Foto: BB.LV
AdMe.ru shares the author's observations on how we raise children. I was walking in the playground with Artem and saw an unusual child — a square boy. He was not playing but sitting on a bench at the edge of the playground. He looked to be about 7-8 years old. While Artem was playing in the sandbox, I decided to talk to this geometric phenomenon. I sat down next to him. “Are you okay? Why aren’t you playing with the others?” I asked. After Artem was born, I became more attentive to children. My empathy for other people's children has increased. “I have 5 minutes. I won’t make it,” the square boy replied. “And then what?” “Flute, aikido, drawing, English,” he quickly listed, as if it were a to-do list. For a moment, it seemed to me that I was hearing a fragment of a complex text. “And do you like it?” “Yes-yes! I like it very, very much,” he quickly replied, gripping the bench tightly. “What are you sitting there for? We’re late!” a woman shouted as she ran up to us. She grabbed the boy by the shoulders and led him away, as if he were a cardboard advertisement of the perfect child. A flute stuck out from the square child, and aikido peeked out from below. But he probably didn’t become square just because of that. Most likely, by the age of 7-8, he had already been filled with a lot of knowledge and skills. I looked at my half-buried Artem. He was still round, without angles. I remembered how the day before I had watched the show “Better Than Everyone” about unusual children. In one of the segments, a 2-year-old child spoke very fluently, causing envy among adults. At that moment, my almost 3-year-old Artem ran up to me and, holding out a toy, said: “Here’s a gnome.” “Not a gnome, Artem, not a gnome, but a gnome! Gnome!!!” I hissed, almost spitting out my lungs from anger. I wondered how I was any better than the woman who took the square boy away? I was already mentally prepared to turn my son into the perfect child to atone for my sins before society. It’s better to be a round fool than a perfect but empty person. I have acquaintances in television. I will suggest making a normal life show. To stop this wunderkind-ization and idealization of our children. A normal show where children stumble, don’t know Latin, push each other, mumble, get tired, and, of course, throw porridge. I will propose to make a normal life show — “Worse Than Everyone.” About children who are round by nature.
