(134) Upbringing

Elaine's mum

Elaine was Elizabeth's buddy in play school. I bumped into Elaine's mum and struck up a friendship. Since they lived just a few doors away on the next street then, we saw each other often for a few years.

From the beginning I sensed that Mrs Johnson was contriving to find out how I brought Elizabeth up. To her many varied questions, I tried to be candid and answered as clearly as I could. It was almost comical to see her shocked to hear about my methods of learning by playing. She rejected my theory of letting the child express herself within bounds. With that in mind, I did not want to talk about the building of a healthy self image. She just could not subscribe to these what she considered as new fangled ideas.

 I remember one of the last visits I had with her before I moved away. She told me she believed Elizabeth was outstanding because of inherited genes. After all, my husband had one brother from Stanford and two sisters from Oxford. Possibly that is an important factor that I was blessed with a child of great potential. But it was sad that she was not even open to consider non-traditional methods of child rearing.