When's the best time to have children?

[cucashopboy]

Yes, anyone could have gotten that wrong, and it is not as if it killed the children.



It didn't kill them, right?

I may have been joking about the last bit of my post.

[Seattlegirl]

I hate that too. As well as the bewildering array of implements, cloths and sponges for cleaning, and it being imperative to use exactly the right stuff for a particular cleaning task, and the horror if you 'get it wrong', such as when you use the toothbrush for cleaning the bicycle chain for the children's teeth.

There are a couple of Daiso stores in the Seattle area and it always cracks me up when I see the Japanese women buying the Japanese cleaning things you mentioned. Because you can't just go to any store and buy a sponge, right? It has to be a SPECIAL JAPANESE SPONGE even if it isn't a Japanese house. And we all know you have to use a Japanese toilet brush or that toilet just won't be clean enough.

It also amuses me when they buy personal care items, like toothbrushes. Seriously?! Does anywhere in the world have a bigger assortment of toothbrushes than the U.S.?!? Even the dollar store has better toothbrushes than you can buy at Daiso. I love Daiso, but only for things I can't buy at other stores, and will be a better quality than something from the 100 yen shop.

[YokohamaTommy]

It has to be a SPECIAL JAPANESE SPONGE even if it

Me: "I sort of kind of like Japanese Sponges."

Okaasan: "Yes! Aren't Japanese Sponges the best!! <insert *any* Japanese product> AND SO USEFUL!"

Me: Nods robotic-ally. "Yes. They are the best."

Everyone: <smiles emphatically in agreement>

[possum]

There are a couple of Daiso stores in the Seattle area and it always cracks me up when I see the Japanese women buying the Japanese cleaning things you mentioned. Because you can't just go to any store and buy a sponge, right? It has to be a SPECIAL JAPANESE SPONGE even if it isn't a Japanese house. And we all know you have to use a Japanese toilet brush or that toilet just won't be clean enough.

It also amuses me when they buy personal care items, like toothbrushes. Seriously?! Does anywhere in the world have a bigger assortment of toothbrushes than the U.S.?!? Even the dollar store has better toothbrushes than you can buy at Daiso. I love Daiso, but only for things I can't buy at other stores, and will be a better quality than something from the 100 yen shop.

Oops - I think I have been guilty of that on occasion myself - but the other way round. I don't go especially to the foreign supermarkets to buy cleaning products etc - but if there is an American brand or similar in my local shops I will buy that one because I know it and know (think) it works.

[haggydoggy]

There are a couple of Daiso stores in the Seattle area and it always cracks me up when I see the Japanese women buying the Japanese cleaning things you mentioned. Because you can't just go to any store and buy a sponge, right? It has to be a SPECIAL JAPANESE SPONGE even if it isn't a Japanese house. And we all know you have to use a Japanese toilet brush or that toilet just won't be clean enough.

It also amuses me when they buy personal care items, like toothbrushes. Seriously?! Does anywhere in the world have a bigger assortment of toothbrushes than the U.S.?!? Even the dollar store has better toothbrushes than you can buy at Daiso. I love Daiso, but only for things I can't buy at other stores, and will be a better quality than something from the 100 yen shop.

Dang.
You have Daiso in Seattle. Does it have the load of crap that you find in any Daiso in Japan? Wish we had a Daiso here.

[kurogane]

Dang.You have Daiso in Seattle. Does it have the load of crap that you find in any Daiso in Japan? Wish we had a Daiso here.

If it is anything like the Vancouver one, it has more crap.

Maybe a Daiso Super Big in Japan compares, but dang, man, this place is huge.


But there's a problem: unless the Japanese branch manager is around, you can only ask for products in some form of Chinese or gestured pidgin.


All the staff, you see...........


But this might satisfy your itch (it might be a wholesaler site, though) http://www.daisojapan.com/Default.aspx?

[possum]

I think it's unfair for you Western Women in that if a Jpn GF or spousal unit doesn't like the way we are doing something and pulls the "It's not the Japanese way" card, we can always give them just what they asked for.


Her: You're not doing it right!!!!!!! (cue hysteric overreaction)

ME: Right??? They're dishes FFS.....

HER: You need to do it the Japanese way!!!!!!!!!!

ME: Okay, let's do it the Japanese way. Here, I'll be home in a bit.

hands dishrag to her and goes to pub, or for a walk, returning later to find the dishes done and dried and a GF angrier than Krakatoa at full eruption


Poor girl. It took her 5 of those episodes to figure out what I was doing.

I still laugh half of one off thinking of how that quick a person could walk into it so easily.

BTW, does anybdy actually dry the dishes anymore, as in with a cloth???

Well I've found a few approaches effective
1. "You want it done the Japanese way? Go get yourself a Japanese wife" - and walk off.
2. " You want it done the Japanese way? You're Japanese, you do it then." - hand dishcloth, zokin etc to husband and calmly walk off.

I found #3 the most effective though.
We moved into a new house and hubby was being very critical.
I looked at him calmly one day and said "I notice you are doing less but criticising more. If you want it done a particular way you can do it yourself, otherwise stop criticising and let me do it my way."

That really worked and continues to work.

[kurogane]

He he he.

Obviously, #3 is the more constructive method, but #2 is simply so satsfying, it is really hard to not indulge myself.

Plus, as a guy, I get to combine #1 and #2:

"You want it done the Japanese way? Well, since you're a Japanese woman, and this is housework, you do it."


I have actually tried to stop myself, knowing the resulting pouting would be Olympic level, but it isn't easy, possum.

It isn't easy.


What used to make me laugh was that reference to the Canadian Way quickly brought on charges of cultural bigotry.


Having said all that, aside from a supernatural physcial attraction, my ex and I were always best at winding each other up.

It was fun until it wasn't anymore.

These days I at least try to take the high road.

[Seattlegirl]

Dang.
You have Daiso in Seattle. Does it have the load of crap that you find in any Daiso in Japan? Wish we had a Daiso here.

Some are larger than others so some have more crap. We have other Japanese markets/stores in the Seattle area as well (Vancouver also has lots, as Kuro will testify). Unlike the Vancouver Daiso, the Seattle Daiso are staffed with the Nihonjin so you can always ask questions. The other day I was in one and didn't even realize I was singing along with the music until the clerk said, "Natsukashii, desu ne?" (It was the Blue Hearts "Train Train". Yes, that's how long ago I lived in Japan.)

[Seattlegirl]

What used to make me laugh was that reference to the Canadian Way quickly brought on charges of cultural bigotry.

Dare I ask what "the Canadian Way" means?

[ChucklingJawa]

Genetically at your teens as it has been recently proved that male and females genes degrades over age. So if you have a baby at your twenties it will be healthier than if you have it at your thirties and way healthier than if you have it at your forties. For old male children it seems they are a lot more stupid than they would have been if the man was younger. For older females it is already well known the downside.

Could you provde a link or a reference for this idea? It's just that everything i have read about people having children later rather than early simple suggests that the main risky part is the actual birthing, such as higher risk of down syndrome etc. I have never read anything that suggests that mental intelligent degrades in child with older parents.

I have come to the conclusion that although there's no 'best' time to have children, there are definitely the most suitable times to do so, but everyone's situation is different. If my GF and I have children when she is in her mid 30's then for us it's the best time. It will give us both a chance to prepare for it, and by that point we should have a decent amount of money saved up for a house/whatever, also she has already progressed quite a bit in her field so she shouldn't have to much trouble continuing to work, even if in a different company, after the child is slightly older. Whereas a very young couple mid struggle with these ideas, especially if it's at the expense of getting a decent education or job. At the end of the day it all depends on each person though.

[kurogane]

Dare I ask what "the Canadian Way" means?

stumbling about and muddling through??????????


I ony ever used it as a counter to lectures on the Right Way (i.e the Japanese Way).

I suppose it could involve cheddar cheese and male syrup................

One big item in the Right Way was the need to use the correct brush, sponge or implement for the appropriate task (not using eating chopsticks as cooking chopsticks; not cleaning the glasses with the toilet brush............), and since the Canadian Guy Way is to grab whatever is handy.............well, let's just say, it is more of a sarcastic rebuttal than a well formed philosophy.

[Seattlegirl]

cheddar cheese and male syrup................

Is that a Freudian slip??

the Canadian Guy Way is to grab whatever is handy

Isn't that EVERY guy's way?!

[kurogane]

Is that a Freudian slip??

OH MY!!!!!!!!?????????????????????????

Isn't that EVERY guy's way?!

We can only hope, my young flower.



Actually, though, I'll go with no. My more observant Jpn male colleagues actually know there is a difference and that it is important and are only too happy to point it out as I stand at the common room sink doing their F'in dishes (so that the secretaries don't have to).

Which isn't to say they ever actually do any of the work involved; probably The Rule and The Way was brow beaten in to them by their overbearing mommies or wives

[haggydoggy]

If it is anything like the Vancouver one, it has more crap.

Maybe a Daiso Super Big in Japan compares, but dang, man, this place is huge.


But there's a problem: unless the Japanese branch manager is around, you can only ask for products in some form of Chinese or gestured pidgin.
All the staff, you see...........
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Some are larger than others so some have more crap. We have other Japanese markets/stores in the Seattle area as well (Vancouver also has lots, as Kuro will testify). Unlike the Vancouver Daiso, the Seattle Daiso are staffed with the Nihonjin so you can always ask questions. The other day I was in one and didn't even realize I was singing along with the music until the clerk said, "Natsukashii, desu ne?" (It was the Blue Hearts "Train Train". Yes, that's how long ago I lived in Japan.)

All we have is a Marukai and Donki.