Horrible Little Monster

Kaka’s 2 year old, Yacoub, has turned into a horrible little monster. He cries constantly. Give him peanuts, he cries. Take away the enormous nail in his hand, he cries. Wipe his nose, he cries. And people will do anything to keep him quiet. Give him what he wants. Go buy him cookies. Pick him up and hold him. The little beast hits and bites his parents and they do nothing to correct him! There’s no sending to his room (probably because the house had only 1 room and do you send 2 year olds to their rooms?) There’s no ignoring him, there’s no, “My ears don’t hear whiny voices!” (a Marilyn VR classic). They bend to his every whim while he howls and hits and snots on everyone. And no one but me finds this strange. Apparently, this is the way Chadian 2 year olds are dealt with! Occasionally, when they’ve had enough KaKa or AlHadj will pretend to cry, which cools Yacoub a little. Or they’ll fake yell at him and take a little stick like they’re going to hit him, which generally makes him yowl harder. He’s become extremely unpleasant. On the contrary, Zuella’s ((Togolese) little 2 year old, Ousman, is the cutest, most delightful 2 year old you can imagine. Zuella really disciplines Ousman, “bien et bon,” which is also a little disturbing. Lots of spanking and reprimanding and telling him that the bogeyman, Honhon,” will get him” if he doesn’t quit it. Zuella said that back in the day, in Togo, if you were really bad and really needed to be punished, they’d put ginger in your anus. Man! I don’t know if you all eat much ginger, but fresh ginger is really spicy – I can’t imagine how bad that would burn! Any way, I wrote a big long letter about child raising etc. but it got lost in the mail and I don’t remember all of it’s glittering pithy insights.