Behavorial issues
Is it wrong that I want to adopt various children I come across in the hospital? Not regular children, with regular parents, but the ones who actually *need* adopting?
Take, for example, three year-old Ben (not real name, of course). He lives in a shelter at night, and during the day is in a sort of psychiatric day care for "behavioral problems". I visited the program where he lives, played trains with him, made a wreath of felt leaves for fall, and sang songs. During circle time, one of the therapists asked him how he was feeling today. He looked down in fierce thought for a moment, then looked up at us with huge brown eyes, fringed with the truly heartbreaking lashes that only boy toddlers seem to have, and answered "Sad". We asked why. He thought again, and explained to us that he was wondering if he was going to get a mother one day. Wouldn't you too want to take him home and feed him and cuddle him and bathe him and see those eyes filled with something other than utterly inappropriate sadness?
Damn. The world pretty much sucks for a lot of kids.
And thus begins my Development and Behavior rotation.
Take, for example, three year-old Ben (not real name, of course). He lives in a shelter at night, and during the day is in a sort of psychiatric day care for "behavioral problems". I visited the program where he lives, played trains with him, made a wreath of felt leaves for fall, and sang songs. During circle time, one of the therapists asked him how he was feeling today. He looked down in fierce thought for a moment, then looked up at us with huge brown eyes, fringed with the truly heartbreaking lashes that only boy toddlers seem to have, and answered "Sad". We asked why. He thought again, and explained to us that he was wondering if he was going to get a mother one day. Wouldn't you too want to take him home and feed him and cuddle him and bathe him and see those eyes filled with something other than utterly inappropriate sadness?
Damn. The world pretty much sucks for a lot of kids.
And thus begins my Development and Behavior rotation.