
Originally Posted by
jhuka
I was in a laundramat this afternoon, and a young (probably high school age) mother was folding clothes, and her two year-old was running around her. He was a sweet kid, not acting up, but she treated him like an inconvenience; I couldn't see them over a row of washers, but at one point he started to wail and she said, "I didn't even touch you," and a moment later, he started wailing louder and she said, "Now you have something to cry about" -- I assumed she'd hit him or shaken him. There was something dark about this--I'm not getting it across right--it was like she was going to SHOW him (a two year old!) I went over at that point, told her it looked like she needed some help, and I helped her take the laundry out, just to try and get her temper down. I told her the boy seemed like a nice kid, and that maybe she needed to be more patient with him. She said "he's a nice kid sometimes," in a sour way, and then her boyfriend, perhaps the father, came up to the car--the guy was all done up in his fancy clothes, didn't even say hello to the kid, but got in the car, waiting for the woman to drive him wherever they were going. The kid was treated like some afterthought, and a chill went through me, wondering what his life was like at home.
Bookmarks