The Crying Child

           By Vic Odarve

A young couple with a year-old baby moved into a new neighborhood. Living next to their house, was also a senior couple with their clever looking dog as their security guard during nighttime. This senior couple seemed regret to have them as neighbor since the arrival of this young couple, their child is constantly crying during night sleeping hours and eventually disturbed and awakened them and some of their neighborhood from their sleep.

The crying child

 That being in their senior’s stage, the crying really disturbed the rhythm on their sleeping habit. Then the wife said angrily to her husband, “That young couple does not know how to keep their child from crying during night time; what they should have done is merely have to keep ready the prepared milk bottle and give it at the moment the child tend to wake up from slumber. Perhaps they need parental seminar and guidance.”

Her husband looked to his wife and said, “Just keep quiet, you might be heard.” But the wife was unhappy and disturbed. Then she added,” When will be this crying in the middle of the night be stopped? For us seniors, once awakened, it is difficult to go back to sleep anymore.” But the husband did not respond.

Oftentimes since she lacks sleep, she would weep with sorrow, regret, despair, and misery over their new neighbor. Every time the wife heard the child crying in the middle of the night and disturbed their sleeping, she said to her husband with the same comments.

Senior couple with a pet dog

 Then one day, their pet dog that used to guard their house and bark the intruders during nighttime was found dead due to snake bite. This aggravated her problems. Because of this, she was greatly depressed and devastated. The dog helped to scare off threats from intruders during nighttime. “Oh my God, nobody will alarm us at deep of the night if somebody enters our premises.”

A week later, the wife observed that the baby crying at nights and early morning disappeared. She thanked God for they can sleep well as they used before.

One early morning, the wife said to her husband, “Look, did you observe something over the baby crying in our new neighbor? The baby is no longer crying. We can sleep well till morning. They finally learned how to control their child behavior correctly. I wonder who taught them.”

Once disturbed, seniors have difficulty in going back to sleep

 One Sunday, as she was walking in their backyard to refresh herself after the church activities, suddenly she saw the young couple walking with a child.” How is your baby? I have not heard this baby crying during night anymore,” she said. The young couple said,” Sorry madam for the noise. Your dog barks a lot at midnight where most people are coming home from nightshift works and daybreak when people go to the market. That dog barking distracted the child from sleeping and once awakened, we had difficulty controlling the child from crying.” Upon discerning this, the wife was stunned and could not believe. The dog barking indeed affected the child sleeping. She felt guilty!

And so, it is with life… Hence, don’t be too quick to judge others. Judging your neighbors does not define who they are. It defines who you are.

Today, every time she heard a baby crying during sleeping hours, she remembered the crying baby and the young couple that once upon a time became a part of their neighborhood.