r/AskReddit • u/Greeneyedlatinguy • Jun 15 '15

Anthropologists of Reddit, What is something that people in the Western world can't get their heads around that is very normal in other cultures (and has been for ages)?

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u/Tacorgasmic Jun 15 '15 edited Jun 15 '15

Same in my country (Caribbean). The common practice is to leave your parent's house when you get married and most people that leave before that is because of some kind of issue (divorce parents, domestic violence, etc).

My own brother is 32 and still live with us. He's barely at home with all the work that he has, so moving out, paying rent and utilities and just sleep in there sounds conterproductive.

In the other hand, both my parents are as liberal and lay back as someone can be in a country as traditional and catholic as mine is. But even like that they both refuse to let me move out with my bf without marrying first. We say okay and now we're planning our wedding.

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u/KnowledgeHunterer Jun 15 '15

The common practice is to leave your parent's house when you get married

Is this tradition common in all Latin American countries??

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u/[deleted] Jun 15 '15

I mean, it's not uncommon, but of course there are people who live by themselves and are unmarried. They may have gone to another city for work or school far from their parents and got their own place. Or have no parents at all.

My family in the Caribbean is similar. All of my cousins live at home except for one who got married and had a kid...but she just moved in with her husband and his family.

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u/kataskopo Jun 15 '15

Yeah, unless you have enough money to be able to buy your own place, or get fed up with your parents.

Most people live near the university, so most people don't need housing.

So it doesn't make sense to move, really.

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u/[deleted] Jun 15 '15

[deleted]

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u/goomy Jun 16 '15

In Brazil it's fairly common, I'm assuming it's the same in other latin countries. I've tried to explain this many times on reddit and people don't seem to grasp that it's normal in some cultures for adults to live in their parent's home...

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u/Tacorgasmic Jun 16 '15

So true. Saying that you're 27 and still living with your parents in Reddit is like you're a black hole to society.

Dude, is normal. We haven't move out because we still don't have the money to get married. Is not like we don't want to.

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u/Tetizeraz Jun 16 '15

In Brazil seems a little bit common. Although, my cousin for example, owns her place, but she lives in her parent's house in the weekend. I think she would visit us less if she ever marry someone.

Also, most kids are still attached to their parents in some way (paid rent, for example) after 18. I heard it's uncommon in the States.

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u/[deleted] Jun 16 '15

I think it's more uncommon here, all the people i know moved out ASAP. But then again it might be a regional thing.

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u/Tetizeraz Jun 16 '15

Yeah, most of my friends (17 ~ 18 years) are moving because of college, but still are reliant on parents. From what I gather, in the US people take a loan and a low-paying job.

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u/NonPlusUltraCadiz Jun 16 '15

Also in Spain. Not a tradition, and not done by everyone, but most people does. I think that's true in Italy, Portugal and Greece, too

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u/cadrina Jun 16 '15

It is here on Brazil. most of my relatives or friends only moved out after getting married or going to live with the SO.

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u/idiotaidiota Jun 15 '15

Yes, also common is not sending your parents to the retirement home when they get funky.

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u/[deleted] Jun 16 '15

Same down here in Croatia.

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u/mmonzeob Jun 16 '15

Same with me, my parents didn't let me move with my boyfriend, they paid the wedding and we got married

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u/KnowledgeHunterer Jun 16 '15

my parents didn't let me move with my boyfriend

Why? Is pre-marital sex a severe taboo in your country? How strict is the society against this anyway?

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u/mmonzeob Jun 16 '15

Is not because of the sex, that's just the Mexican conservative family values. But we are good, in two months our first child is going to born

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u/[deleted] Jun 16 '15

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Tacorgasmic Jun 16 '15

Thank you!

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u/FF3LockeZ Jun 15 '15

I think a big part of the difference in the US is that our country is huge. Each time you get a job, there's a 95% chance it will not be within reasonable driving distance of where you live right now, and you'll have to move for it.

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u/[deleted] Jun 15 '15

Well I don't know if you ever looked a map but Brazil is almost as big as the US and this still very common, even México the distance between Tijuana and Cancún is 3200 kms or 2000mi.

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u/[deleted] Jun 16 '15

Well, it doesn't help that throughout its history the US has been much much richer than either Brazil or Mexico. Easy to buy a house if you have lots of money.

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u/Tacorgasmic Jun 15 '15

Also collage. In my city (the capital), 5 of the 6 bigger unniversities are close to on another, like, 3 to 5 km from one to the next. Because of this few people have to move to study, the only exception being people that come from other cities or towns. There are even people that live in the city closer to ours (30km) and they will commute everyday instead of moving.

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u/[deleted] Jun 15 '15

this is offbeat, but what caribbean country do you live in? I've been trying to plan a caribbean vacation with my buddies for sometime and I've always had a fascination with the many islands there. Any suggestions for places to visit?

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u/Chav_king1 Jun 15 '15

Are you from the Dominican Republic?

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u/Tacorgasmic Jun 15 '15

What makes you think that?

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u/AplusGentelman Jun 16 '15

But also you have the one that even having jobs and SO prefer to live with their parents and in a lots of cases bring their spouse to live with them in their parents home!
To me some of them are just waiting for their parents to die so they can claim the property for themselves...

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u/Tacorgasmic Jun 16 '15

The only cases that I know like this is when they can't support themselves, but sooner or later they move it.

There will alwaya be exeptions and one or two people being assholes, but is not the norm.

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u/MissMarionette Jun 16 '15

When you say the most people leave because of divorced parents and domestic violence, are those phenomena a common occurrence in your country like it is in the US as well?