Three children accompanied by drivers and maids were eating a meal of junk food at lunchtime; it was hamburgers, fries and soft drinks in one of the famous shopping centers that we seem to never stop building. If we bring together three children of pre-kindergarten age, two maids and two drivers, is there any hope of reaching intelligent conclusions about how to bring up children?
The scene I witnessed and described above clearly illustrates our educational weaknesses as well as the inability of many of us to give our children the kind of upbringing that will produce the sort of people our country needs.
Four foreign workers toiling together to look after three very young children. Is this somebody’s idea of luxury? Is it mere waste? Or just simple negligence?
Do parents believe that spending time with their children outside or even inside the house is time ill spent? Or do they believe it’s a simple form of responsibility that they can dump on anyone to carry out? What if those children had faced some kind of danger or threat to their safety?
Let me explain exactly what happened. The first driver was busy entertaining the children as they were eating; his enthusiasm reached the point at which he began to tickle them.
Of course, the children laughed and shrieked and one of them kicked the driver until his shoes flew off. The second driver went to retrieve the shoes and brought them back. The child seemed to enjoy what he had seen so he repeated his stunt — except this time, he took his socks off as well. The driver kept on picking up the shoes with one hand and feeding the child with the other. As for the two maids, they were totally absorbed in feeding the other two children and eating what the two children had refused. One of them was actually adjusting her hair, touching the food and then feeding the child.
A sight for sore eyes! Have we reached a new level of carelessness? Has the process of eating become just a habit of stuffing food into people’s mouths? Does being filthy rich make you irresponsible? I have seen the rich and famous in European countries accompanying their children to restaurants and public parks with maids sometimes but I never saw children left alone with servants except in my country. Why do families live in such chaos?
