So I was eating my steamed broccoli and white rice, while the kid at the next table, was being obnoxious and babbling nonsense.
This caused me to turn around and observe in detail this family of 5. This kid about 2.5 yrs old was tragically ignored, and seemed to lack the verbal skills to make sense of what he was communicating to the void.
The husband talked animatedly to his wife, as she held her year old baby girl on her lap, while voraciously devouring everything in sight, without pausing to breathe, or respond to what her husband was saying. Perhaps he was used to this one way conversation, and did not expect an interaction. Perhaps he simply needed to voice his frustrations about his day. A pretty older girl completed the family unit. They ate their dinner at 8:00 pm which consisted of something which dubiously seemed to be chicken concoction.
In the current, rush hour traffic tempo we live in, perhaps this is becoming the norm. Yet, I could not escape noting several discrepancies with the notion of what I was brought up with. The mom looked like a slob. No make up of any kind, and dressed in what looked like pajama bottoms (well, running pants). She allowed the boy to stand on his chair an act atrociously, while ignoring him on both accounts of discipline, as in speech development. It seemed as if every single one could have been in their own world, not participant of the gathering.
How this scene differs from what I’ve seen is that in most 3rd world countries, where women allocate premium importance to their marriages.
There, marriage is more than an institution; it is a career of sorts, in which effort must be employed for its success. It’s the survival mechanism; a woman depends on the most part, for the man to provide. It's like tending to the work horse per say.
Here, women also have careers, and do not need so much to depend on men for survival; yet, the inculcated concept of keeping a man happy is too ingrained in the psyche to brake away from.
It has been imported.
I’ve seen it in women I know, who are working women and stress about making elaborate meals, as well as making sure their kids excel in school, and their house is immaculate. Not wearing make-up is simply a no-no!
I've heard it said (not kidding!): " A woman must be a lady, and a whore in the bedroom." There, I am simply repeating what one woman counseled to another woman, I didn't say it!
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Who knows the underlying motivations of this particular family? One can only surmise one day each partner will look in the mirror and ask themselves: “Is this all there is?”
Well looking like a slob has its advantages let me tell you. This evening the sweetest man who works at the library’s counter, waived $26 of late fees from the NY Ballet Workout DVD I had checked out…hmm …a while ago. Maybe it was due to my forlorn puppy look? Or my running mascara post my 3 hour nap?
.Who knows the underlying motivations of this particular family? One can only surmise one day each partner will look in the mirror and ask themselves: “Is this all there is?”
Well looking like a slob has its advantages let me tell you. This evening the sweetest man who works at the library’s counter, waived $26 of late fees from the NY Ballet Workout DVD I had checked out…hmm …a while ago. Maybe it was due to my forlorn puppy look? Or my running mascara post my 3 hour nap?
Note to self: Add to xmas list library employee, as well as the guy who changed the flat tire.
