Boys Will Be Boys

The other day I was sitting in the lobby waiting for a friend, when a mother walked in with her son. The mother had the bleach-blonde-grandma-beauty-parlor look, rare for Italy and was wearing faded cotton sweats. She had the I-have-to-put-my-change-away-fast desperate look in her eyes and her son...evil. As the mother spoke to the secretary the little boy began to climb...everything. The secretary offered him a snack. He accepted...he did not say thank you. He asked if he could climb this platform thing that served as a railing to the steps. The secretary said yes.

The boy looked at me and grinned, I grinned back fascinated.

The boy asked for another snack...he did not say please. The secretary asked the mother if it was okay, and the mom said yes. She wiped her brow, the boy grinned and took the snack...he did not say thank you. The secretary glanced over at me and asked me if I wanted a snack. I said, no thank you, but that I wouldn't mind climbing the railing. *Smile*

The secretary smiled back.

The mom finished her business, thanked the secretary graciously, took her son by the hand, caressed his hair, and they left.

Her son had behaved like a perfect angel.

The other day I asked a medical professional for assistance because a foreign family's deaf daughter was only receiving speech therapy services for a total of one hour every fifteen days. When he told me that the only choice they had were public services and the availability of the speech therapist assigned to them, meaning that they had to accept that one hour, I wrote back that slamming the door was totally unacceptable...obviously I was joking, struggling to find a yes.

His reply was that the TONE of my response was the only thing unacceptable.

Strangely, that little boy's grin flashed before my eyes.

Perhaps that mother had flashed before his...