Advice for bystanders in the world, translated…
That was, something that happened, over a decade ago, a friend who was earning his doctorate in the States in the summers, brought his one-year-old child back to Taiwan to visit, during the time, they’d taken the busses to Taichung, and because the child got tired of sitting for a long time, he’d become, fussy, my first-time mother friend became flustered; she’d worked so hard, to distract her own son from crying, but the young child just won’t calm down. A few minutes later, a passenger turned his head around toward them, with that look of disgust, “Your child is so loud, why are you taking the greyhound! Can’t you even, drive?”
not my photo…
She’d later on, told me, very upset, about how defeated she’d felt on her hard-to-come-by chance to visit Taiwan. And, it’s normal, that she felt shocked, because she’d already, gotten use to how strangers would always love and play with her child, even on the roads, in the supermarkets, and when they’d taken their family trips, there would be strangers, who’d come up to them to say “hi” to her young child, played with them, or helping the mother, to cope and deal with the inconveniences of having to take a young child on the roads. There was even once, that she’d carried her son on her back when she’d gone out, her husband was walking next to her, and a stranger went up to her husband, told him, “You’re stronger, please, carry your son, and allow his mother to rest.”
She’d forgotten, that Taiwan is NOT friendly like this. After over decade’s time, we’re still seeing reports such as these, a mother took her crying infant, alighted the bus, and because the infant just crying endlessly, the rest of the passengers asked the bus driver to stop the bus and shoved her out, and that mother actually had, taken her child, and gotten off the bus too!
As I watched this news story, I’d felt heart wrenched. If I were there, I would’ve, totally, STOPPED the rest of the passengers from evicting this mother who’d had it real hard. She’d paid for the bus fare, she’d not done ANYTHING wrong, she’d just, alighted the public transportation systems, with a crying baby, which was, a HELL of a lot safer, than driving on her own, or riding the motorcycles. Plus, there are, more families with the husband, taking the car to work, and the mothers can only rely on the public transportation systems. Some had hollered and told her to take a cab, but, the cost is really high, compared to the bus fares, and, I can also understand why, for the reasons of safety, women wouldn’t want to take the cabs alone.
As the infant child cries endlessly, it’s a problem, that ALL parents are bound to run into. I’d once worried that my own young would cry out of turn, that I’d not dared, show up in the public places, and, restricted my outings for two completely years, like a person who’s afraid of committing the crimes, we’d, locked ourselves up first. Taiwan is now facing, the declines in birthrate, the government is advocating parents to have more babies, but, as the parents had their young, and taking their young children out, and met up with the unfriendly treatments, it’d become, more like a punishment to the adults.
And, in this sort of an environment, it’d become, even LESS fitting, to raise our young in, we should give the highest commandments to the parents who are still, willing to have and raise their children. Child, not just the child of the parents on the bus, they are, the leaders of our futures (what a good way of stating this, and yet, it’d become, somewhat, ironic here now!)
Please, DO love other people’s children too, because only when the kids are living better and better, will we, get better and better.
And so, because there’s this, LACK of understand, LACK of empathy, toward the mothers who have young children in this society, this is probably one contributing factor why women of this generation are refusing to have the children, and there are, some other reasons too, and, in order to UP the birthrate, the society MUST first be friendlier, to the mothers and the mothers-to-be, otherwise, WHICH woman in her RIGHT state of mind, would WANT to give birth to a child that CRIES for the first couple of years of life, huh???