taboo

Taboos...it is easier now to simply know them by feeling instead of having to try to remember them all, like several years ago. Several years ago I was afraid to say much, do much, because there were so many cultural taboos here in Thailand that I had read about, heard about, or been corrected on. Today, many times I don't think about it first, but I feel it first. First there is a bad feeling, then the reason will come later, swimming up from some part of my brain. Sometimes I don't know the reason, it is merely intuitive, and then when I ask a friend about it later they will explain why. Sometimes, though, they can't explain why. Just like sometimes I can't explain the "why" of my own culture to them. Often I have been asked, "Why do you keep your children in a separate bed, even in a separate room?" It seems kind of mean to Asians. I couldn't answer that one. I just know we westerners have done it a long time, except when there wasn't room to put our children in another bed or separate room. Asians sleep with their babies and often their children, too. When they are older they often still sleep in the same room as their parents. From the beginning, when we moved to Thailand, Thais didn't agree that we put our children in another room, they felt it was neglectful.