THE PERFECT KID (CHILD)

Having spent a week with a 2 ½-year child in the wonderful person of my beautiful granddaughter, Darby Shea, a certain amount of recall is happening in my mind. She has captivated my heart and soul and given me an education on what is right with this world. Her mamma treats her like a person, never talks down to her and listens to what she says.

Grandpa is in love with this child, my memory of her as I see her today will stay in my mind like an etched stone message, it will live with me forever.

Behind me, as I write this on a flight to JFK International Airport is a child about the same age as my Darby. She sounds like Darby and I could easily mistake her for Darby. However; Mamma is another story.

Speaking with a child at an adult level should be one of equality, conversing on the adult side with dialogue that fits the child's level. One must assume that a child is equal in all aspects of humanity. Mamma is talking like a robot, who is sounding like she is writing a thesis on child-rearing.

"Now I look outside and I see two trucks! One says Airchef and one; luggage. A chef is someone who prepares food for the people on the plane to eat. The other truck is loading our luggage onto the plane."

"We will now talk about lunch. You have two options. Here are your two options: Option One is a hard-boiled egg, and option two is a peanut butter sandwich. I will let you decide which option you would like to choose. This is said by mamma with a robotic voice, free of inflection, emotion or levels of sound modulation, just one continuous drone, where at one point I thought she would tell the kid about the overhead mask, the exits on both front and back of the plane on both sides and her flotation device seat cushion!

I know it is important to educate our children and get them into the best colleges and universities possible. I can sense this mother is putting pressure on the poor child to excel, getting into Yale, Harvard and Princeton all at the same time. I truly wonder what she really will accomplish, will her psychiatry bills be large, will medical bills for nervous breakdowns amount to large figures, and what about disappointment if the child rebels? How will Mammy deal with that?