Different Childhoods

Sometimes, when my husband's family play with my kids, I chuckle a bit.  Him and I have very different childhoods.  I only remember one uncle playing with us as kid, and I can recall that he was our favorite because of that.  The rest of the family, they just fed us.  Actually I lie, one other occasion, the Christmas all my cousins and I will remember, is when my uncle and his then girlfriend, now my aunt, played a game of Monopoly with us.  We know now he was just trying to impress her, because he refused to play ever again, and she also wasn't excited to play again, but that has remained a part of my good memory pile from then on.  It also sprouted my love for board games, and even though the only ones we played growing up were Monopoly and LIFE, both games I kind of sorta hate now, I also was exposed to some other games through school and friends, and in my adult life, have come unto actually legit games!  HAHA I digress.  So..., most of my family... they were all immigrants who had come from Taiwan to find the American dream in LA.  And I'm not sure why but they just knew how to work hard and shower us with gifts and food, but they didn't really know how to interact with kids.  Not much has changed in respect to my uncles and aunts.  They're still really good at feeding them.  Like constantly shoving food into their mouths, bringing bread and desserts and snacks for them, and then giving them a ton of fruit when they're stuffed.  My dad will provide them with big architect planning paper and tons of pens to draw something with.  I remember doing this as a kid a lot too.  I guess you could say they're really good at encouraging me to grow my creative side also.  Don't get me wrong, my parents love LOVE my kids, but they struggle to know how to be with them if they are not providing for them.  It is oddly reminiscent of my own childhood.  Even now as a grown up, my parents still aren't sure how to be my friend, and are still my parents. They still are in charge of me, provide me with food and shelter, and help me out financially whenever I visit.  In fact, my dad has been known to "sponsor" our trips to Disneyland everytime we visit, but both my parents would not want to go to an actual amusement park with us, which is a stark contrast from my husband's more American family, where both his parents and his aunt and uncle have been to numerous amusement parks with us.  My parents also freak out when we dine in an actual restaurant and the kid start acting up.  You know, because they have to wait for food and are bored and want to get up and walk around.  We prefer buy and sit to dine type of places, but my parents have taken us to many a fancy Chinese restaurants and then been mortified by my kids' very normal childlike behavior, which was completely appalling and unacceptable by my parents' standards (and made for a really boring childhood spent every weekend at dim sum).  But I respect the differences and it doesn't bug me.  I just find it interesting to note the differences.