well no...it does NOT take a village to raise a child...it takes a family. Mom and Dad are bare minimium...they can just BARELY get the job done. It's lots and lots easier if they have an extended family. Mom and dad, gramps and grannies...unks and aunts...and cozins..
that's worked out pretty well every time it's been tried...
.....for...oh...about two or three HUNDRED thousand years..
That is what I was referring to, the ancient and not so ancient but long since past "villages" were an extended family.
I grew up with half of each year in Italy and half in California. I remember one day I was on my Great Grandmas third floor terrace in Italy. It overlooked the Piazza of our small neighborhood. I was five- I remember because in the fall I was to begin American Kindergarten.
It was after lunch and in Italy most everyone would nap. Businesses would close, employees go home and rest.
There was very little movement on this hot day. I seemed to be the only one awake. As I stood there, a boy came into view. He put his face against a window with his hands cupped to block the sunlight and peered in. He went to the next house, and the next, peering into the windows.
Suddenly a little old lady erupted from a house across the way. She began beating the boy with her purse while screaming Italian obscenities. After she determined he'd had enough she grabbed his ear and drug him down the cobblestone path, disappearing around a corner and out of sight to deliver him to his parents I presume.
Even at my young age, I thought to myself this would never happen in America. I realized no one even knew their neighbors in the US, and more than likely someone would call the police as first line of defense.
perhaps the America you were exposed to...you did say california?
I was raised in the REAL america, FlyOver Country..the bible belt...that scene would not have been unusual..
Yup! Cali- Don't judge, I was a minor and not in control of my living arrangements ;)
I've been to cali eleventy seventeen times...been there got the scars..both emotional and financial...I have EVERY reason to judge.
I hope you escaped
...perhaps therapy would be useful?
We moved away right before high school. For this I am thankful ;)