Thanks For Being Nice To Me

[poliphilo]

I was out cutting the hedge yesterday afternoon and a child from down the street- a lonely 12 year old who gets lost in the crowd of her siblings- stopped by for a chat.  After a while I asked Ailz (sotto voce) to come and chaperone me because- well- a middle-aged man has to be careful around kids these days. I hate it, but there you are.  Ailz was showing her our collection of soft toys (we've got hundreds of them) and wound up giving her a couple. Later she returned with gifts of her own- a miniature scent bottle and a doll's hand mirror- plus a thankyou note. 

thank's for the tedy what you give me and thank's for being nice to me and you are a good frend to now.

I've fixed it to the fridge with a magnet. 

I don't know how people who are around kids all the time can stand it- all those vulnerable young lives- and knowing all the horrors that surround and await them- and being so powerless to do anything about it- like watching a fleet of paper boats going off down a fast-flowing river. 

Comments

[wyrmwwd.livejournal.com]

I used to drive a school bus. People would ask me all the time how I could stand those awful kids. The thing was, I loved my kids (it was management I couldn't stand, which is why I quit). There was one little girl on the bus, a 5 year old refugee from the Sudan, who, for Christmas, gave me 2 pencils "for my children". She asked me how many children I had. I told her I had 180... that was the number of children that I transported on the bus every day. I told her that she and all her mates were my children, that they were all the children I needed.

She seemed very pleased with that.

Every time I see stuff on TV about kids in the Sudan, or kids getting blown up in Iraq, or in any other places in the world were kids end up being the victims of adult aggression, I think of that beautiful little Sudanese girl, and it brings tears to my eyes.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That's a beautiful story.

I had a step-daughter once- sort of- in a relationship that lasted a couple of years. She was a troubled child and used to drive me up the wall. I now suspect (we just weren't so well clued up about these things back then) that she was being abused by her grandfather. I wish I'd done more....