Wait police catch you then you know

A passing remark from a mother to her child gave me something to think about: "Stop it ah, boy, wait that Uncle angry."

Does that sound familiar?

"Police will catch you (and put you in jail)."
"See? Auntie scold already!"
"If you are naughty, they will come and take you away."

It strikes me that these warnings that adults pass to children have one glaring thing in common - they disclaim personal culpability on behalf of the adult. I won't be angry, but someone of authority will punish you.

Whether this is a selfish attempt of parents to shirk responsibility in disciplining their children, or is a result of parents' overwhelming desire to shelter their children, I do not know. Let the psychologists conduct their surveys and tests someday, and we will smile and nod knowingly at the percentages as though we'd known all along.

We create the instruments of our own destruction
In a supermarket, a young boy running through the aisles crashed into J and tumbled to the floor, hurting her ankle in the process. The boy picked himself up and shied behind his mother, visibly uncertain, throwing guilty looks at J. When we waved to him, he brightened considerably and became lively again.

In that same supermarket, another young boy and a young girl on three-wheeled scooters almost literally bludgeoned their way across and through the long check-out queues, shouting "scuseme-scuseme-scuseme" and pushing through any adequately- (and inadequately-) sized gaps they could find. One of them sideswiped my ankle and kept on going. To top it off, the kids abandoned their scooters right in the middle of the passage to explore displays of sweets, while their parents walked on ahead, oblivious.

To reprimand, or to ignore? And really, what good is public censure if parents are not aware or do not care?