Bad Parents
Private offices are closed for two days for Id al Fittr; everyone makes plans for the long weekend. Usually the government manages to combine the holidays with the weekend so everyone ends up having a few extra days off. Okay, so on Sunday a friend of Joe’s invited us to lunch and another family, again Joe’s friends were also coming. They have a daughter who four years old and a one year old son. This girl has not put into playschool yet, because her father does not want to spend the money (Her mother told me this). She spends her time holed up in a two-bedroom house they share with another family. All this alone time with no contact with other children has turned her very aggressive and bullying towards other children. All parents with small children have a hard time when we know that this family is also joining us for our get to togethers.
So we all show up this friend’s place for lunch and they have a son who is 7 or 8 and also has a broken arm. This little girl, lets call her Deepa, immediately goes off to hang from the broken arm like a pendulum. The boy starts screaming and all of us go and see what the noise is all about and sort everything out and go back to talking, leaving the children to play by themselves. Then Thom runs out crying, saying Deepa chechi is hitting me with the plastic hoe. He refuses to go back and join the other children so we move into the children’s room to keep an eye on them. Deepa starts going berserk, throwing things and opening the cupboards and taking out books, writing on them. The owner of these things, the 8-year-old boy (Kush), tries to take everything back and she refuses, starts hitting and spitting. We all sit there helpless; after all she is a child. But what about the mother? She sat there smiling, through the entire mess her daughter created, occasionally saying she doesn’t know any better. She will change only after she starts school.
Children are not born bad, they are made bad by parents who refuse to reign in their precious ones. What will happen when she starts school next year can only be imagined? If she meets a child more aggressive and violent than herself, she will be shown her place otherwise she will turn into bully no:1 bullying other children. I am glad Thom is not going to the same school as her but I fear what if there are others like her out there. Children of bad parents.
So we all show up this friend’s place for lunch and they have a son who is 7 or 8 and also has a broken arm. This little girl, lets call her Deepa, immediately goes off to hang from the broken arm like a pendulum. The boy starts screaming and all of us go and see what the noise is all about and sort everything out and go back to talking, leaving the children to play by themselves. Then Thom runs out crying, saying Deepa chechi is hitting me with the plastic hoe. He refuses to go back and join the other children so we move into the children’s room to keep an eye on them. Deepa starts going berserk, throwing things and opening the cupboards and taking out books, writing on them. The owner of these things, the 8-year-old boy (Kush), tries to take everything back and she refuses, starts hitting and spitting. We all sit there helpless; after all she is a child. But what about the mother? She sat there smiling, through the entire mess her daughter created, occasionally saying she doesn’t know any better. She will change only after she starts school.
Children are not born bad, they are made bad by parents who refuse to reign in their precious ones. What will happen when she starts school next year can only be imagined? If she meets a child more aggressive and violent than herself, she will be shown her place otherwise she will turn into bully no:1 bullying other children. I am glad Thom is not going to the same school as her but I fear what if there are others like her out there. Children of bad parents.
posted by Choomma at 5:48 PM
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