Negligent Mothers
By Pedro Pablo Morejon
HAVANA TIMES – In my understanding, humans, like all animals (at least mammals), are machines strongly influenced by our genes. As a species, just like others, our biological function is nothing other than to replicate and survive.
Both males and females share this mission, but with different roles. The former are in charge of replication, which is why a human testicle harbors millions of sperm ready to engender millions of women, struggling desperately to access an egg that appears only once a month and, once fertilized, disappears for almost a year.
Females have the main mission of ensuring the new being survives, and for this, they use a different, selective reproductive strategy, choosing their partner wisely, protecting and feeding their child during gestation and after birth, etc. I won’t dwell on this, but that’s the general idea.
Hence, the well-founded belief that nothing in this world surpasses a mother’s love. It’s natural; a woman who does not love her child is a degenerate through and through. However, I don’t know what’s happening with the modern woman here as I increasingly see more cases of lack of love, neglect, and irresponsibility.
This weekend, on a bus, I observed a mother with her five-year-old child. They were sitting in front of me. The little one, seated by the window, would intermittently stick his head out. The mother, lost in her mobile phone, oblivious to what was happening.
Something curious has always happened to me in these situations, which I just understood at that moment. I tend to be overly protective of children. I couldn’t help but touch her and warn her; she scolded the boy somewhat harshly, and after a while, the same situation repeated.
The minutes of unease felt endless. I touched the little one and explained, using words at his level, the danger of sticking his head out. The boy ignored me and continued doing his thing.
It was a great relief to reach my destination and disappear from the scene. The reality is that I become obsessive about these things, even though I am not overly protective of my own daughter. At that moment, I recalled an incident from about ten years ago.
I was at a playground with my daughter and saw a little girl climbing a metal ladder; the mother or father was not in sight. The girl seemed to be alone, so I decided to go and help her down; it was an obvious danger. I took mine by the hand and, without letting go, despite her tantrum, I headed to the ladder, and just as I arrived, the little one fell. I managed to prevent it, and then, out of nowhere, her mother appeared to scold her.
And I could recount many cases I’ve seen. Mothers walking down the street with their young children behind them, say, 3 or 4 meters away. Children who don’t leave the neighbor’s house while parents remain confident, circumstances in which most child abuses occur.
I don’t know what’s happening in modern society, and although it’s not the majority, a not insignificant number of women neglect their children or don’t use protection for their carnal relations, get pregnant, and resort to abortion as if it were a contraceptive method. They are worthy of sterility. They are fortunate I am not God.
In general, it is the Cuban mothers that do 80-90% of the daily work of bringing up children (even if they have a full time job) and often, not always, the husbands act like one more child when it comes to all the domestic chores and responsibilities. Yes there are irresponsible Cuban women, many suffering from the difficulties just to put food on the table, or care giving within their family, but for every one I’d bet there are 10 irresponsible men who don’t do their share, leaving it to the mothers. The same goes with pregnancy and STD prevention.