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The Little Winer by Gregers Ritzer
The Little Winer-by Gregers Ritzer With my son's 23 birthday rapidly approaching, I have been reflecting lately about the relationships between parent and child. What should they be? Is there any intrisic way they should exist? Do they vary with culture, location, rural or urban, etc. Do all cultures always assume a dominant, superior role. You know the kind of thing where you are forever known as "Bobby, who ate the whole pie when he was seven, kind of thing. For me when I reflect back on the my relationship with my children, I wonder what kind of father I have been. Was I any better than my mean spirted, domineering father, who seemed to take great pleasure in other people's misery. And definately had a "can't do" attitude to life! Have a been a perfect father, of course not! Not even close, I like a lot of fathers probably spent way too much time being way to serious about my job, and thinking that I had a lot more impact at work than I did. Did I ignore my children? No, but I wasn;t exactly a stay at home dad. I did not participate in all the parent teacher meetings, or take responsibility for all the minute detail of my children's lives. No, like a lot of fathers, I left that all up to my wife! Is this the right thing to do, no of course not! But I did it anyways! But all this rambling, is not really what I wanted to say. In preparing for my son's 23 birthday, he asked to have a nice Italian dinner. I spent the morning shopping at the local Italian grocery store, and went to the Italian bakery for a birthday cake. But it was not until I went to the liquor store to buy Italian red wine that I witnessed a strange example of self preservation by a very young child. I could not help myself, in overhearing this incident. A small little girl, I would say less than 4 years of age, was crying her eyes out and screaming at the top of her lungs! Meanwhile, her mother and what appeared to be her current boyfriend, were busy filling a basket with five bottles of various kinds of whiskey and rum. The man and woman paying no attention to the screaming child! What was she screaming,? "Mommy, don't buy so much! "Mommy, don't buy so much!" Over and over again she screamed, this! Until finally, the mother relented, and started putting the whiskey and rum bottles back on the shelves. And miracle of miracles, the toddler stops screaming! I just could not believe my eyes and ears! Here was a tiny, little 3 something child manipulating her mother, and effectively stopping her from buying a couple of hundred dollars of hard liquor. The child was not completely successful, in weaning her mother of liquor though.For the couple next asked the clerk for help selecting a bottle of red wine! But this tiny little girl had probably saved herself from a lot of grief and neglect, or at least that is what my judgemental assessment led me to believe. This increbile little girl had got her mother to put five bottles of whiskey and rum back, and settle for one bottle of red wine! The little winer, may succeed despite what her parents may throw at her, with this kind of resilience demonstrated at such a tender age!
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