[Shout out to Cisse!]

RDD 60

Have you ever seen a child crying in public? Crying so loudly that she attracted the attention of many people... Well, Sophia was doing that right now.

She was crying, lying on the ground, kicking her feet in the air... She looked pathetic to be honest.

"Sophia, I have candies here--"

"Waahhh! Wahhh-!"

But no matter how much I tried to calm her down, Sophia would still cry. She was like an unstoppable wave of water that slowly drowned you.

I tried to reach out to Sophia, but my wife stopped me.

Penelope looked at me and muttered, "I can handle this."

Well, Penelope had better experience in babysitting. I'm sure she had a way to get Sophia to stop crying.

But what I witnessed was shocking.

Penelope did nothing! She just looked at Sophia and kept her eyes on her to make sure Sophia was not doing something bad.

Our baby's request was unreasonable. She wanted to go back to the province to swim in the sea. I talked to her and tried to convince her that we could swim in the pool instead, but Sophia was not happy.

"Waaahhh-- waaahhh--!"

Sophia kept crying and crying...but it didn't take long for her to stop.

When Sophia realized that her crying wasn't working, she stopped crying.

I was stunned and looked at Penelope.

"That works?"

"Hm. Sophia will stop crying once she realize that crying does not solve anything."

"..."

Was that even a thing?

Is this even the right way of parenting? Watching your child cry until she stops?

Considering it worked with Sophia, I guess it kind of works.

"You're always at work, so you didn't know Sophia is using this tactic a lot. At first I tried to calm her down and make her feel better, but it didn't work. So I ended up just watching her until she stopped crying.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

... Okay.

I'm not the mother here.

At least Penelope didn't hurt Sophia.

I remember when I threw tantrums in front of my mother, she smiled at me and pinched my skin! Recalling that scene still hurts, even though I'm an adult now.

I know how hard it is to stop a child from crying, because I was one of those spoiled brats. In my opinion, Penelope's "watching until the baby stops crying" is far more humane than pinching a child's soul.

"Mommy? Do you love me?"

"Aww, of course I love you, baby~ It's just that I know you'll never stop crying once I've given you my attention."

Penelope carried her and wiped her face. Sophia had tears and snot all over her face.

"... Mommy you bad!"

Sophia pouted. In the end, she didn't bother to cry again.

"Well, since we're back in Manila. How about we go to a mall and buy some things for the kid?"

Feeling bad that Roman and Sophia hadn't seen the ocean, my wife decided to take them to the mall.

"Yesh!" Sophia was excited when she heard her mother.

Roman nodded and Penelope smiled too. I agree as well.

"But Keith, you have to carry our things. Are you sure you can do that?" Penelope asked me worriedly.

"Don't worry, I'm confident. Let the kids have fun."

I had taken my energy pill, knowing that this trip would be tiring. A few extra pounds would never bother me.

We went to the nearest mall and bought things for the kids. Roman bought colors pencil for his kindergarten.

As for Sophia, we bought her a baby walker to help her practice walking. As soon as we put her in the walker, Sophia was happy because she could walk with no problem.

"Mommy! Look! I don't trip anymore!"

"My baby is really cute!"

They giggled.

I want to take a picture, but I don't have a camera. Hm, I heard that Nokia has a phone with a built-in camera, I wonder how much it costs.

Although I prefer a real camera because it has a higher resolution.

After eating in a restaurant, we returned to our apartment satisfied... Only to find that there was bad news.

Before we could even enter the building, we noticed that people were protesting in the streets.

We were confused when we reached the building.

"Penelope, so you have returned."

"Mrs. De Guzman."

We hadn't seen each other for only two weeks and Mrs. De Guzman had aged a lot. It seemed like it was really bad news.

"Sigh... You have to listen to me."

Listening to what Mrs. De Guzman said, my wife and I had a terrible expression. I touched my wife's hand and reassured her.

Apparently, the government would start a road widening and our building would be demolished because it was very close to the road. The government promised that each affected house would be compensated.

"Don't worry, they gave us six months to move."

"Are you okay, Mrs. De Guzman?"

"To be honest, I'm just unhappy. What they are offering is not equivalent to the whole apartment building. I need to talk to them later to clarify some things. As for you... I know a place where you can stay. But the rent will be expensive."

"Thank you Mrs. De Guzman."

The children were confused as they watched the people protesting.

As we entered the old apartment, my wife sighed and sat down on the sofa.

"Mommy? Are you okay?"

"Baby, it looks like we are going to find another place to live."

"Hm." Sophia nodded innocently. She didn't understand what her mother was saying.

We have lived in this apartment for five years and consider it our home. Besides, it was hard to find another place with such cheap rent.

Penelope looked at me and smiled. We both smiled, trying to reassure each other.

Another ordeal was happening to our family.