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Ethnic mix at Day Nursery

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  • 17-07-2009 1:32pm
    #1
    __steve
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2 ✭


    Hi
    This is my first post. I joined boards just for the parenting forum.

    I have a dilemma about a nursery I am looking at for my son. We live in the USA, and we have found the ideal nursery. Perhaps. This is hard to discuss so I shall try and tread carefully.

    The only potential downside is that the 20 or so kids there are all of a different race to us (we are Irish). All the same race as each other.
    MINEFIELD ALERT: I am not trying to be racist here.
    I don't care what colour the other kids are, or what their backgrounds are. The more cultures and colours my kid is exposed to, the happier I am.

    The problem is they they are all 'X' race and my son will be the "odd one out" and feeling different.
    The area we are living in has a broad mix, which is why I find this nursery unusual.

    I do realise that someone has to take the first step and send their "different-race" kid there, then maybe others will follow suit. I'm sure the management are dying to get a wider range of cultures there, but can't even mention the race issue beacuse of the minefiend it is.

    I even worry about him getting positively discriminated against by the staff there, I just want race and culture to be a non-issue. Do you think this is possibe in a place like this?


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    #2
    silja
    Registered Users Posts: 2,921 ✭✭✭silja


    I can understand why you'd be a bit weary. I would not rule out such a nursery, and would send my twins there if it is the best in the area, but if there were others of a similar quality level with a better mix of races, I would chose them over a "single-other-race" nursery. One thing to keep in mind is that kids tend to be far less focused on race than adults, so if the race issue is purely colour (black middle class vs Irish middle class), then there probably won't be much of an issue. Yes, your child may be called a name every now and then, but this could happen because he wears glasses/ is tall/ is bad at sports/ whatever.

    Another thing to look at, for me, would be the cultural mix of the staff, and how they react to different cultures. For example, if the other race you speak of is Latino, do they often speak Spanish? If so, that might be nice for your kid to learn a different language, but, especially if they also (mostly) celebrate that culture's festivals, your child may feel that his culture is less valued.


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