APRIL 6 — Children are quite something.
The innocence they bear absolves them of almost everything that they do.
They drop and break your heirloom China even after being told not to play with it, because they honestly did not mean to and had no idea about the value of the piece.
They fall from a tree and break a leg even after being told their little adventure will almost surely end badly, because it’s FUN.
Kids will be kids.
What cannot be absolved, however, is parental negligence.
Taking care of children is definitely tiring. I helped my sisters raise a fair number of their brood (five before I moved to KL), and I now have one of my own.
So I’ve got a decent idea of how taxing it is on the parents.
But it does not mean you can just zone out when it’s inconvenient for you.
Recently I went out for dinner with my family, stroller in tow. As per the usual deal with infants, us parents ended up taking turns to finish up our food to make sure the cranky kid was pacified.
After my wife was done, it came my turn to wolf down my dinner — which was when I noticed this kid jumping from one seat to another.
The boy, probably aged four or five, was clearly having fun playing on his own while his parents continued to concentrate on their food.
He jumped from one seat to the next, all the way to the far end which was right next to where I was sitting.
It was also where the last chair gave him sufficient reach to grab onto the top of a makeshift wall and up the ante in his little adventure.
As his body language made it clear he was going to make an attempt at conquering that wall, I had no choice but to intervene — “Boy, stop doing that and go back to your parents”.
As far as possible, I believe it’s not my place to discipline someone else’s progeny. But if you’re not going to give a hoot about what your child is doing, I’m not about to sit quietly and allow that kid to do as he or she pleases.
Again, they’re children. They have no idea what they’re about to get themselves into.
Time and again, we’re reminded as a society of how easily a child’s little escapade can turn for the worse, and in many cases, tragically.
Just last week, a six-year-old girl fell five floors to her death at a popular mall while her mother argued on the phone with her father over their impromptu shopping outing.
She apparently climbed onto the escalator railing and slipped down the wrong side, as her mother went at it over the phone.
Not unlike how this little boy was about to try climbing over the restaurant wall while his parents took their sweet time savouring the (rather pricey) ramen they just ordered.
Such situations remind me of that old phrase: It takes a village to raise a child.
Just because we’re in the city doesn’t mean we need to not give a damn about each other.
I’m not saying interfere in other people’s lives — we have the government for that.
What I’m saying is that it doesn’t take very much, to simply keep an eye out and try to be as ready as possible to react when the situation demands it.
And I’m not even talking about heroics here.
It may be easy to say in retrospect, but a simple act of reprimand by some stranger could have saved that sweet little girl’s life.
Anyway, the prospective wall-climber’s family left the restaurant before my family and I did, obviously because they had fewer interruptions in their meal.
As the boy stomped out with his oblivious parents, he tried to give me the stink eye.
I met his gaze with a level stare. He was clearly unhappy, but backed down.
Brood all you want, kid. For all we know, I probably spared you a trip to the emergency room.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
