Fit For Parenthood?

No - not me. This morning however it was harrowingly obvious I wasn’t alone.

As I settled in to my seat on the metro and unfolded my paper, there was a slight commotion. Two teens, shaven headed but reassuringly suited and booted, prised the doors back open and bundled on to the carriage.

‘Eehhhh, man. Mam man, a cannit here you man. Am on the Metro’. The reassurance was fleeting. It was quite clear that opposite me were - as we say in Newcastle - two ‘charvers’. The conversation went on.

‘I’m on me way for an interview. Eh? - Aye this morning. Aye. I’m F*cked though. The bairn’s been bad aal neet’. A pause. ‘Naar, just coughing an that like and being sick'. A further pause. 'Naah she’s in the hoose. I’ll only be an hoor’. A longer pause. ‘Aye the dogs in in aal’. An even longer pause. ‘Divin’t worry mam man, it if gans for her, I’ll f*ckin smash it’.

I instinctively peeped above the paper and then upward to the route map, averting prolonged eye contact. The conversation wasn’t over though and it didn’t get better. ‘Hahaaaaa. She was deed funny like. She was farting this morning and it F*ckin stunk’. There was no indication as to whether this was the ‘bairn’ or the dog.

Fortunately, I was only travelling one stop. As I walked to my destination it still troubled me though. I just couldn’t comprehend what I’d heard, nor put it out of my mind. To leave the dog in the house with the young child in the logic that you’ll ’discipline’ the dog should it have attacked the child. Perverse beyond belief.

I don’t have children, but how can anyone treat them with such contempt? Even as I write this, it still disturbs me. Does a childhood of neglect, beatings and dog bites await? Or miraculously did this thing, masquerading as an adolescent human being somehow attract a loving, doting young mother who will shower her with the love and care afforded to myself and
that deserved by any child.

It would seem as unlikely as her father succeeding in this morning’s job interview, the very one for which he had left her. We can all only hope...