Other people's kids

In Afrikaans there is a saying that goes  Elke hen dink haar eier is die witste (directly translates to “every hen thinks her egg is the whitest”).  In other words; we all think our children are the most wonderful beings to walk the earth’s surface.

When traveling with a child, you are bound to start conversations with other parents.  Tiny bounces towards every child she meets and starts up a game.  Most parents are too happy to have their kids play with other children, watching and guiding (i.e. shouting at them not to splash water in the baby’s face) from the sidelines.

The Turtles love when this happens as Tiny is starved from social interaction with other children and, of course, it gives them a chance to have a complete conversation while watching Tiny from a distance.  Unfortunately they had the misfortune to meet the two meanest little girls prowling around the Caribbean.  They were relaxing on the beautiful Grace Bay beach in Turks and Caicos when two sisters, four-years and six-years  old respectively, ran up to Tiny to play.  The older Turtles started talking to their parents and soon all concerned were playing and chatting.

Then the girls’ true colours became apparent – they intentionally splashed water in Tiny’s face and her astonished look saddened her parents but, they thought, it is part of life.  We all get splashed in life sometimes.

After throwing sand at her, grabbing her toys, refusing to let Tiny play with their toys and telling her that they didn’t want to play with her, Tony had enough. He grabbed his little white egg and waded away from the poltergeists.  They tried to follow but Tony ignored them and headed to the deep end to show Tiny the frog figurines on the island in the middle of the pool.

Before you think we are overprotective and that we should expose Tiny to “life” – the meanies’ parents didn’t do a thing!  They just sat there, muttering an occasional “don’t do that” or “you are going to get a time-out”…without any consequences.   We all know that it is tiresome to discipline and none of us get it right all the time, but there are limits!  If Tiny is able to say please, thank you and is (usually) willing to share, those two brats can do the same! That is Myrtle’s rant for the week and she feels much better!