Get up quickly, or I'll make you a needle!
2025-01-25 17:00:00
Manjola Lloja Bushati
I was walking down the street near my house with my little girl in tow. She, like every child that age I think, has her own itinerary, in every flower and ant that comes her way.
I tend to let it go...except when I have it in a hurry...
And in just such a case, my daughter didn't hesitate to sit on the ground, to take a closer look at what was impressing her... and I was trying to convince her to get up because we should walk.
From the dividing wall of the courtyard of a house with the alley we were passing, a lady appears who was hanging out her clothes and calls out: "Get up quickly, or I'll make you a needle!"
I don't want to dwell today on the inexplicable need of people who set out to do good, but intervene without asking anyone...
I want to talk about falling short in the way we communicate with children.
What does "Get up quickly before I get the needle" mean?
That the needle is a punishment, that you shouldn't sit in the street to see an ant on the sidewalk, that possible mistakes are punished with physical punishment?
But when the day really comes that we have to give that needle, even as a vaccine, what will we say to the child, that we are punishing him for being sick, that we are hurting him so that he doesn't get sick later?
Wouldn't it be better to tell them the truth? Simple, according to their age, but reliable and positive.
Needles are not a punishment, nor a means of education.
Needles help the medicine get into our bodies faster, so we'll make one so we can get back to our ant-hunting games as soon as possible...
The vaccine will help us not to get sick...or if we do get sick, the army inside our body will be stronger, the vaccine is a very good supply for it, and we will defeat all the viruses that have entered our body and that prevent us from playing.
And when we're fully recovered, we'll go out again to play and run around, or even sit in the middle of the square to watch how a hole is made in the ground when an ant digs a tiny tunnel...
We won't listen to what the neighbor across the yard is saying, sorry ma'am.
We have our own way of telling things.
