Bodo Schaefer and Carola Ferstl "Money is beneficial to women"*

Bodo Schaefer says that there is a big difference in how men and women respond to the theme "money." Prior to writing his book Bodo Schaefer conducted a survey in which more than 1,000 women participated. The results surprised him.

Apparently, women tend to shift all responsibility for important matters. They rely on their partners. Almost no woman thinks seriously about her retirement. Most of them do not even know what retirement to expect. In fact, 80 % do not have a clue as to what will be their pension. And it seems they do not care . Most women start thinking about money only when their life situation changes , for example, after a divorce. Bodo Schaefer does not think that such extreme measures are needed to bring order into a woman's financial situation.

Most women accumulate money for large purchases, but not for creating material prosperity or they save for children. More than 50% of all their money are on deposits. That is how women struggle against poverty. Hardly any woman dares to buy shares or invest into some funds. Women are much more cautious than men. They invest more conservatively. This means that a good income avoids women.

There is a good side - women are more economical than men, however the bad side is that women do not save for the future well-being , rather, they have these very different motives. They set aside money for a "rainy day", save for large purchases (furniture, car) , for a holiday home and for their children. They do not think about themselves and the future richness.This is due to the fact that many women are more family oriented. They attach great importance to education and childcare, as well as to a cozy home. Men, on the contrary, focus on status. This leads to the fact that women often spend money on new acquisitions that are impaired during the year and are out of fashion.

And what is the result? Most women have little money.

Amy Chua "Battle Hymn of The Tiger Mother"

They say that behind every outstanding person there stands his/her mother. Today it is rather a marketing team, sometimes a farther or both parents. However mothers still play a significant role in childrens' upbringing.

If you think one should be born a genius and the parents do not play any role, Amy Chua will prove that you can make a genius through  a Chinese way of education.

I read the book  Battle Hymn of the Tiger Motherbecause I heard it had caused a public outcry in a sense that Amy Chua, the mother of two daughters, killed their childhood in pursuit of making them high achievers. Did I find her way of bringing up kids totally unacceptable?...

I would like to cite Tolstoy who said about education approximately the following:

Pedagogy is a science of how living badly we can have a good influence on children. The same goes for our medicine - how living contrary to the laws of nature yet to be healthy.

Artful and empty sciences, never reaching their goal. All parenting difficulties arise from the fact that parents do not want to correct their own deficiencies, even justify them in themselves, and at the same time do not want to see their shortcomings in children.

Winter reading

If you are in a mood for reading during Christmas holidays then here are my "Winter" suggestions.

Smilla's Sense of Snow, I have already talked about this book here. The story is not without bumps. However, you  will plunge into silence masterfully created by Hoeg, you will perceive snow as a special kind of silence, you will fall in love with snow, Winter and Smilla.

The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel

You may find my impressions about the book  here. Do you like frightful and bewitching mystery? Like a hypnotic melody of fakir’s flute? Here is your book. Why did I chose the book? The main protagonist is called Vida Winter.

Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life Why Coco Chanel? Because according to the color analysis Coco Chanel belongs to Winter type (color analysis is the process of determining the colors that best suit an individual's natural coloring. There are a wide variety of approaches to analyzing personal coloring. The most well-known is "seasonal" color analysis, which places individual coloring into four general categories: Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn.)

Hans Christian Andersen "The Snow Queen"

We are accustomed to the fact that in fairy tales it is usually knights who save princesses. 

Opposite happens such as in the tale called "Snow Queen" by Hans Christian Andersen. Here Kay represents death. The broken pieces of the magic glass lulled him. He likes regular geometric shapes in which there is no life, he finds roses ugly, his heart grows cold. 

Gerda is love itself , she goes unarmed around the world to save Kay.

Every person has Kay and Gerda inside himself/herself. The question is "Who is stronger?"

"But can you give little Gerda nothing to take which will endue her with power over the whole?", asked 

the Lapland Reindeer the witch.

"I can give her no more power than what she has already. Don't you see how great it is? Don't you see how

men and animals are forced to serve her; how well she gets through the world barefoot? 

She must not hear of her power from us; that power lies in her heart, because she is a sweet and innocent

child! If she cannot get to the Snow Queen by herself, and rid little Kay of the glass, we cannot help her", the witch replied.

As I said earlier we have both Kay and Gerda inside ourselves. Often when we see a worm-eaten apple we prefer to it a smooth, refined, full of insecticide fruit from the supermarket. Remember our pathologic fear of microbes, the French regular gardens etc? In fact, we have a lot from Kay.

Is your Gerda strong enough? Mine is hesitant and fragile. 

I wish your Gerda always saves your Kay. This beautiful fairy tale will help you.:)