Just the other day I took my children to their pediatrician, for a follow up appointment. While sitting in the lobby waiting on the nurse to call us back, we watch a boy and his mother walk in for their appointment. Immediately you could see that there was something different about both the parent and child ears. The child wore a hearing aid like gadget in both of his ears.
In the office there were several other parents and children who saw them walk in and they all put there heads down trying not to stare! But there was one child who was bold, she had to be around 8 years old. She approach the two of them immediately. She asked several questions and did not bother to introduce herself. "Whats that on his ears?", she asked. Its a device that helps him hear." Oh, so he cant hear?", she says. "Yes, but he needs a little help.", his mother replies. The young girls does not believe her so she had to test things out for herself. " Hello! Hey! Hello!" she says. He just sits there ignoring her, he is about 10 years old and very handsome. As the young girl continues with her antics to get him to recognize her speaking to him, I sit and watch wondering a couple of things. Well if he can hear why wont he answer her? This is too much where is this child's mother? Why am I so bothered?
Finally the boy's mother says to him. "Just go ahead and speak to her". You can tell that he is really annoyed as he begins to communicate in sign language to his mother. I have no idea what they are saying, but I did have a home school moment ..hmm this would be a great subject to learn! Moving on, finally he says "Hi." Then the little girl walks beside the mother who at this time is sitting and texting on her IPhone. "You have little ears too!", "Yes" she says with a smile, "we were born this way". As the little girl goes on with her questions and the nice lady continues answering, I had to say this lady handled the situation very well. I started to question was this little girl rude or just curious?
Great Post! To be totally honest I think the little girl was just curious....BUT, the way she handled the situation tells us a LOT about her parent(s). There is a certain age where kids know how to be curious without being rude. She actually did pretty good at first, but the yelling in his ear was inappropriate. I believe her parents talked to her about situations like this before which triggered her to ask questions instead of staring. At the end of the day, she's a kid and kids don't get it right all the time...they are still learning, but I'm with you, I would have been a lil' uncomfortable too. By the way sign language is very fun to learn. Check out this website and learn for FREE www.lifeprint.com scroll down to the video where the man & woman are in the shot. Click that video & it will lead you to all the video lessons. My kids & I use it and it's great!
ReplyDeleteChildren are naturally inquisitive, not rude!! The mother of the boy handled it well and showed a lot of maturity, possibly stemming from having been placed in that situation before. I'm glad when adults don't hold children accountable for just being children. Children learn right from wrong from their parents. We can't blame them for doing what they've been aloud to do!!
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