A few years ago, I was with a close friend in a grocery store in California. We saw a mother with a small boy moving in the opposite direction. The woman barely noticed us because she was so angry with her little boy, who wanted to pull items off the lower shelves. As the mother became more and more angry, she started to yell at the child. At this point my friend spoke up. I expected my friend would give this woman a mother-to-mother talk about controlling herself and about the effect this behavior has on a child. Instead, my friend said, "What a beautiful little boy. How old is he?" The woman answered, "He's three."


几年前，我和好友在加利福利亚的一个杂货商店里，看见一个女人和她的小男孩往相反的方向走去，这个女人没有注意到我们因为她对小男孩很生气，这个小男孩想把东西从较低的架子上拿下来。当这个母亲变得越来越生气的时候，她开始对着小男孩大喊，这个时候我的朋友要阻止她了，我期待我的朋友能给她来次母亲间的对话，有关控制自己和这样大喊的行为会对孩子造成的影响，然而，取而代之的是，我的朋友对着这位母亲说，多漂亮的一个孩子呀，他几岁了?那位母亲回答说，他三岁了。