Top of the Pops

Last year I was sitting drinking wine with a friend in a bar in Dubrovnik and he casually mentioned that in a recent survey New Zealand women came out top… as the most promiscuous in the world! Sto? What?
Well that got me thinking (OK, I never stop thinking)…
1. Which three Contiki Tour bus drivers took part in this survey?
2. What were the terms and definitions of this survey?
3. Who has read the results of this survey – was it the guy who passed me a glass of wine on the beach and then talked to me for an hour? (hope not, I had to lie to him and tell him I had Croatian lessons to go to..)
4. Are they serious?(and is this true?)
5. And why did he mention this to me?

Perhaps it is because NZ women are prolific travellers (is that the right word?) – we are found in every corner of the world- we were early feminists – we don’t have the strong ties to the Catholic Church that the Italian women do (same survey).. *sigh*. I don’t know, I just thought it worth mentioning.

And leading on from that subject, the mothers promenading and coffeeing with their babies along the riva in Makarska seem so, so young¸ some look as though they have just left school. Talking to one of these young mothers, I’m told that the government pays for one year (not a large amount) and it isn’t tagged to the mother – so if a couple decides that the mother will go back to work, the father can stay at home and look after the baby and the household still receives the money. Two babies you receive funds for two years, with a cap at three years. Even with incentives like that, the birth rate is declining, with most couples only having one child. Schools are struggling to keep pupils as competing schools actively market for new pupils.

Baby clothes shops are hugely popular and babies are beautifully dressed, prams are the latest 4WD ones in reds and grays. Children are a real focus in family life, and grandparents are actively involved with their grandchildren, made easier by the fact that families live in the same building – each member of the family living on a separate level. As parents return to work when the child is a year old, grandparents can be seen in parks and on beach with the children. (Yes, if I was a proper grandmother I would be at home helping, not gallivanting around the world).
I had a conversation the other night about the morning abundance of beautifully groomed mothers and was told “well imagine – you get up in the morning, pass the baby to the waiting grandmother and then spend an hour or so doing hair, makeup, etc, and then claim the baby back from the mother in law, and spend the morning in the cafes with the other mothers. How hard can it be?” [this comment from a kiwi Croatian].

And a final comment from a mother in her mid thirties when we talked about the young mothers who look as though they have just left school – “these young people now have lost their dreams and sadly can only see motherhood as the answer to what to do next”.