Monday 2 May 2011
Nosy neighbours
I was in the front garden this afternoon, weeding. That in itself is amazing. But I'm there and the man who lives in the mosque next door to us called to me across the wall. In his faltering English he told me that my baby cries a lot and I should be caring for him. Now, I took his blunt-ness to simply be a lack of the grasp of English and that he hadn't meant it to come across as that. He was smiling as he said it. & to be honest as I can clearly hear him singing his prayers from Seth's room I often wondered what he made of Seth's regular nightly screams. & now I know! I assured him that we didn't leave Seth crying and that often we couldn't soothe him. I also explained that Seth was 'disabled' and couldn't talk so can't say 'Mummy I'm hungry' or 'Mummy I had a bad dream' or 'Mummy I feel poorly' and so screams. At that my neighbour did start to back away from me. I'm not sure how much he understood and I don't really care. Half of me wanted to tell him to bugger off and that's it's none of his business and the other half was actually impressed that it bothered him enough to talk to me about it.
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Difficult to know what he really meant and just as difficult to respond such an approach. For a Muslim man to approach you at all and speak to you is a bit strange, knowing the culture here.
ReplyDeleteProbably you were, if not too kind, then too explanatory, and a "my son isn't well" could tie the issue off nicely.
difficult one this but it sounds like you handled it perfectly :)
ReplyDeleteIt can be really difficult handling enquiries from strangers about our children however well meaning or otherwise and sounds like you responded perfectly...ps hope you are getting some respite hours if nights can be hard.
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