Thursday, September 10, 2015

Screaming






Children scream at my library. Children cry, throw tantrums, shriek, and howl. Their blood curdling yowls can sound like birds or monkeys, but mostly they sound like unimaginable tortures are being inflicted; they are boiling in oil, on fire, slowly being eaten by machinery. Mostly children seem to have a pretty good time at my library, but sometimes they don't. In the library's defense a fair share of children's screams of unhappiness are directly connected to their having to leave the library.

I have long thought there are two kinds of people who work the front desk of my library here. One kind hears all that screaming and feels sympathy primarily for the parents, and the other kind hears all that screaming and feels sympathy mainly for the wailing child.

To give away my strongly felt position on the matter, though I admit a small handicap of not being a parent, I will simply state this: many times, when I see the screaming start, it is clearly the parent's fault. And every time I see it continued it is the parent's fault. The children, if you are carefully looking, give the parents a chance every time.

And the only real way I have ever seen it properly prevented, or ended, is through patience, attention, and presence, that is to say, through love.









No comments:

Post a Comment

If you were wondering, yes, you should comment. Not only does it remind me that I must write in intelligible English because someone is actually reading what I write, but it is also a pleasure for me since I am interested in anything you have to say.

I respond to pretty much every comment. It's like a free personalized blog post!

One last detail: If you are commenting on a post more than two weeks old I have to go in and approve it. It's sort of a spam protection device. Also, rarely, a comment will go to spam on its own. Give either of those a day or two and your comment will show up on the blog.