A Child's Double Point of View

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! I certainly did. I've had the pleasure of being surrounded by family for the past few days. Although sarcastic by nature, I don't mean it sarcastically: it was actually nice to see my family again. Mostly. 

 

There was one event in particular that stands bright in my memory. It was towards the end of the night and only a few were left. My younger cousins were playing nicely when the inevitable happened- a crash and some crying. An object that wouldn't be heavy to an adult but very heavy to a very petite eight year old fell on said child's foot. Even though we're still questioning if it really "just fell" or "if he threw it at me," one thing I can't question is that the child was really hurting. What I thought was interesting was the reactions of three people.

The first person had a wonderful time with the child, however it was quite miserable for the child. He really enjoyed jokingly telling the child that she has to go to hospital and such. I really hated how he made it out to nothing

The second person totally denied the child was in pain. Rather than encouraging the child to walk on the very bruised foot which would help, she kept saying "it does not hurt, you can walk." Sounds familiar?

The third person is one who is very experienced in having a child in pain who is crying. She let the child cry, she spoke calmly and used stories and humour to distract, and she helped the child get up and walk without a struggle. 

My mum is such a hero.

Just a thought: Sometimes it doesn't take a chronic illness to see different sides of people. Sometimes it's a few pounds dropped on a child's foot.