 |
"Baa Baa Black Sheep"
Illustration by children's
books illustrator
Blanche Fisher Wright
Early this morning, I hear the boisterous screams of my young neighbor which turn into uncontrollable crying. I look out my window, and there he is, with the Chinese/Asian (she might even be Filipino) woman pushing on one of his shoes. The boy then gets hauled up by the woman. He keeps turning back to his watching parents for help, hanging on to the railings of the fence, squirming and writhing. His crying turns into wailing, but to no avail. He's off somewhere. The clever "babysitter" (who is pretty small, but pretty adept at managing crying and struggling toddlers) pulls and turns him away from the parents, and walks across the street. His overweight parents stand watching on the porch, the father, much more concerned than the mother, leaning forward trying hard not to intervene in this necessary step of his son's education. The mother soon gets tired of standing watching, and walks back into the house. The father follows docilely behind.
I wonder if he's being taken to the daycare center I wrote about? Or for a walk in the nearby park?
In any case, it is now clear that the mother is willing to let her unhappy, no miserable, young son out of the house, and out of her way, to do whatever she plans to do for the day. Yesterday, I passed her by on the street, dressed up and coming back from some place which required "professional" attire.
I keep wondering how this will affect him? Especially after he sees his father submissively accept all this (children are very adept at assessing emotions, and at figuring out the "alphas" of the house. And the master ain't the Dad).
I hope it doesn't stop his confident, happy, and spirited scampers around the small garden.