January 16, 2013

Through the eyes of a child

I met a little girl of about 3 years when I was at the pediatrician's office yesterday with Av. She was there with her little brother of about 3-4 months and her dad. She entered into the office and immediately scanned the room with those beautiful alert eyes and independently took off her coat and started playing with some toys around there. I was really surprised about how confident and independent she was as she handled herself and her belongings all on her own.

Her dad was busy on a phone call and even stepped out for a few minutes leaving the two of them when her little brother started crying. She ran to his side and rocked his car seat and caught me red handed staring at her wide eyed. I gave her the biggest smile to tell her she was doing a great job when her dad came back in. He hurriedly told the person on the other side that he needs to take care of the kids and hung up. For a couple of minutes everything was good and the dad was involved with the baby as the little girl played near them happily explaining what she was playing.

And before she knew it her dad was browsing on the phone while she kept trying to get his attention. She called out to him to show how she had arranged some blocks of the same colors together, she got no response. She called "Dad" again and again and each time she was louder until finally she got a response from him. "Don't scream, haven't I told you not to talk in such a loud voice when we are outside".  The girl looked away and looked at me with a hurt look in her eyes, and that was one of those moments that forces you to rethink how you react to things.

I have done it so many times, when I have been distracted, stressed and overburdened. Retorted back at the kids without pausing to see why they did what they did in the first place.
She then kept talking to him and telling him how she had come to this place when she was so little, when mommy was there and she was there and daddy was there. And she kept repeating it over and over again just to say that just being together then was such a warm feeling that she still remembers it now.

They used to say Stop to Smell the Roses, maybe we need to add Disconnect to Connect with the kids loved ones!


2 comments:

KeepingItSimple said...

Good Observation !!!

Thanks for sharing.

Shruthi said...

Lovely post, and great last line.