American Life

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Everyone knows that Americans have a different system. here, it is each man for himself, or woman for that matter. Indians might find it very strange.

Here are a few examples i came across, among our neighbours.

A lady living here alone. She has a grandchild. Call her Lady A.
Until recently, she was at home because she fell down, broke her wrists,and couldn't work.
A couple of months back, she was talking to me, and she told me she had to take care of her grandson for a few days, because her daughter n son -in-law had to go out of station. Since this lady has no other source of income(she wasn't on disability pension, because she gt laid off from her job just 4 days before she got injured), she told her daughter to pay her, as she would pay any other baby sitter.
Her logic was " I needed the money, and she could afford it. So she did."

Now she is slowly healing, and on the lookout for jobs like babysitters/ nanny, I find her flyer's everywhere i take frisky for a walk. Loving grandma, flexible hours. etc etc.
Loving grandma, yes, but no qualms in taking money from her daughter to look after her own grandson.

Lady B. She was the one we had left frisky with, when we had gone to Vegas. She touted herself as the lovable pet sitter,and the few times Frisky had been around her, he seemed to like her. So we left him with her for 4 days.

We came back, and she had a litany of complaints. He has chewed her computer wire, broken her window blinds while jumping to look at another dog outside, had not eaten properly. Later, we found out, no one had sen her walk frisky around the condos. Probably she had just taken him outside her apartment and let him pee etc.Frisky doesn't like that. He likes to be walked, and needs a min of 30 minutes to do his business. God knows what she did in the 4 days.
We had a bad experience with her, as far as Frisky was concerned. We ended up paying for her computer wire. Now he is scared to even go near her apartment.

This lady went around proclaiming herself to be the "Social Director" of the condominiums. She refused to let another lady walk dogs, or do pet sitting, and actually tore off flyer's of Lady A, where she had advertised for pet sitting, and baby sitting. Now, Lady B has he job of baby sitting a school going kid, twice a week. pick her up from school, give her lunch, monitor her till her parents come back.

We also recently met another couple at one of the get together arranged by the management. Their son is in New york, and has apparently lost a bit of money recently. All they know is that he is struggling to get back in financial stability.
However, they haven;t given him any money to support himself.

So ultimately, one can say that Americans become independent at an early age, by working in places like McDonald's, etc and once they achieve a certain age, they do not want to stay with their parents, and vice versa.

Watching cases on Judge Mathis, Law and Order etc, also gives an idea, that children pay rent to their parents, if they are financially stable and stay with them.
Would Indians also go this way soon, I wonder??