Children… Between home and the street [Archives:2002/36/Last Page]

Written byAbdulrahman Mutahhar
Translated by Janet Watson
M- Yesterday, Mus’ida, you lost all sense of tribal values and totally forgot how you’re supposed to treat guests. You made a real spectacle of yourself!
Ma – Don’t meddle in things that don’t concern you, and remember that although you have to honour guests, the only people in the house yesterday were family.
M- Guests are guests whether they’re people from outside the family or family. You invited our daughter and her children over, and then pulled the rug from under her feet!
Ma- Are you trying to say I shouldn’t tell my daughter how to bring up her children and warn them against dangers? We might as well just have children and then chuck them into the middle of the street!
M- Anyone listening to you now would say you’d got a higher degree in nursery education and psychology!
Ma- Bringing up children and keeping them safe from hazards inside and outside the house needs a mother who’s sensible and thinks about her children. It doesn’t need a higher degree in education and psychology!
M- You’re right there, but you’ve gone and become a real busybody without any cause.
Ma- I’ll become whatever I want, and it’s nothing to do with you. Mother and daughter will make up without any outside interference, thank you!
M- Look, there’s something I want to know. Why did our daughter get up straight after lunch and take her children off without so much as a goodbye? She normally stays until I’ve finished the evening prayer and then I take her home.
Ma – Your daughter, my love, came over to have lunch with the intention of leaving her twelve children with me, so that she could go to the hall where her neighbours were having a wedding!
M-What harm would it have done if she had left the children with you? Are the waterpipe, gat and television more important to you than your own grandchildren?
Ma – I don’t want them just dumped on me, and it’s not as if it’s just one or two. This is an entire football team with one reserve! I can’t even get their names right half the time!
M- It would have been nice to do her a favour, though.
Ma – There are favours and favours. How much trouble would I have had to look after twelve children when not one of them can be relied on to behave!
M- You’re just being lazy, Mus’ida, and you’re not prepared to enjoy having the children round. Don’t forget that children are a gift from God.
Ma – Mus’id, it’s the parents’ duty to look after their children and keep them away from hazards at home and on the street.
M- I know that, Mus’ida, but it was only for an afternoon. They won’t stay with you once they grow up, and it would have been a nice favour.
Ma – I’m talking about doing her a favour. There are twelve children. What do I do? If I lock them in with me they’d riot; and if I let them loose in the house they’d be worse than rioters and go around breaking things, tipping stuff up, and making everything filthy. Then they’d play with the electrical plugs, open the gas canister, open the fridge and give themselves an electric shock, and drink cold water; after that they’d climb up the wall and jump into the neighbours’ yard. There’s no way I could keep an eye on them all, and if you can’t keep an eye on young children they’re bound to be at risk!

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