L11:Does Parental Permissiveness Affect Childrens Developmen

Who Is to Blame, Mimi, or Her Parents?

I always thought Xiao Hong a sl;oilt and wilful child, but today I met a girl a hundred times worse. Compared to her, Xiao Hong is an angel!
Uncle and Aunt Liu came for a visit and brought their darling girl Mimi with them, a girl of five and their only child. The first sight of her disgusted me. She was dressed and made up like nothing on earth. I always hated the sight of Xiao Hong when she got all painted up on C:hildren's Day or on other festive occasions. But this Mimi was painted up for no reasons at all..
And even worse, she had her hair permed too. It' s bad enough to see grown-up women perm thei.r hair into all sorts of shapes and styles - haysacks, loosewires, bird-nests, cock-tails, name what you will,but it's their own funeral. If they want to abuse and spoil their own hair, they are welcome to it, but to do it to their chilren is really awful. As though that' s not enough, the Lius had Mimi's ears pricked too in order that she may wear ear-rings ... What next? They?woulci have her feet bound too if footbinding should suddenly become fashionable.

The way she was made up, bad as it was, was nothing compared with the way she behaved. When Mum offered her some sweets, she grabbed two handfuls, and refused to say a "Thank you! " when gently reminded by her mother. "Dear girl! She is always shy before strangers and forgets her manners! " What a bare-faced lie! By no stretch of imagination could Mimi be described as a shy girl . Anyway I don' t think she has had any manners to forget.

When she played with Xiao Hong's things, her only pleasure seemed to lie in destruction. When she started to tear up Xiao Hong's picture books, it was really too much and Xiao Hong tried to rescue what remained by snatching them away. Obviously Mimi had never been crossed by anyone like this before and she started to howl like a pig being killed. Her parents rushed up to her, as, though their darling daughter was in mortal danger.

"Horrid Xiao Hong! Spank her! Spank heri " Mimi kept screaming. Without finding out what it was all about, and without a single word of reprimand, the Lius were all out to mollify her. "There, there, don' t cry my precious! Auntie will spank her later! " But Mimi was not so easily mollified. "No, no! Mammy spank her now!" Her mother really went up to Xiao Hong and clapped her hands behind Xiao Hong's back, pretending to be spanking: "See if you dare to make Mimi cry again! " This sort of farce went on and on.

Lunch was an even more hectic affair, either because she had too much sweets in her or she was over-nourished anyway, she just refused to eat anything. All the same she insisted on having all the best dishes in front of her and dipped her spoon into every one of them at will, while all the time her parents, one on each side of her, tried their best to spoonfeed her. They coaxed and cajoled, and for every occasional mouthful Mimi took, they cheered and praised as though it was a remarkable feat by their darling daughter. They expected cheers and praises from us too. More often than not, Mimi would spit out what she had just taken, and the table was littered with her spilt and spat out food. She spoiled the whole meal for everybody.

At last we had a moment of peace and quiet when Mimi dozed off after the meal. But it was only a lull before another storm. When the Lius tried gently to wake her in order to leave, she got into a tantrum because they had disturbed her sleep, and
she kept raining blows ori her father all the way he carried her downstairs. Serves him damn well right, I said to myself in secret delight. At last Mimi was doing something with my full approval. I would love her even more if she did the same to her mother.
When the door finally closed on them, Mum and Dad looked at each other and burst out laughing. Soon we were all laughing.