A Modern Family

A young couple was sitting in the first row on the upper deck of a double-decker airport bus.  A plump boy about 3 years old sat between them, playing some game on a hand-held machine.  It was not quite clear what kind of game it was, but it was loud, with violently-flashing graphics.  Strictly speaking, the boy was not really playing the game.  He pushed the buttons randomly and shrieked loudly for a while.  Then he lost interest.  But the machine was never shut down, and the annoying sound was never turned off, or even turned down.   This went on for an hour, until the bus arrived at the airport.

The upper deck was 2/3 full, and naturally, everybody was getting off at the airport.  The family was sitting close to the stairs and was among the first ones to descend.  The father went down first, followed by the boy, and then the mother.  Apparently the parents wanted the boy to practise walking. The boy was small and the steps of the stairs were steep, so the mother had to bend over forwards to hold the boy’s hands, in order to prevent him from falling.  Obviously, they were quite slow.  The people waiting behind the boy-and-mother tandem were visibly impatient, even though nobody said anything.

The young mother was wearing a pair of jeans with a low waistline.  When she bent over to hold the boy’s hands, the jeans went even lower.  As the boy descended the stairs, she had to bend over forwards even more, ...

Obviously, this is a modern family that believes in child-centered rearing, where the boy has to be given top priority and the freedom to do whatever he wants; the parents’ role is to support the boy at all costs. 

If our children turn out to be self-centered, undisciplined, taking things for granted and unmotivated, it is not necessarily the children’s fault.