Observation #2

For my observation, I was at school.  As everyone was walking to their class summer class in the morning, I noticed there was a mother and her daughter playing on the grass area by the library.  The girl must have been around two years old, so she was walking and wandering towards the painted rock. The little girls expression was that of happiness, one of the universal emotions.  Just as the girl was about to try to climb the rock the mother yelled “No!”  The girl froze as if she did not know what to do and was most likely contemplating whether to disobey her mother.  I could tell this was the case because the girl kept looking at the rock and back at her mother and then she would move close each time.  Eventually the mother grabbed her child and set her down on the grass a few feet away from the rock.

The girl’s expression had now changed to sadness.  The mother was clearly frustrated and stressed about her daughter.  I noticed this after repeated commands and eventually by the mother’s pacifying behavior.  She reached up and started rubbing her head as if she had a headache and then she started playing with her own hair.  After witnessing this for a while, the mother stopped watching the daughter and let her do what she wanted.  The daughter seemed to be just fine without her mother's commands and once again she seemed happy.  The mother finally got up and told the girl they were going home because she was not listening.  This statement made the girl sad again.