I've learned a lot about being an American parent in Italy while living in our small town in the Calabria region.
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When my family moved from the United States to a small town in Southern Italy 12 years ago, I expected our children to grow up speaking another language and experiencing a different way of life.I didn't fully anticipate how much the move would challenge my ideas about parenting (in a good way).I was born and raised in Cleveland and attended Ohio State University, so my instincts were influenced by life in and around large American cities. I was accustomed to parents closely supervising where their children went, organizing their schedules, and treating late evenings as adult territory.In our part of Southern Italy, Mormanno, a mountain town in the Calabria region with a population of less than 3,000 people, many of those assumptions do not apply.Over the years, I have had to decide which local customs to embrace, which American values to preserve, and how to raise children who understand both cultures without feeling that they must choose between them.Children here are typically given more freedom in public
I've found it's not uncommon to see kids playing without their parents super close by in our town.
