I have been living with my son and his little daughter for several years now, I have seen her father punish her many times. And if we used to be cornered on buckwheat, nowadays it is enough to take the phone away from the child and it is already the worst punishment and a disaster. The child on the buckwheat will still cherish his pride and in anger will last at least ten minutes, and the granddaughter immediately runs to apologize and ask for the phone back.
Once she had her son, he again took the phone, and refused to give it back. Granddaughter Samantha sat with me in the living room, her eyebrows furrowed, mentally scolded her father, but aloud all muttered: “Now he will ask me for something! He’ll ask me for something!”
The anger subsided, and Samantha got interested in what I was embroidering, and came closer. And subtly, as if she was not interested at all, asked:
– How kids used to live without phones?
I suspect it was a rhetorical question, but I couldn’t resist answering:
– We used to play “twine,” look for four-leaf lilacs, and my parents couldn’t get them home in the evening,” I felt warm in my heart at the memories of the old days. – And what about my broken knees! And races on old bicycles which had no speed, but only two wheels and a steering wheel…
My granddaughter was really interested. She started to ask questions. She listened for a long time about my childhood and about childhood of her father, which did not differ much from mine, except for the quality of toys.
She listened with interest, and then muttered in amazement:
– Yes, you had a good childhood…
For the first time her father returned the phone to her, without asking for it, even though Samantha apologized. She asked me questions about the past for some time, and she could not remember that she was so interested in walking with her friends that she forgot about everything in the world – the phone, one way or another, was distracting.
