Farm Life
If this was 150 years ago...
And we lived on a farm...
The father would get up at the crack of dawn...
The kids would walk a few miles to school...
The Mother would take care of the house and be very busy...
The Father would be out working in the fields…
When the kids came home, they might have chores or go help Dad
or stay in and help Mom.
At night there would not be much light or TV, and they might study
or do some family connected things.
They did not have a Dr. Spock or a Dr. Phil book to try and analyze
every little thing.
The Mother and Father felt good because they had a roof over
their heads, the kids were warm and went to sleep with full
stomachs, and they considered this a good day.
The Father was proud. The Mother was fulfilled.
The sun went down and then it rose again.
Those kids were not lactose intolerant, allergic to peanuts, ADHD,
full of issues. They were happy to be fed and clothed and not
hungry, and they did not question the Father and the Mother
because they were the adults.
Maybe the Mother did not call the Father an idiot or tell him to
leave because he was doing the best he could do working all day
long. He was not God, or a prophet or a philosopher. He was not
expected to be a child psychologist or a master of the feelings of
the young.
He knew if he did not get up with the rise of the sun and toil in the
fields till dusk that there might not, one day, not be food or a roof
or a fire in the hearth.
And we lived on a farm...
The father would get up at the crack of dawn...
The kids would walk a few miles to school...
The Mother would take care of the house and be very busy...
The Father would be out working in the fields…
When the kids came home, they might have chores or go help Dad
or stay in and help Mom.
At night there would not be much light or TV, and they might study
or do some family connected things.
They did not have a Dr. Spock or a Dr. Phil book to try and analyze
every little thing.
The Mother and Father felt good because they had a roof over
their heads, the kids were warm and went to sleep with full
stomachs, and they considered this a good day.
The Father was proud. The Mother was fulfilled.
The sun went down and then it rose again.
Those kids were not lactose intolerant, allergic to peanuts, ADHD,
full of issues. They were happy to be fed and clothed and not
hungry, and they did not question the Father and the Mother
because they were the adults.
Maybe the Mother did not call the Father an idiot or tell him to
leave because he was doing the best he could do working all day
long. He was not God, or a prophet or a philosopher. He was not
expected to be a child psychologist or a master of the feelings of
the young.
He knew if he did not get up with the rise of the sun and toil in the
fields till dusk that there might not, one day, not be food or a roof
or a fire in the hearth.
© 2007 by Michael Domino
