Well, where I come from...

[Viennamom 240]

And right turn on red traffic laws in many states!

[ExpatUSA 1,412]

Where I come from we play football, not soccer. The same is true for the country where I currently live... ;)

[adutchy 7]

Where I come from, I can vent in public about Germans without anyone staring at me :D

[kthy 405]

Where I come from bicycle repair shops open at 7 in the morning and don't take a week to fix your bike.

[perdido 6,083]

...people talk to each other in person and not over the internet. We still use fake names though.

[Rayne0820 115]

Where I come from...

 

-fried is a food group

-canned veggies are in every home I know

-failure to say 'please', 'thank you', 'mamm' or 'sir' is likely to get a grown mad knocked upside the head by his father

-using foul language in front of a woman will also get the grown man knocked upside the head by his father, regardless of how foul HER mouth was

-Germany is 'that place with all the beer, sausage, and well-made stuff' or 'we don't talk about THAT country when Grandma is around on account of her brother who never came back from the war...'

-we talk about the war

-socks and sandals are a big no-no...but bare feet are just fine, indoors or out

-it's stale air that will kill you, not the dreaded draft

-everything is air conditioned...

-roundabouts are unheard of

-the main requirement for a driver's license in the ability to see over the dash and have your feet reach the pedals

-riding a bicycle somewhere is for hippies, and children who are not tall enough to drive

-public transportation is a rarity, and if it does exist, you can forget about there being posted schedules or anything running on time. It'll be 'long directly, just sit a spell.

-corrupt politicians are aparrently encouraged...we tend to make heros out of them

[Rayne0820 115]

...

[Amber_ghouse 4]

 

"Well, where I come from," you teach a kid from an early age never to accept candy from strangers, especially not un-hermetically sealed candy, unless it happens to be Halloween, and your parents or some other chaperone are there anyway. I mean I know we all learned ages ago that no one would really waste their precious LSD getting some kids too young to appreciate it high, and it's probably not poisoned. But what about luring a kid away with a piece of candy?

 

"Where I come from" very few parents would stop and to let their kid take candy from a stranger. I guess we Americans are more uptight and paranoid than the chilled-out Germans in such matters.

 

What do they do here differently to where you come from, that never ceases to amaze you?

 

I think it depends on where you were raised in the US. I was raised in rural small town America and mothers would have no problem allowing their children to take candy from an old man. There was a man in my hometown who would go around giving Lifesaver mints to everyone. He was very sweet. I as an American parent would allow my child to take candy from a "stranger" if they looked like a decent person. If they didnt I would probably have my child take the candy and then throw it away when we were out of sight... To me that would be the polite thing to do.

[mlovett 8,681]

Where I [originally] come from, people wear flip-flops all the time, NEVER socks with sandals. They smile, and chat with 'strangers'. They enjoy the simple things in life, like super burritos. I rode my bike to the beach, where the sun [almost] ALWAYS shines. I spent entire summers on the beach. Now I live in the friggin' 'hood, too far away from the beach, though I can see it with my telescope, I think. I just spent the weekend at the beach, where my sister bought a house a couple of weeks ago. While it's a bit foggier than where we grew up, I realize that I miss living near the farking ocean!! Where I come from, nobody digs some bizarre huge hole at the beach, staking claim to their territory [as they do at the Baltic Sea].

 

I saw seals and otters. Some dude was doing high flips in the Pacific at top speed on his paraglide-sail-wakeboard-thingamajig. Awesome. I miss beach culture. _{my skin doesn't}

[rhody 3,170]

Where I come from, you can fish without needing 40 hours of instruction from a pedantic.

 

Where I come from, we don't think of ways to make seafood shops worse by making up silly laws about lobsters and the bands on their claws.

 

Where I come from, we don't cover fish with cream sauce every chance we get.

 

Where I come from we have beaches that are free not gravel pits where you pay.

 

And we have maple syrup that doesn't cost more than gasoline per liter.

[dessa_dangerous 13,315]

Well Amber, you know who else looked "decent"? Ted effing Bundy.

 

 

But in all seriousness, teaching your kids that it's okay to stop and talk to strangers and take things from them if they look this way or that way and to consider the stranger's feelings before their own safety (I would not teach my child that it had to be "polite" to any adult trying to get their attention in public) is simply madness, whether you live in the city or in the country. Most reasonable adults will not take offense that a child has been taught not to talk to or accept gifts from strangers. It is a mystery to me why non-urban dwellers seem to think they are safer than urban dwellers; it only takes one nutjob to lure your kid into a basement, rape and torture it, then cut it up into little pieces and eat it. It's not like the city is crawling with them and by sheer virtue of numbers there are fewer of them in the country.

 

Point blank, probably most people who want to engage other people's children in public are well-meaning, but there will be a number who aren't. My hypothetical kids won't be taking candy from nor stopping to talk to any grownup, because even if you tell a kid--hey, you can take the candy, but don't go anywhere with them--children are easily enchanted. They can easily be convinced that their silly old mommy surely didn't mean they shouldn't go with this particularly friendly and harmless old guy.

 

But I suppose when I say "where I come from" I almost always mean Seattle--where we learned also in school never to talk to strangers, never to accept candy from strangers, and never to go anywhere with anyone who didn't know your "kid code". So... yeah.

[featherlight 1,368]

Where I come from if you are invited to eat at someone's home you do not tell them you do not like what is being offered. If necessary you PRETEND to like it. And you do not ask for things beyond salt, pepper, bread and water if they are not already on the table.

 

The motto where I come from is "don't go to any trouble for me".

 

Recently my Germanic BIL informed me when I issued an invitation that he did not like what I was going to cook. So I changed my menu for him. Which he then trashed when he arrived. At the same he told me who was missing from my guest list and told me who I must also invite. He also requested special salt (fleur de sel) with his fois gras and a specific brand of mustard with his main. Which I did not have. He complained that the mustard I served was like mayonnaise and not sharp enough.

 

When his wife removed a tick from his arm she asked not just for antiseptic - no it had to be a transcutaneous disinfectant... not iodine, not hydrogen peroxide and not 70% alcohol. Oh boy they really like to give you the runaround.

 

My inlaws can be stunningly rude. Or am I just an overly sensitive woman?

[Masala 157]

your in-laws sound rather rude, but like royalty compared with mine: they bang on the table and sing when the food takes too long and suspiciously prod anything that isn't in sausage form.

[sgt.schmitty 992]

...me 'n my kids don't get bitched at for 'cheating' or taking short cuts when playing minigolf :D

[LeonG 14,861]

 

At the same he told me who was missing from my guest list and told me who I must also invite. He also requested special salt (fleur de sel) with his fois gras and a specific brand of mustard with his main. Which I did not have.

 

I wouldn't hesitate to be rude back to someone like that. It is your party and you can invite whom you want to and if he has such special needs that he can only eat the special mustard and special salt that not everybody would have, he can bring it from home if he can't live without it. Sheesh!

[Irish Lassie 3,007]

where I come from, calling some a "mad hoor (whore)" is a compliment... ;)

[sgt.schmitty 992]

a couple years ago, i was going around the block with my dog. This girl's kickstand was falling off her bike. She was waiting for her mom, but she couldn't ride so i stopped to help. I took it off and handed it to her. Then her mom comes out and says to me, 'do you know her'? I said 'no, but i just live right around the corner so i thought nothing of it', she told me to go away i thought that was pretty incredible. What was i gonna do with a dog in my hand? Anyways, i'd never do that again. Where i come from, that's a pretty normal thing to help someone.

 

That day i'd just come home from a Vipassana meditation course so i was in a good mood

 

Now, not so much though :D

[lilplatinum 7,142]

 

Oh yeah? Well where I come from, people who wear California schwag have actually been there.

 

You smoke schwag, you dont wear it.

 

Where I come from apartments have fucking closets that preclude the necessity to drop a grand at ikea for a stupid kleiderschrank thats going to fall apart when you move it...

 

Where i come from, fußball is called soccer and kicker is called foosball...

[lilplatinum 7,142]

 

Point blank, probably most people who want to engage other people's children in public are well-meaning, but there will be a number who aren't.

Nonsense!

 

[theGman 3,520]

Where I come from people can park between the fecking lines!

 

Where I come from I can overtake a lorry without having to take out extra life insurance against the 250kmh, light flashing, bumper sitting, dangerous dicks which think that lane is theirs.

 

Where I come from my shit sinks into the water below, it doesn't wait on a shelf for me to have clean up after I am done.

 

Where I come from I would never consider putting myself through the "Aldi experience".

 

BUT...where I come from I get glassed by a chav everytime i'm out after 11.