In Reply to: My son has a Balinese wife posted by Rex on Wednesday, 26. April 2006 at 13:02 Bali Time:
and have been thinking.
We have a lovely Balinese family who have been very dear friends for 16 years. Their beautiful daughter is now married with a child, she is 24 years of age. Both families hoped that one of our sons and she may become an item. They were close friends but when they got to a certain age either my husband and myself chaperoned them or her Mum or Auntie. We always had a chaperone and you can imagine that this is not normal in our society these days but we needed to protect them both.
When her daughter and son wanted to marry that was the first time they met the prospective new family members.
The son actually wanted to marry a girl from a different culture, my friend told the girl that her son cannot marry her, that the wives need to work in their family, making offerings, cleaning, cooking, taking care of the elderly and the babies. It was a shocking time for all concerned. I never offered an opinion as she was just talking because she was so very sad.
Some families are simply more traditional than others.