There is nothing more sad than a child born into a mediocre existence and condemned to remain there forever. It is a child with no choice. He can do nothing but live his father's life. This is worst at the restaurant by my house. The children are there 24/7, because the parents have no sitters. They have nothing to do but follow Mom and Dad around. They are watching people drink, they are breathing in the smoke. They are watching people puke. No big deal. Normally I walk by and think, Whatever. To each his own. But yesterday I saw the family's new baby. It was probably 4 months old. It was so young, it couldn't even sit up. Yet there it was, lying on the plastic table next to Grandpa's soju bottle.
Is this what they do? Is this the best place for this child, this delicate human being with fragile skin and eyes and lungs? On a card table at a fish restaurant, breathing in exhaust and tobacco? I was so amazed (first, that the baby was actually cute), that I went home and got my camera and took a picture. Of course, I couldn't rightly ask to take a picture of the kids, so I told the Grandpa that I was taking pictures of the sign. In the closer shot, you can see the baby blanket on the table next to a tray of beer snacks and a sauce bottle. Such is his bed.
11 comments:
Sigh.
The blanket WAS where the bag of chips is now. I guess when beer snacks come to the table, all bets (and babies) are off.
Allow me to play devil's advocate for a moment.
From my experience, most people who own those kinds of restaurants in Seoul are generally from the country side and don't have any extended family in the area to watch over their kids while they work.
Also, baby sitters or maids are usually too costly for a family subsiding on the revenue from a fish market especially if said family would eventually like to send their children to the assortment of after school hagwons for English, Music, Art, etc. That's really the only way lower-middle class families can give their children a chance to compete in the education rat race that envelops most of the country.
Not that I'm defending the actions of the people at the fish market, I'm just hoping that what they are doing could also be looked at within the scope of what they are trying to accomplish with their resources.
Or they could just be horrible people.
I'm going to agree with Mike on this one. We've all seen these kids forced to live in an apartment connected to these places or, as you mentioned, in them.
Both of ęł 's parents grew up in what looks like a Cold War bunker. Her grandmother grew up in the hills and on the run. Not one of her parents or grandparents could even afford to eat rice, but they still look back at those times with a smile. They know now that it was a hard life, but were oblivious to it.
Using your standard to evaluate this situation is inappropriate. Will that kid follow in the steps of his father because he has to spend all of his time in a restaurant? Doubt it. As Mike said, it's all their parents can do with the resources they have, but that does not mean the kid is destined to open a fish marekt. I might add though, if the kid did open a fish market and was able to provide for his family, then explain to me the problem with that?
I understand the health concerns, but in a nation where, historically, the family exsists and thrives in close quaters, nothing about this is shocking to me.
Ignore the three spelling errors...
I found "exist" and "quarters" right away but it took a couple of looks to find "market".
People are usually going to look back at time spent with their family as happy. That this family isn't at war will make them even happier. I'm looking at this from my perspective. The kids are there all day and all night, in an adult environment. That's not a place for a kid. Sure, visit the restaurant, but stay there a short time. Don't let the kid grow up in that. What about you? Would you let your 6 month-old baby sleep next to an open bottle of alcohol, next to a table of cigarette smokers?
I'm looking at the mediocrity of it. They are of meager means, and their children might indeed be the first of the family to live a different life--they might never work in fish. Odds are, though, they will. Odds are they will be slightly better off but live a similar lifestyle, and be dried-out, bent-over and decrepit by 65. That to me is sad.
Was it even necessary to ask if I wanted my children to be raised in that kind of environment?
It's easy to criticize this family and their plight, but what do you suggest they do? "Your perspective" does not do anything for them. Of course they don't want their child to be in that kind of environment, but what should they do?
Also, social mobility in Korea is a lot more accessible than it is in the US. I don’t buy the grim destiny that you forecasted for these kids.
That's what I'm saying. They can't do anything, and that's sad. Realistically, the best job these kids can get is a middle-range executive at a company where they don't make very much money, work long, hard hours and kiss their bosses' asses their entire career. And the chances are still good that they will instead work in their father's, or some other similarly working-class profession.
And smell slightly more like fish than the everyone else.
Exactly! Since infancy!
Aside from that, you can also save our Mother Earth
from the destruction of global warming. There is no time
to be preoccupied by a missed call on an unattended phone.
Where By By turf carp communities are perhaps taken all the way through
selling such as a biocontrol needed for noxious pernicious weeds, they should be taken back within
the water in and additionally unscathed.
Here is my blog post: Stehleuchten
Post a Comment