Observation # 3- Wendy’s

I sat in Wendy’s and observed many different forms of NVC.  I was more aware of the torso and arm movements this week due to what we studied. 

A father and young son entered the restaurant.  The son asked the father for a kids meal with chicken nuggets.  The father reached out to his son, placed his hand on his shoulder and asked if he would like to stay and eat or go somewhere else.  My observation with the touch that the father was validating what his son had said and wanted him to help make the next decision.  It was a positive interaction.

A mother and four children came in.  The kids were running around, playing on the ropes, and disturbing people in line. The mother’s facial expressions were of embarrassment and frustration.  She tried to reach out and grab one of the older children and the child bolted like she was fearful of the mother.  The mother again reached out to another child and the child had the same response.  After reading what we have about possible child abuse in this section, that’s immediately where my mind went.  My observation of the NVC here was that of fear from the children.  This went completely against what I thought the mother’s facial expressions had said.  I was saddened and felt uncomfortable after seeing this. 

The third and last observation I did was with a family that was sitting in the dining area.  There was extended family there as well.  The adults were sitting leaning in on the tables, their arms on the table with their hands together and facing each other as they were conversing and laughing.  The children were touching each other’s arms and waiting patiently for their turn with the toy that they had.  This was a total shock but quite refreshing to see.  It appeared to me they were modeling the behavior that was learned from watching the adults interact with each other.  My observation with this family was that of love and concern for each other.  When the time came for them to leave, one parent held up his hand with open fingers resembling showing 5 more minutes.  When the adults got up after a few more minutes had passed by, the children immediately got up, started cleaning up and headed towards the door.  Not many words were spoken to give the children the command to clean up and leave, it was all done with the high five of the hand in the air.  This was amazing to watch and observe.  I learned that these children learned from many different NVC’s and appeared to be secure. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7NHwiHeNyI