Make Your Parents Happy. Have a Baby!

... that is, if you're married! Because, we all know what it means to most Greeks families to bring a baby home if you're not married. The usual order of things is first for your parents to annoy you to get married before your "expiration date" nears and then for them to annoy you until you have a baby.

Of course, it's worst if you're a woman. However, nowadays Greek families frown upon their girls getting married before their 30s. It's usually because the moms project their own wishes on their daughters and they don't want them to enter the "vasana" of marriage too early, like they did. Although this may be true for families in Greece, for most other Greeks around the world (at least in the U.S. and Australia) getting married early is seen as a good thing.

I have a feeling it's a boy...

Sometimes satisfying your parents is a never-ending battle. Just when you stopped hearing things like, "When is he finally going to propose? Do you think he's just taken you for granted and wants to avoid marriage for as long as possible? What if he's using you?" from aunts and mothers, you start hearing about having babies. If they don't see a bump the next few months after your wedding you start to hear sob stories like: "When am I going to become a grandma? When I'm 80?" You just can't win!

Some of you in more remote areas of Greece, or with relatives from remote areas of Greece, get wishes such as "Hopefully, the first one is a boy." And, "why" may I ask? Because, the boy will carry the family name till eternity and it will make his grandfather (of course from the father's side) very happy! Why, the grandfather from the father's side in particular? Because you're going to give your firstborn boy his name! Hello!! It's been done for years. Why do you think we've ended up with 1 million Yiannides and Yiorgides in this country? We keep "dipping" into the same pool name.

It's all in the name

This issue of naming children has brought full-on war to some families. Parents don't talk with their children any more, because they refused to baptize their kids with their (the grandparents') names! I have even heard of instances when the husband swore to divorce his wife if she didn't accept naming their first two children after his parents. And the latter is an example from a couple of months ago, not from the 1920s as you may have initially thought. People like this are the reason that a family may end up with 5 Nikos's: little Nikos, middle Nikos and big Nikos from 3 different brothers who decided to each give their dad's name to their son.

Issues like this are truly silly when you observe them as an outsider. It's just one of those traditions that I hope will either go out of style or disappear in the next few years, because imagine "having" to name your girl "Lemonia" (which means "lemon tree") or your boy "Epaminondas"! They're names that can scar your kid for life!

*Image: http://www.balancedlivingmag.com/

Visit allthegreeks.com for more "issues" Greeks face around the world!

The Virtues and Vices of the Civil Servant

It's the person we love to hate here in Greece. We talk about how lazy and inefficient they are, yet if we were given the chance to become one, we would grab it without second thought. It's the civil servant.

Dealing with public services is normal for the citizens of each country. But even thinking about it is a big headache for most Greeks. Why? Because the bureaucracy to do one simple thing seems never-ending and because, most of the time, the people who are supposed to be at your service and help you (civil servants) make things worse rather than better.

So, if these creatures are so hated, why does 90% of the Greek population wishes that either they were one or their child became one? Because, there are perks to being a civil servant:

You have a steady paycheck.

You get extra benefits for getting married, have a child and so on.

If a woman chooses to have 4 children one after the other, then she can be on maternity leave for 10 consecutive years and get paid by the public (yes, it's true!)

You have a sort-of boss that you have to listen to, but there's no real danger of you ever getting fired.

You get more days off than other people throughout the year and paid vacation.

It is, however, a sector that lacks creativity, productivity and potential.

Back in the day, working for the public was a menial job that no one wanted, because you made more money working in the private sector. When it started gaining some respect as a place to work, all of the politicians and heads of local authority got their friends and family jobs there. This means that many times you would find illiterate people as heads of a department, just because they had the right connection... no joke.

Most of the workers in that generation still remain in their positions today. That's why you'll find several rude individuals who will have you going for one office to the next, just because they don't feel like dealing with your issue correctly.

Many times, you'll find people like this shopping at the supermarket or running other errands around the city during their work hours, because nobody checks on them. Oh... and they want to retire early with all their pension and benefits intact. Even if these people are small percentage of the whole, they manage to ruin the reputation of civil servants.

For those people that have been hired in the public service the last few years, it's a different story.

Read the rest at www.allthegreeks.com

BitterSweet New Year's Resolution. Happy 2010!

Every year we feel like there's a chance for a new beginning. So we give and receive wishes for health, bliss, prosperity and so on, to jump-start the year positively. We also make promises to ourselves (only to break them as soon as the holiday spirit evaporates). This year...

I will

... remember that perception is everything in human relationships. What's right for me, may be wrong or irrelevant for others. So, I will be more flexible and forgive more easily (because some things just can't be forgotten). I'll even forgive Giorgaki for almost doubling my car tax this year, but I definitely won't forget his promise to return the money next year!

... value the things I have and stop fretting over the things I don't have, because no matter how many good things or moments life brings me, I just keep wanting more. It's human nature.

... make my guy do more housework and I'll work more hours, because according to research, both guarantee more and great sex for the couple (tanea.gr)!

... think long and hard before planning a trip to Thessaloniki now that the Tempi are going to be closed for at least 3 months! That means an extra hour if you go through Agia, and two extra hours if you take the bus.

... keep hoping for a change in the educational system in Greece, because unless that changes drastically, nothing will ever change for the better in this country. Schools are collapsing both literally and metaphorically, breeding the next generation of citizens who learn to not care about anything, because the prospects for a better job and life are close to nil (unless you have the right "connection"). Currently, the "lifelong university students" (also known as αιώνιοι φοιτητές), those students who have been enrolled in a university for over a decade, are more than those regularly enrolled (troktiko.blogspot.com)!

... call people more often because OTE is reducing it's prices (kathimerini.gr), but any money saved will probably be spent on grocery shopping, because the prices there just keep going up. Greece has biggest percentage increase in Europe in many services and products (kathimerini.gr).

... have a good time and stop worrying about what others may say. Try it. It's great!