Diamond Baker
Paper 2
Word Count: 529
Empathy
When thinking about qualities in parenting, the first thing to come to mind is “love”. While thinking of love, you have many things that go into it. This is why empathy to me is the most important quality. Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. When empathy is present in parenting it gives the ability to see and value what your child is feeling or experiencing.
Having empathy is important when showing how you care for a person. Like Mrs. Henderson did for her daughters rotten teeth. When reading the narration by Maya Angelou, "Momma, the Dentist, and Me" I could see the quality of empathy. The empathy Mrs. Henderson had for her granddaughter, when Dentist Lincoln wouldn't help her daughter, who was in excruciating pain from the two rotten teeth. He told her that she was paid in full, and that he would rather work on a dog's mouth, than a black person’s. When she spoke to him she knew she was paid in full, but since she didn't hesitate to help him, she was angered that he wouldn't help her. She ended up making him pay interest. This helped "momma" get her daughter to a dentist in Texarkana, 25 miles away. Angelou wrote, “The trip was uneventful, except that she put her arm around me, which was very unusual for Momma to do. The dentist showed me the medicine and the needle before he deadened my gums, but if he hadn’t I wouldn’t of worried. Momma stood right behind him. Her arms folded and checked on everything he did” (387). When showing empathy you do anything and everything for that person. When they are hurt, like the daughter was, you do what you feel is needed to get help because you empathize that pain.
After my son’s hand surgery I had empathy for his pain especially since I made the pain happen. When I chose to have an expert opinion on my son’s hand and they told me surgery would be the best option, I chose surgery. I chose to have my son go under a knife to not only...