A reader writes about differing cultural customs:
My experience in Germany with a kid was that there are a lot fewer places kids are (group-wise) accepted. One child might accompany a parent to shop, or to a restaurant, but there generally were not many seen at one time in places of business. My son was welcomed just about everywhere, and he was fairly well-behaved and spoke with adults unabashedly. Our pace of living was less a sprint than a meander, so we were able to discuss life and expectations along the way. As for grandparents giving suggestions, ours seem often unwilling to talk much about how they did things, as the environment for a school-aged child is so different from the lives the grandparents recall.
Or even the life I recall. Although I suppose I could be a grandparent at this age.
