Amid rough words, viewers were moved by the collapsed self-esteem of the 9-year-old daughter stuck among four siblings.
On the 6th, Channel A variety show "These days parenting – my child like a gem" aired the story of "four siblings in tears and a mother burned out."
That day the show featured a couple raising four children: a 13-year-old son, a 10-year-old son, a 9-year-old daughter and a 6-year-old son. Contrary to the neat house and the bright-looking children, the parents asked for help concerning the third child, the 9-year-old daughter. According to the guardian, the third child has recently been repeating uncontrollable crying over trivial matters.
In the observation footage, the third child's emotional outbursts continued. She stomped her feet and could not stop crying even after turning off the screen while drawing on a tablet, and she burst out self-reproachful words such as "It's always like this for me. I'm the only useless one. I'm the only one who makes mistakes, I'm the only weird one." Even when her mother helped from beside her, her emotions did not calm easily.
While the mother briefly went out, footage showed the four siblings at home doing reading homework. When the third child caused a disturbance, the oldest said, "Go play in your room, you girl," using harsh words. Hurt, the third child went into her room and spent time alone on her cellphone.
But when the cellphone sound could be heard in the living room, the three brothers exchanged looks and criticized the third child's behavior. They were caught secretly recording videos, saying she had violated the allotted usage time. Realizing this, the third child, feeling wronged, finally burst into tears. The second child immediately called their mother to report it, and the third child cried, "Mom, I'm wronged."
Hearing the situation, the mother tried to mediate the conflict by suggesting they share snacks, but the third child, feeling hurt, went into her room. In the process, the oldest escalated the quarrel by saying, "If you don't eat now, you can't eat later," and eventually hurled the abusive phrase "you bug-like thing" at the third child, causing shock.
In her room the third child sobbed endlessly, saying, "Why do I only have bad older brothers?" Watching the footage, the mother cried, saying, "The gem seems to be getting picked on so much. It's much worse than I knew," and the father was at a loss for words, saying, "We didn't know how wronged the child must have felt."
In response, Dr. Oh Eun-young diagnosed, "The third child is structurally the one stuck in the middle. By age and by gender she is placed in the middle and is likely to feel emotional isolation," and "Even if the exclusion is not intentional, if it is repeated it leaves deep wounds on the child's self-esteem."
Meanwhile, Channel A "These days parenting – my child like a gem" airs every Friday at 9 p.m.<
[Photo] Channel A "These days parenting – my child like a gem" broadcast screen capture
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