Rachel Rose’s Ramblings

My daughter is 13-months old. Although we don’t have any extended family nearby, she lives with her mummy and daddy and both of us have the luxury of time to spend with her. She is loved and cared for by her parents, cuddled and caressed. She is calm and tranquil and securely attached to us both. The little girl who I look after a few times a week has no such luck. Her mother adores her but is forced to leave her 6 days per week while she goes out to work. Her father loves her but lives in England still as her doesn’t speak Spanish and besides, the job situation here is pretty awful. She shunts from friend to neighbour, mewling and crying and waiting for her mother to return. She is five months old and already has a brow creased from frustration. We all do our best but it’s hard when it’s not your child. Somehow the cries are more annoying, the dribble more disgusting, the poo smellier. I try to treat her as if she were my own but she never settles down…or if she does it’s 5-10 minutes then she’s back at it. She wants to be held. She wants her mummy. She wants security and routine and familiar places and she has none of that. I can’t help thinking that two girls, born within 9 months of each other, neighbours, possess two such different karmic loads. Not to be too self-congratulatory but we have the luck to be able to provide a stable, secure household full of love. While little A…well, her mother adores her.