“Got the message that,
I gotta be a wild one (Wild, wild, child).
Ooh, yeah, I’m a wild one (Wild, wild child).
Gonna break it loose,
Gonna keep ‘em moving wild,
Gonna keep a’swinging, baby,
I’m a real wild child.”
From the song, “Real Wild Child” by Ivan
My three year-old son can be difficult for me to handle sometimes. He is a bit of a wild child.
For instance, I have had big difficulties when trying to take him to his nursery. It is about 10 or 15 minutes away from our house on foot. I have been trying to help my wife by taking our son to the nursery some mornings. I can’t do it myself because I am blind and it would be too dangerous. But three days a week a guide comes round to help me go to the supermarket, or barber or whatever. So on those days the guide, my son, and I have been going to the nursery together.
Unfortunately, my son usually doesn’t want to go to the nursery. Because of the coronavirus, we kept him at home for a couple of months, and he realises that he prefers this to running around in a group of screaming kids. I can’t really blame him for that. When he is in a really bad mood, he starts screaming and kicking off his shoes, and refusing to walk. Because the guide is a lady in her seventies, I can’t ask her to carry my son. So I carry him, with him still squirming about and screaming in my ear, and trying to kick off his shoes. It is no use reasoning with him or waiting for the tantrum to end. He can keep it going seemingly forever.
So I have to walk carrying this wild child in front of me, stepping very carefully to avoid bumping into things I cannot see. I can’t use my white cane to check the ground in front of me, because I can’t hold my son with just one arm. My guide holds my shoulder and tries to push me straight ahead, or to the left or the right. Somehow, the three of us have got to move like this across several busy roads and along streets that have no pavements. The last time this happened, my son’s kicking to try and force his shoes off started pushing my trousers down just as we were crossing a road. I had to hurry to the other side before we were struck by a car, or my underwear was revealed to the world. What a strange sight we must be to passers by!
Maybe little by little my son will get used to his nursery again and stop fighting so hard to avoid going there. But my mother says that I was the same at that age, and always had to be carried kicking and screaming to my nursery. So maybe he has the wild child gene, and it will stay with him until he passes it onto his own children. I’m going to buy a stronger belt for my trousers.
Vocabulary:
to handle something–to manage (a situation or problem)
to squirm–to twist your body about, especially because of nervousness or discomfort
to reason with somebody – to try to make someone understand your point of view, or to change their opinion through discussion
a tantrum – a childish show of anger
a gene – something passed on from parent to child, which can cause a change in characteristics, such as eye-colour
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