Correcting Others

Characters Involved- Child A, B, C, D; Parent A, B; Aunt A, B, C, D; Uncle A, B, C

Scenario

Child B breaks a glass cup whether accidentally or recklessly we aren’t sure; we only know the child broke a cup.

Parent A comes in and reprimands the child about the repercussion of being sloppy and the probability of costing them money and time in the long run.

Comes in Parent B to lend a voice to parent A admonishing Child B for being negligent and thereby irresponsible by breaking the bottle. At this stage, Child B is feeling very contrite and accepts responsibility for breaking the cup without thinking of the consequences. Child B accepts their fault, apologizes and quietly retreats to a corner.

A few hours later, Child C passes by, sees Child B sitting quiet in a corner while the others are in the living room watching TV and bursts out ‘You shouldn’t have taken the glass cup in the first place, didn’t you know that the splinters from the broken glass can be stepped on by any of us thereby sending us to the hospital which will cost our parents money?’ Child B looks up obviously still downcast by the incident and the telling off. I didn’t do it on purpose and hadn’t meant any harm when I took the glass cup to get water to drink. ‘You should have known better’ says Child C walking away from their sibling. Feeling more dejected Child B goes silently to the room.

About an hour afterwards, Aunt A comes back from work and has been briefed of the happenings of the day including how Child B broke a glass cup. She knocks on the child’s door and opens ajar. ‘How are you she asks? I heard you broke a cup today. It’s a good thing your parents were home to reprimand you and put you to order so that this doesn’t happen again. I’m just glad that they were around to sort out the situation and it wasn’t just you children at home. She walks into the room, sits on the edge of the bed and laughingly adds; I also heard Child C was being a smart mouth giving you a piece of their mind. Child B stays still saying not a word and after a while Aunt A pats the child on the leg and leaves the room.

“It’s dinner time everyone, come for your meal”. Everyone is at the dining table, dinner is served and the Lord’s Prayer has been recited. The family is enjoying the delicacy of the dishes served and Child B has perked up because the mood seems more ambient when suddenly from nowhere Child A exclaims ‘ Do we have enough glass cups to go round the room?! Child B broke a glass cup earlier in the day and we are now a glass short.’ Everyone automatically looks at Child B and there’s mutterings around the table. Child D pipes in innocently, “That’s true maybe we won’t have enough cups for drinking”. More mutterings and Child B looks worriedly at all the faces wondering how to salvage the issue. Meanwhile, there’s uncle B sitting quietly assessing all that is going on, notices how sad Child B has become. He rises up from his sit in a bid to calm the situation-Let’s not talk about the broken glass any longer shall we, why don’t we just enjoy this delicious meal cooked for us. This sounds like good news and everyone seems happy again.

The next day looks promising, the sun ray reflects brightly into the rooms and everyone is rousing to their tasks and duties. Breakfast is served, they all have their meal, the children are ready for school, Parents are ready for work, Uncles and Aunties likewise. You all have a lovely day chimes Uncle D; let’s make it a fun Day! Excitedly, the children high five him and head toward the door.

“Make sure you do not go near the glass cups when you’re back from school, remember someone broke a cup yesterday.” Everyone turns around to see Aunt B peeping out from her room sending out a reminder of yesterday’s mishap and reflexively as is human nature they all look at the guilty party. Child B bows their head in shame.

Questions

1. How would you rate the whole event from the beginning to the end? Were the reprimands received by Child B all through the entire story justified?

2. As a parent/guardian, what would you have done differently in such situation?

3. How rational/sentimental was it that almost everyone felt they had to jump on the wagon to save the day especially after both parents had admonished the child who in turn was remorseful?

4. In our everyday lives, are we always unconsciously judgmental about people due to our perception of them or because of past events?