i went to church today and ended up standing outside because i was really, really enjoying the weather. it felt very nice. i ended up observing the church goers who went outside for the same reason as i did. most of them were kids who didn’t know each other but ran around with each other and their parents making sure they didn’t trip or embarrass themselves. it was the cutest thing. however, there was this particular child and parent that really caught my attention. a woman walks out of the church with her kid who is already crying and screaming. tears were flowing down his eyes at a pretty sad rate. this woman is barely carrying him and he is nearly slipping off her arms. she puts him down, kneels down and starts swearing at this kid in vietnamese. the kid obviously is terribly frightened by his mother, and is helplessly crying. she threatens him and tells him to shut up and stop crying. now, this child is hardly three to five years old, but this woman is speaking fast and saying things he doesn’t understand. i may not know the whole story, but this is no way to speak to a child. i was quite scared myself. if you could hear the dark tone in her voice. she ends up picking up the child midcry and never solved the problem. he cries harder and and pushes himself off her, and tells her he doesn’t want to go back inside. she deliberately leaves him standing there all by himself, staring at all the kids and their parents smiling at them. i ended up making eye contact with this child and smiling at him, he stops crying and just at stares at me. his mom is god knows where. i wanted to talk to him and comfort him, but i didn’t. i don’t know why. ten minutes later, the mother comes back with a jacket for her boy. she speaks to him (i couldn’t hear what) and grabs him again. he begins crying again, but now this time, he says, “i don’t want you to hit me again. i don’t want you to hit me again, mom.” and he says this repeatedly, quite loudly and with much fear in his voice. this really bothered me.
