(cheerful vocalization)
- Hi, we're Joel and Lia.
- And today's video is all about U.S.A vs U.K. parenting.
- So we're not parents, let's just get that straight--
- In the U.K. or U.S.A.
- Or the U.S.A.
We found this article from The Insider,
and we just wanted to discuss it because
although we're not parents, there's loads of things
about kids and stuff that we can vouch for
and say maybe isn't so true.
So we just to discuss it and go through with it,
and we also are really interested in your opinions
which we encourage you to leave in the comments.
- Yes, so let's get crackin'.
- So the first one is to do with maternity leave,
so when a woman has, when a mother has a child,
in the U.K., she can expect to get about 52
weeks of paid maternity leave.
So that means she can go and look after her child at home
and still be paid a salary from work.
- For a full year to raise the child, over that,
well for the first year of their life.
- And I believe that the company get paid maternity leave
back from the government or at least a percentage
of the money that they've spent
giving this employee the money to be away.
Whereas in the U.S., there's not.
- They are not guaranteed a single day
of maternity leave, well, like paid maternity leave.
- [Together] which is crazy!
- And even the U.K. has more maternity leave
than the rest of Europe,
apparently the rest of Europe has 14 weeks maternity leave,
we have like, one of the highest maternity leaves,
- which is crazy. - 14 weeks.
That's not long, is it?
How many months can fit into 14 weeks?
- Four, eight, 12, so
- [Together] three and a half months
- and then that's it.
- That's it, you're either not being paid
or straight back to work.
- It's crazy, I mean, - it is.
It's not something I've thought about as a man
but now I've seen that in this article, it's crazy.
- Yeah that is nuts, isn't it?
- So what do Americans do?
It says they're not guaranteed
a single day of maternity leave,
which means some people might get
lots of maternity leave,
but some people might not get any.
- So the second thing that's sort of up for discussion
in this article, is that apparently cursing
is more common in sort of, like
U.K. parenting compared to like U.S. parenting.
And I don't know how much I agree with this,
I think it completely depends on the family.
- Yeah, oh definitely.
My parents didn't allow any swearing,
and they still don't, even though we're adults.
(Lia laughs)
Like they don't stand for that at all,
but I know that that's maybe more of my family,
but I don't know.
- Yeah, my godsister's children,
so she's like in her thirties,
and she accidentally swore, like,
in front of the kids, or her husband did,
and they were both, like, oh my gosh.
And then the child was in the car
and then said that word back out loud,
and they were both, like, oh my God.
- What have we done? - It's mortifying
And they're scared that the kid would say that
at school or something,
so, like, I don't know, I think, Brits maybe
just laugh at it a bit more, like that's really funny
but also a bit shocking.
- Well, I think in general,
our attitude to swearing is a lot more relaxed
than in the U.S., I know that's the stereotype anyway,
don't know if it's definitely true.
But I know it's always like,
"oh you Brits are so foul mouthed."
Like it is something that Brits find swearing funny.
Not everyone, my mum doesn't find it funny
in the slightest, but most Brits find swearing funny,
and they just think it's part of who we are, I guess.
- Yeah, as a child, like, I definitely did not swear at all.
Like if I was caught swearing, I'd get a slap.
But yeah I don't, I can't really remember what age
did that became like a okay,
she's saying the S word or something.
Completely depends on the family, doesn't it?
- Yeah, so the next one is the fact
that it's not uncommon to find kids in pubs
and that is something that, normally pubs are divided.
I remember as a kid, you weren't allowed in certain areas,
you weren't allowed at the bar,
but you were allowed still in the pub.
But the weird thing is, Americans don't have pubs,
so why is this a thing?
- Pubs are so relaxed
and pubs are different vibe to a bar.
Of course, in America, you wouldn't just
take your kid to the bar.
But like, in the U.K., our equivalent of that is the pub,
and kids are more than welcome there,
and it's kid-friendly atmosphere.
- Some pubs even have kids' play areas.
- Yeah, yeah.
- They've got - It's sort of
- like a little creche. - it's a family vibe.
- I just think it comes down to the
whole attitude towards alcohol anyway.
So, like, if an American is in the pub
or the bar three times a week,
then they might be described as an alcoholic.
Whereas in the U.K., if someone's at the pub
three times a week they might be described as sociable.
- Yeah that is true. - You know what I mean?
So like the kids are there anyway, you're there,
it's, people from your town or people you know
from work and it's like, more of a
like a family get-together that which so happens
to have alcohol involved.
- Which, I think, the stereotype is that bars in America
maybe are filled with middle age men.
Whereas pubs are filled with families.
Like, there are some pubs that have that stereotype as well,
being filled with middle aged men,
but it is more of a family vibe
so it wouldn't be weird to bring
your child to a pub in the U.K..
- It's just not out of the ordinary,
like if you walked into a pub and saw families there
and children running around, it's,
and maybe dogs as well, depends on the pub really,
loads of pubs are dog-friendly.
- So the next one is about child proofing,
not sure if we agree with this one,
but then we don't have kids, so not sure.
But it says that the U.S. is a lot more intent
and safety-conscious when it comes to kids,
they child proof their homes like there's no tomorrow
'cause they don't want their child to even get a scratch.
Whereas in the U.K., it says they're more relaxed
and they see, like, falling over and getting scratched
is just being character-building.
- In a way, I do know British families
that are like say that their kid like
falls over or has injured themselves
they're just like, well it's just a little scratch.
Like or I've heard of stories, like
"oh, one time that I fell on my head,
"and my mum didn't take me to A and E,
"accident and emergency hospital,
"'cause she was just, like, yeah, I'll be fine."
And which, I thought it was hilarious
'cause my family is complete opposite,
like, everything was like,
"Ah, what's the matter dear, everything okay?"
Like, very much, kind of, like, there'll be things
on the corners of stuff so I didn't bang my head,
and there'd be baby gates.
- I can't even remember anything about my childhood really,
I definitely can't remember whether there was
- child proofing anywhere. - Child proofing.
So next one is about summer holidays or summer vacations.
So kids in the U.S. tend to get longer holidays,
apparently you guys get, like,
12 weeks holidays in the summer,
- What a dream.
- but less interspersed the rest of the year.
Whereas we get six weeks for holiday,
which to us, is, like, amazing,
but then we get lots more different holidays
throughout the year, like a week here, two weeks there--
- Easter holidays, half term, things like that.
But when you hear about American summer vacations,
and they seem to be off for forever.
- ages, yeah.
- We're just, like, uh, what you're doing, like,
when did they break up, when did they go back to school?
Yeah, in the U.K. it's much shorter,
but as Joel said, we'd get, like maybe two weeks off
at Easter, and also it completely depends on
whether the school is public or private.
Often private schools get given more holiday, so.
So the next one's to do with baby showers,
which is a completely, sort of, new thing
that's just started coming over here from the U.S.
We never used to have baby showers,
however, in the last year,
I've been invited to three baby showers,
- I'm so sorry.
- and I've attended two of them
and brought presents for all of them.
- Must be awful.
- It's an extra added expense, so we tend to not do it,
it's completely taken from the U.S.
So when you have a party before the baby's born.
- Well, they know, they're Americans, yeah.
- For anyone who doesn't know, it's madness.
- Well, it's just, like, we keep doing that
with proms, with all these different things
that are coming over from the U.S.
that we're now adopting as our own,
it's just another U.S. import, basically.
Black Friday that we now do,
and now it's baby showers,
but I can't think of anything worse,
but luckily it's mainly a female thing.
So I probably will never have to go to one.
- You won't; I'd invite you to one if I did one,
I'd invite you - and I'd turn it down,
but no, for you I wouldn't (laughs).
- Oh Joel!
- No, I wouldn't for your kids, obviously.
- Obviously, the godfather couldn't be here today,
unfortunately, sorry.
- Unfortunately, he couldn't be
- [Together] Bothered
- He's drinking Prosecco - Prosecco
- I'm kidding.
Next one is to do with midwives.
So, after you've given birth in the U.K.,
About 10 days later, your midwife will come to your house,
and it's meant to be, to sort of check that you're okay,
sort of like with the baby and how things are going.
My mom told me, the midwives like to come over,
check the house, she's like,
yeah, they like to come over, check the house is clean,
and in order, and check that you're, you know,
that the baby is in an okay state,
that you've not brought it back to a sort of
chaotic, unclean home. - I didn't know that.
- So, this is provided through the NHS.
This is a free service.
And check out our video in the cards,
all about the NHS, which is a free healthcare service
which is available to everybody in the U.K.
It's not free; the taxpayer, we all pay for it,
and we all use it over the course of our lives,
whether we see a doctor, dentist,
accident and emergency, emergency services.
So, yeah, midwives will come to your house,
whereas in the U.S., it costs a lot of money to have a baby.
It can cost like thousands of pounds,
whereas over here, it's just all covered.
- So another thing is that childcare
is slightly cheaper in the U.S.
I've heard from lots of you guys in comments
that childcare is still quite expensive where you are,
but trust me, it's more expensive in the U.K.
I think for that reason.
Do people send their kids to nursery a bit more?
Like if you had someone in your home
looking after your kids, that would be like a nanny,
so expensive, like astronomical.
- People would spend nearly half of their wage
to afford that, so often we'll rely on family friends,
yeah, family.
- That's probably why it's a good idea that
we've got 52 weeks of maternity leave every year,
'cause then it sort of is the downside of that is
then childcare is very expensive.
So the last one is that British kids
don't open their birthday presents at the party
in front of all the friends
that have bought the presents for them.
They tend to collect them all, keep them there,
or take them home, depending on where their party is,
and then open then, in private,
in the privacy of their own home.
- Yeah, so if you're a parent,
and you've thrown a party for your young child,
and all your friends' children and the child's friends
will come to the party, and often you just go,
"where shall I put the present?"
and it just goes off on a little table in the corner.
It's not unusual at all that we'll never see
the child open those presents,
however, we would probably get like a thank you message
or a card the next day.
- Oh yeah, you'd expect a thank you card.
- You'd expect a thank you card
or at least a phone call or something to say thank you.
Whereas in the U.S., according to The Insider,
it's kind of more of a tradition to watch the
child open their presents.
- Yeah, it's interesting, which I'd hate,
because I hate opening presents in front of people.
- I know, it's awkward, isn't it.
- Yeah, I think everyone does.
- 'Cause you're able to do the like "Aw, thank you so much!"
- Thanks for watching, guys.
That was the differences between
the U.S. and U.K. parenting.
I don't know why we always sum up with what the video was,
'cause people watching are like, "I know."
- People watched it, they know what it was.
If you can think of any more differences,
then write them in the comments.
This video inspiration's been taken from an article
from the This Is Insider.
We like to take articles and discuss them,
throw in our own opinions, see what you guys think as well.
Please keep sending us these.
We're really grateful to you people that email us these,
'cause then it provides more content for the channel.
And if you've enjoyed it, don't forget to subscribe!
- Yep, and give the video a like.
Come back, we post at least thrice weekly,
all about everything really.
We used to be very focused on British culture,
now we're sort of a bit of everything.
- Bit of everything.
- So come back there'll be something for everyone.
- Salt and pepper, bit of this,
- [Together] Bit of that.
- See you soon
- [Together] Bye!