Fathers in Armenia

One thing that I love about Armenia is how much the men in families are involved in the lives of the children. From what I have seen, they are actively involved in raising the children. Armenian villages definitely have the "it takes a village" mentality and it is something that I feel America has moved away from. Children in my village play freely and without fear of their neighbors or of strangers. Everyone knows everyone so there really arent strangers here besides the weird Americans that live or come through. :)

Getting back to fathers, in all of my Armenian friend's families, the fathers are so proud and active in their children's lives, it is nice to see. For example, my CP's husband is always playing with his daughter, rough housing with her, playing computer games with her, etc. And the greatest part about it is that it is not out of the ordinary. I dont know why this surprises me or inspired me to write a blog post about it, but I just think it is nice to see. My host dad is also really involved. My host sister is definitely a daddy's girl as most Armenian daughters are. It takes one to be able to spot them out. Hi Dad!

Another inspiration for this blog was when I was in Yerevan a few weeks ago. I was walking down the street and saw two young men (maybe 20 or so) pushing baby strollers. It struck me as odd because I dont know if they were both the fathers of the babies in their strollers or uncles pushing their niece or nephew or babysitters? Who knows. It is something I have seen quite a bit though.

The last anecdote that I wanted to share was when I see grandfathers. I was in a store and this elderly man was playing with a baby while waiting in line to check-out. It definitely was not his granddaughter or in any relation to him. But the mother did not look worried or defensive and no one around us thought it was abnormal.

Armenians are so trusting of each other. I dont know if America could ever be that way because of how inhomogeneous we are as a culture. Armenians are Armenian, there is not too much diversity within their culture. I assume that is how they can be so trusting, they all have a shared past, shared language, shared culture, shared norms, etc... Just interesting to think about.