Saturday, April 20, 2013

Mercredi, 17 Avril 2013: "Tu Mange Comme Un Cochon"

We had a situation at dinner tonight. Maman had made sushi which was absolutely scrumptious. The problem was that we didn't have chopsticks and the rice was a bit too soft so it kept falling out of the rolls. Baptiste tried to catch the falling rice with his hands without success. Since it landed on his plate, he tried to use his fingers to push the rice back onto his fork since no one had set out knives. Bonne maman was absolutely livid about this...She started out by telling Baptiste that he ate like a pig--which is absolutely insulting to a 10, almost 11 year old boy. I would've been pissed too.
She continued to provoke him, telling him that she had given him plenty of chances to correct himself, etc, etc. She kept on speaking to him even though he wasn't looking at her. And he was doing this out of self-preservation. The poor kid. He knew that if he looked at her while she was being demeaning that he would cry. His face was already blood-red. Bonne maman ended up giving him an ultimatum, 'you either look at me while I'm talking to you or you put down your dessert and go to bed.' So, he lifted his eyes and started crying. I felt so bad for him especially because as I looked around the table earlier, everyone was using their fingers for one thing or another but Baptiste was the only one in Bonne Maman's line of sight. 

I understand that Céline's family comes from nobility but bitching out a 10 year old for using his fingers while eating is just ludicrous. Can someone please bitch him out when he poops and doesn't flush it, please? I feel like that merits more than eating with your hands. Other than that, it's SUSHI. Traditionally, sushi was created as a finger food. There are still many establishments in Japan today where sushi is made the way the sushi master was taught to make it ages ago and it is eaten just like that--without dipping sauce, and without chopsticks. It was made as a finger food, people. I don't care who or what you come from. http://www.wikihow.com/Practice-Sushi-Etiquette

Bonne Maman went on an on about the subject and Baptiste's reaction for about an hour or so as everyone cleaned up and tried to avoid/change the situation. She was making everyone feel uncomfortable--Didier included. I think she understood that she took the lesson too far though because she gave Baptiste chips and allowed him and his sisters to sit in front of the TV until the late hours of the night. I don't have any kids of my own, but I think that if you're going to yell at a kid about something, you shouldn't let them do something else that's normally forbidden to make yourself feel better for being mean. 

No comments:

Post a Comment