The Siroker Brothers

BORT

“If at first you don't succeed, redefine success.”

That's the anonymously-credited quote that begins chapter 6.5 of the textbook I'm reading (Computer Organization & Design by Patterson and Hennessy) for the class I'm taking this summer (CS 61C). I offer it not because I want to talk about the subject of my class or about computers at all. I just thought it was cute and I happened to read it while I was in one of my favorite places.

A BART train. That's right—a Bay Area Rapid Transit train. All public transportation catches my fancy actually. What do I enjoy so much about it? The exposure to a different world. The people who ride the BART regularly are generally too poor to provide their own transportation. This, coupled with the constant flux of people in and out of the train, guarantees exposure to interestingly unique characters.

I don't always think kindly of these characters. Today, for example, there was what appeared to be a mom with four of her children on the BART train. At first they seemed nice enough, but when the children started to mess around, the mother got angry. She forcefully confined the older two children to their seats.

MADtv’s Stuart

The mother was playing with the youngest of the children, a baby in a stroller, occupying almost all of her attention. One of the two older children, wanting to share in some of that motherly attention, proceeded to perform physical feats. Each feat was followed by a quick “Look what I can do.” Reminded of Stuart from MADtv, I chuckled to myself. The older child vying for her mother's attention was not amused however and sat back down, no doubt jealously resenting her younger sibling.

My observation of this family concluded with the mother quietly screaming, “What did they feed her?!” She was referring to the baby. Her harsh tone was spurred on by the harsh stench the baby was contributing to our BART car. “What did they feed her?!” she asked again after the children told her nothing. They eventually conceded that someone (I don't know who) fed the baby baby food mixed with something else (I don't know what). It sure stunk.

Why do I think badly of the mother? I felt her older children were old enough for her to reason with them. Instead of harshly confining them to their seats, the mother could have explained that it wasn't safe jumping around in the BART car and that other people would be annoyed by their rambunctious frolicking. Perhaps that's too idealistic, but it sure would have been better than ignoring them to play with her youngest child.

Even though I endured a heinous odor only reproducible by the spawn of Satan, I still enjoyed my trip on the BART. It made me think about how hard it must be to be a parent. I redefined my perception of parenthood.