Oh Vivian! Why so much hatred for Ronke?
Ronke Adamson works in a crèche and is quite efficient. Various parents love her because they see how she relates with their children. On several occasions, parents have seen her at moments she did not see them watching her closely with their children, and they have never found her treating their children badly. Not that the other workers aren’t doing an amazing work with the children but, something about Ronke is truly endearing.
One day, while at work, one of the children put under the supervision of her colleague, Vivian, would not stop crying. Immediately the child saw Ronke, he stretched out his hands to her and she carried him “It’s okay dear, stop crying my dear, your mummy will soon come ok?”. Ronke said. “Mother hen is here, I knew you would keep calm because she is now here” Vivian said. She was quite upset and even though she said it jokingly, Ronke caught the message so she sarcastically responded “I guess that is what we were all ‘called’ to be in our line of work, Mother Hens!”. She patted the child until he slept. He obviously cried intensely because even while on Ronke’s shoulders trying to catch a nap, he would still sob briefly and go back to trying to sleep.
Vivian couldn’t wait for break time to share with her friend Bisola her experience. “Mother hen came to the rescue today as usual.” She told Bisola during lunch “Come on Vivian, why do you dislike Ronke this much?” Bisola asked and Vivian responded “I do not dislike her. I just don’t like her ‘know it all’ attitude. I was trying to calm a child today and the next thing she walks in and waved her magic wand and voila, the baby hushed. Who told her I couldn’t calm the situation? But as usual, she always wants to ‘show’ herself” Vivian said in annoyance. Bisola’s response wasn’t what she expected to hear but she had to tell her the truth “Vivian, I honestly do not see anything wrong in what Ronke did. What would you have preferred? That the child continued to cry and the supervisor’s attention is drawn or that the child ceases to cry and you aren’t blamed for anything? Come on Vivian, be nice” she said. Vivian wasn’t happy about the response she heard so she said “ok, that’s fine, let’s not prolong this any further”.
After lunch, as she was going back to the crèche, she saw a child leave Ronke’s grip and almost hit her head by a parked car because the child saw her mum. “Ronke, how could you have been so careless!” she exclaimed to draw the attention of everyone around but the mother of the child quickly doused the matter “It’s okay, it was not Ronke’s fault, my child is fine and there is no cause for alarm at all.” The mother said. “I am so sorry Ma’am; she left my grip so fast and…” “It’s okay Ronke” the mother interjected and continued “children can be very restless. You know how Natasha can be; I often wonder how you all manage to tame her here. It’s ok, it really is. Natasha say bye-bye to Aunty Ronke” and in her tiny voice she said waving “bye-bye Aunty Wonke” “it’s Ronke Natasha not Wonke” the mum said and they all laughed.
Vivian wasn’t having it at all. She did not understand why she wanted to escalate what just happened and the mother of the child didn’t see the need for that. So she left the scene and went into the crèche.
After that day, Vivian always used the incident to blackmail Ronke. At the slightest unintended provocation, she would threaten to tell the management how careless Ronke was that she lost grip of a child under her care.
Ronke had had enough. She was tired of being blackmailed so she went to their direct boss and reported the matter. She was cautioned and asked to be careful. Her boss was grateful though that the parent didn’t take it to heart but she however admonished Ronke to be careful next time.
Ronke didn’t tell Vivian she had gone to report herself already so one day, Vivian went somewhere and saw a parent who gave her some money to appreciate her and also asked her to give Ronke some amount of money too. Vivian never gave Ronke her share. Two weeks later, the parent came to drop her child in the crèche and asked Ronke if she got the money she sent Vivian to give to her. Ronke didn’t want to raise dust so she responded “oh thanks Ma, I am sure Vivian forgot, I will ask her. Thanks so much Ma”.
Immediately the woman left, she went up to Vivian to ask why she didn’t give her her share of the money “Vivian, even if you weren’t going to give me my share, why didn’t you at least tell me you were given money to give me so that I could have at least said Thank you to her? She has been coming here for almost two weeks. If she didn’t ask me, I would never have known” Ronke said in annoyance and Vivian’s response only made things worse “well, at least you now know. Besides, I do not have the money, I have spent it, I will give you later…or what? You want to report me? Go ahead but trust me, be ready to explain how you let a child off your grip, go ahead, report!” Vivian threatened.
Their immediate boss walked in on the conversation and asked both of them to report in her office immediately. When they got there, Vivian was asked to explain what happened and as you would have guessed, she began by digressing, telling her boss a child almost got injured because Ronke ‘lost’ grip of the child before going into the reason for the argument.
Ronke explained what transpired and after hearing both of them, it was clear Vivian was to blame. “For your information Vivian, Ronke had since informed me of what happened on that day and I am quite disappointed in you that you chose that as a medium to blackmail her. I also see you lack integrity and you have a lot of human relation to learn. How then can we trust the lives of these little ones in your care? You will go on 2 weeks suspension and when you return, you will write an undertaken to be of best behaviour.”
Ronke tried to interject with a plea for Vivian but she was interrupted “That will be all for now, both of you can leave my office now”
Vivian went on 2 weeks suspension. She is back to work and better behaved. Ronke found out Vivian was merely jealous of how the children loved her. She is learning daily that children are innocent and pure. They gravitate towards you easily when they sense your sincerity and love. Somethings are innate others are learnt. Vivian is learning and is becoming better by the day.
Kemi Ajumobi