The Child's Books & Buddies

:Mohamed A. Khalfan

2012/12/05

694

A parent on meeting his next door neighbour, also a parent, in a communal corridor of the same building thanked him profusely for devoting some of his leisure time to coaching his child also together with his own in school lessons after the dinner time. He was pleased that his child had been showing great improvement in his school work since his regular visits to the neighbour's apartment.

The neighbour, surprised and also embarrassed, replied that it was hardly a bother to him to let both the children talk to him about their work and marks as he cursorily browsed through the pages of their exercise books and then gave them back with a word or two of compliments. It did not take him more than five minutes for each of them.

The neighbour added that he wished he had more time to spare for the children but then he brought the shop-accounts home for daily posting. These kept him busy till bedtime.

The visits started when the child found that the neighbour's child regularly showed to his father his school work and "talked" his marks of the day with him while his own father showed no similar interest whenever he wanted to talk his work with him. His father did not want to be disturbed when he was watching TV programmes which ended when the child was already fast asleep. So the neighbour's child was moved by sympathy and made an offer: "Why don't you come over to my place and you too show your work to my Dad"?

Parenting