setting a very bad example for their own children who may just turn around and do the same to them.
Topic: Western influence.