Lulu: Hello again! And welcome back to America under the microscope. 欢迎你回到闲话美国 Hello James.
James: Hello.
Lulu: So last time we were talking about raising a kid from pregnancy, to birth, to raising a kid up till school age.
James: Yeah, that's right.
Lulu: In today's episode let us explore that topic a bit further. First of all, so we go back to birth you mentioned last time about home birth and hospital birth.
James: Yeah, I did.
Lulu: And then the different types of delivery. So do people generally want a natural birth or a C-section?
James: uhI would want to say most people want to have a natural birth because it is more painful as you can imagine. It is easier it is safer and it could be a lot fewer complications.
Lulu: So people are pretty accepting, specially like expecting moms are pretty accepting of a natural birth then.
James: um most of, but I'd say a lot of moms are probably kind of surprised to find out the truth because a lot of things people don't tell you what will happen during the natural birth, because a lot of women don't like to share their experiences with others because they might be embarrassed or because it hurt a lot.
Lulu: They don't get together and tell you horror stories about the birth they've been through.
James: Oh they do, they don't tell me.
Lulu: So, there was this class I've always seen that expecting parents can take to prepare them for the child birth.
James: Oh Lamaze class.
Lulu: So what is that?
James: Well Lamaze class has to do with, it really prepare them for natural birth, so it has to do with like learning about positioning and breathing to help with the pushing, and controlled pain.
Lulu: Okay Is that very popular? That kind of classes?
James: In America it would be. I never took part in this, but I know… I have had friends and family that have taken the class in America who have kids.
Lulu: And usually couples take this class together.
James: Yes, it encourage…because it's a group effort.
Lulu: Right, because dad would be in the delivery room. I've also heard about all these crazy birth like water birth, once even heard like birth in nature.
James: Yeah Americans have all kinds of ideas about where to have birth and how to have birth because they want to be experienced, they want something they feel more in touch with the nature and the environment. So for the water birth they feel that the baby is more comfortable because when they are inside the womb I mean they are in liquid all the time, so when they enter into water they will be less of shock.
Lulu: Okay, that's getting more popular, would you say?
James: I don't really know how popular it is for say. You do see news articles online and other sources talk about women who do this.
Lulu: So after giving birth breastfeed or formula-fed?
James: Well there is a really big debate about this, because if you talk to a doctor, the doctor will say for the first six months you should definitely breastfeed your child, because it provides your child some certain antibodies they won't have they don't have yet. But in terms of nutrition the doctor will tell you they're both fine, they're both proven to help your child grow up to be healthy and strong. But in terms of…
Lulu: People will judge you.
James: People will judge you because so they think you're not providing the best for your child or formula might contain all these kinds of chemicals which doesn't because all the formula has been approved by the government and it's all safe for children to drink, but even goes further on that, on the other end like women who breastfeed, there is a pushback about women who breastfeed in public, cause some people are
Lulu: Uh nursing in public.
James: Yeah, nursing in public, people get offended by it because they see a woman's bare breast on public and a child nursing from it. So some people get very embarrassed by it and they don't think it should happen. While other women
Lulu: Are they protesting against it?
James: Some do. Yes.

Lulu: Wow what about nursing at work? Do they usually provide nursing facilities for women? for working moms?
James: Not really nursing facilities because usually working moms would not take their newborn child with them to the office. But most places would have a place where they could pump milk in private.
Lulu: All right. And recently I've heard about something called anti-vaccination movement, so to stop your kid from getting vaccinated perhaps because there is one in a hundred thousand chance to, there is some side-effect. What's that about?
James: That is something you talk to a lot of people in China they will say "What? That doesn't make a whole lot of sense". Yes, there are some people in America that believe the vaccinations they give children are dangerous might cause all kinds of things for a while they thought it would cause mental issues like autism which is been proven to be false. And they think there is other chemicals in the vaccination that might harm the child even though the studies have shown there are no harmful effects, the side-effects are very rare.
Lulu: Um so are you legally allowed to stop your kids from getting vaccinated or is that compulsory, you have to do it?
James: Well you are legally allowed to opt out for religious reasons or other reasons. But it can limit your access to certain public services cause some schools in some states won't allow you to put your children into school if they are not vaccinated.
Lulu: Because it's dangerous to other kids if your kids got certain diseases.
James: it's extremely dangerous to your own child because even though your child might be vaccinated they might still carry the virus and transfer to a kid who has no immunity to it.
Lulu: Exactly. So once you go through the baby stage. And you got to toddlers, then parenting, seems more important, this debate, this whole thing about American parents are more lax about their kids, you have this so called free-range parenting instead of the Chinese way of hyper-parenting.
James: Yeah free-range parenting, basically your children like the livestock, put them in the field let them run and play.
Lulu: Like free range chicken.
James: Kind of
Lulu: But nowadays are they changing?
James: Well I think it really depends on where you live and who you talk to. I honestly say most parents try to strive for a balance structure and some free-range that allow the child to explore and interact, but most people think some free-range is good cause children they need to go and look at rocks, climb up things, they need to go pick flowers, destroy flowers, because that's what kids do. They also need some guidance and protection because kids are gonna get hurt and some things they do need to protect from, but sometimes I think this goes too far.
Lulu: Yeah, so you guys are really into positive reinforcement of raising the child.
James: Yes.
Lulu: What's the general American attitude towards the Asian type of parenting, the Asian tiger moms?
James: Well, there are two opinions on this. If you ask most people, they say it's excessive. They think expecting too much of the child. Some of Americans say that being really good at academic may not necessarily mean you are gonna be good in the work life and successful later on.
Lulu: They also can be good at violin you know
James: Well if you want to play for the philharmonic orchestra, then could good for you.
Lulu: All stereotypes. But lately there are also parents wanting to get a little bit of Asian mom spirit, the tiger moms spirit.
James: There are always a few, there are always some people that are envious, you know, of other cultures, parenting, whether French parenting or Asian what we call tiger parenting, but it's mostly just the mentality, the grass is always greener, so they just see these kids do well academically, maybe they don't see the whole picture.
Lulu: That's true, yeah, it's same thing in China. Grass is always greener, always harsher about your own culture, about your own ways. In the end let's look at father's involvement. We've been talking a lot about moms, what's the general attitude about father's involvement in a child's life?
James: Well, in American culture fathers are generally expected to be fairly involved with their kids, taking care of their kids, so there are a lot of activities we kind of consider to be father-child activities, like you know outdoors things, playing balls and sports, stuff like that, reading books to the child is not solid the mother's domain. The father's expected to pitch in as well. There is a stereotype that, you see this in movie and TV all the time that, you know, dads change diaper, then it's made into such a big deal. In real life, yeah, dads change diaper. It's just what we do. Okay.
Lulu: It's pretty much in America people do expect mom and dad to share.
James: Yeah they are definitely expected to share the work and all the stuff that's involved in raising a child.
Lulu: Okay, so I think we'll wrap up here. And then thank you very much.
James: Thank you for having me.
Lulu: In the next episode we are going to probably go on and explore schooling.
James: Yeah definitely.
Lulu: see you next time. Bye.
James: Bye.

更多英语资讯，获取节目完整文本，请关注微信公众号：璐璐的英文小酒馆。每天大量英语干货更新！