Riri in the mirror
The TV show was almost over. I didn’t feel like watching television anymore, anyway. I went upstairs to change from the jammies into normal clothes. Mom would be up soon. Dad usually gets up to eat breakfast and goes right back to bed after the meal on most Sunday mornings. Most of my friends’ dads do likewise. I guess they work really hard on weekdays, so they feel really tired on weekends. I think our dads’ bosses make them work…you know ordering them to do this and that just like teachers at school make us do stuff. When you’re a kid you have to go to school and get bossed around by teachers. When you grow up, you enter the world of work and start getting bossed during the first hour you spend at work. The world is a tough place.
As I was getting dressed, I heard mom yelling at Riku for watching TV in his jammies. “Oh shut up mom.” I said under my breath. You see? Pain in a kid’s life is not inflicted only by teachers, playground bullies and classroom snobs, parents do their part perfectly well. But when pushed too hard or sometimes not even pushed, kids are capable of returning some of that pain in their life to their parents and teachers. I see that pain sometimes in my mom’s and homeroom teacher’s faces. The big tantrums that Riku throws once in a while, irritates the heck out of mom.
order 指図する
bossed around 威張りちらされて
inflicted 負わされて
capable of …する能力があって
tantrums かんしゃく
irritate …をいらつかせる
