Today I saw an eight-year-old girl for her first visit to our clinic. She was a bright, healthy girl, and her mother seemed very nicely attuned attuned to her. The girl was a good student. I asked her mother if the family ever got to eat together--amongst Pediatricians, this is felt to be a good thing for families: drugs and other risky behaviors occur a lot less when families are able to have dinner and other kinds of quality time together. I assumed that this must be the case because the girl seemed so together.
I learned that in fact, dad spends a lot of time in Mexico helping his family, and this mother cares for her three children AND works two jobs--one from 8:30 to 4:00 and the 5:00 to 10:30PM. She kind of joked that her chldren are raising themselves--but clearly she is doing a great job because this girl just shined--and wanted to be a teacher when she grew up--but there has to be some cost.
Mom had four siblings, and felt she was so short because they had been malnourished. Like many immigrant parents, she had left school and gone to work at an early age, eleven, in her case, taking care of other children. I can only picture her own mother being a skilled manager of scarce resources, and who taught this mother well.
I would give anything for her to have a chance to finish high school someday and have a chance to go back to school and enjoy learning, run a day care or become a teacher--to have a chance to do something for herself. It's unfair that it is so hard for working people, that immigrants are scapegoated. And I know a many more immigrant parents as worthy as she is. We need a better world for that to happen.
No comments:
Post a Comment