And I am the Papa

2038-01-19T03:14:07Z

The girl with the pink and blonde hair? I love it. Also, I think I might be mildly crushing on the vocalist.

More serious matters:

Don't get me wrong, I like my new host family, but there's one thing that I just can't wrap my head around: how they treat their middle child. Bibi is a 4 year old who has a tendency to be loud. Three mornings now I've woken up to the sound of Bibi being loud and of Bibi being yelled at. Okay, I can understand that you would want to silence her when she acts up as everyone else is sleeping, but what I don't get is how yelling at her to "Shut up! Just bloody shut up!" can improve the situation (especially when you're yelling louder than Bibi was in the first place). It's like a case of Cinderellaism, where one of the kids is being treated differently; it's as if the whole family take their frustrations out on her. This morning was particularly bad, normally I can just go back to sleep after the racket, with Bibi being left in a room to cry. I'm a believer of time-outs, but she hadn't done anything this time, she'd just wanted to be in the same room as her sister while her sister was cleaning, in which case I think that taking her downstairs would be better than yelling at her and chucking her into a room. Poor girl was trying not to cry too loud, it was really hearbreaking. And it was so easy to cheer her up again. She came into my room, I gave her a hug and played a little with her — swinging by the arms, lifting up to the roof-kinda thing — and she became as happy as anything.

And consider what this teaches her. I think she can either end up as a person who's been opressed to the extent that she'll be afraid to be outspoken and 'out there' because she's learnt that all she does and says is wrong, or that she'll end up as a completely alienated rebel from her family because she doesn't feel welcome there. Either scenarios are worst case, but they're not unfeasible.

I wouldn't say anything of course, seeing as it's really not my business. But. I think they're really treating her unfairly. The oldest girl is 11 and they're not demanding too much of her considering her age (although there are sometimes when they yell at her that I just don't get), and the youngest is 5 months, so of course they're not demanding a lot from him. It must be hard for her to see that her little brother can be messy with the food and get laughs, whereas if she's messy with the food everyone gets angry. They're acting as though Bibi's an adult, as though she'll understand everything they demand of her. She won't. She's just four years old.

"By the light of the night..

And I am the Papa