I was travelling back home on the local tram the other day. A woman got on with a little boy of about 6 years old and a buggy carrying twins of about 2 years old. She was glued to her phone for her entire journey on the tram as she stood by the pram. I could see she had earphones and was obviously gyrating about to some music fed into her ear. The little 6-year-old boy kept trying to engage in conversation with her but she just totally ignored him, not even acknowledging him at all. She was so engrossed in her phone. The little boy started to call out the name of the next tram stop as it was announced on the tram. He would repeatedly say "The next stop is....." much to the amusement of the other passengers. Still his mother ignored him. Then just as the tram was pulling into their stop, the little boy put his hand on one of the twins, at which point the mother yelled at him with a look of disgust on her face "What did you have to wake him up for?" In a foul mood, she pushed the pram off the tram and the little boy followed behind sheepishly.
It got me thinking what kind of person that little boy would grow up into. Starved of interaction with his mother and always in the wrong. Desperate for human contact and ignored. In complete contrast, there was another mother on the the same tram with a young baby of about a year old, holding him up to the window and pointing everything out to him. Is what we become nature or nurture? I seriously worry what will become of that little boy.
3 comments:
That is such a sad story.....poor kids!
Yes, very sad to imagine that little boy's home life. Makes me feel like gathering him up and whisking him away to somewhere happy.
sad story, but it's happening everywhere. Phones have taken over our lives, it's an addiction and people like that mum on the tram have been swallowed by the phone culture, and the children get left behind. Until the parent gives them a phone and they get sucked in too..
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