Something really interesting happened today during a talk session I attended. The experience only went on to confirm the fact that we shouldn't judge people without getting to know them first. Sometimes, all it takes is a simple conversation or the act of calming a restless baby.
I sashayed into the hall and on the fourth row I spotted two vacant seats. There was a lady seated by the beginning of the row. She had on an unpleasant scowl but that didn't bother me because since I started consciously observing humans, all the ladies who have had constant resting b*tch faces have been the sweetest of souls.
Politely, I asked the lady if the seats were occupied and without even glancing at me nor giving me a response, she moved her legs sideways and beckoned me to move in. On a good day, I would assume this strange lady, who I have come across in my entire life, didn't want me to sit next to her but…
Without reading too much meaning into her countenance, I moved in and took a seat right next to her. About five minutes later, a young man walked into the hall gripping firmly a year old child. In split seconds, the man dropped the child off with this lady and walked away, without uttering a single word.
“No way!” Was all I could think of. Staying in a tight corner was torture enough, why add a toddler to the picture?
As I envisioned, barely two minutes in, the toddler started babbling, hindering the ongoing talk session. The toddler moved from babbling to crying, to acting restlessly, to crying again. Her mother who was clearly agitated started threatening to get her cane and give the girl a serious ass whooping. This threat quieted her down for about a minute and then the restlessness started again.
All the while, I was a bit pissed at the fact that I explicitly sat there in order to get a good view of the speakers and what they were saying but this toddler was not helping matters. At this point, a grand thought crossed my mind; “why not give her a finger?”
Throughout my clinical posting at the children's emergency unit, I realized that babies and toddlers, by extension, hardly ignore one thing and that thing happens to be a finger. So without giving it a second thought, I stretched out a finger and the toddler grabbed the finger.
At that moment, she had something to play with. She moved from the shiny knuckle ring on my index finger to the digital wrist watch. She seemed so occupied and to my surprise, her mother did not reprimand her in any way.
The most interesting part of this whole experience was not the fact that the restless toddler fell for the finger trick, but it was the fact that two minutes in, she was already dozing off.
Her mother was as surprised as I was when we noticed she had stopped fiddling with my finger and was actually dozing off like some sort of spell was cast on her.
With the toddler off to the dream land, the rest of the talk session went smoothly.
Once the session came to an end, the lady who wore an unwavering scowl actually smiled and said “Alright, I'm leaving. Bye Bye”. Hehe, I was thrilled because once again, I proved the fact that people who wear scowls are one of the sweetest of souls.”
This experience helped to throw some light on the beauty and struggles of motherhood. I particularly liked how well the mother handled the situation. She didn't show any form of violence, instead, she constantly poured out the love from her being into her child's being.
The next thing I took out of this experience was that a little act of kindness can go a very long way to making a person's day. With the way the toddler was making a fuss, the mother may have had to carry her out of the hall to avoid distracting other people. By doing this, she would have missed out on some very interesting highlights from the the talk session.
YouTube
With this, I'd love to share one very beautiful song with the theme “kindness”. The world need more kindness and this is my little way of reminding you to be kind today.
Image is mine
Liebe🤍
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