小鬼当家有什么好处?

    我有一位祖母级的朋友，上周我们聊天时她说道自己从前就是一个挂钥匙儿童，这样其实好处颇多。她指责我们这些育儿专家在这个问题上的态度过于消极。
    母亲们应该尽量让孩子学会这些小鬼当家的好处。花一个小时在厨房帮忙准备晚餐，将大大胜于在电视前坐一个小时。
    A grandmother friend I chatted with last week told me that she had been a latch-key child and there were lots of benefits. She accused all of us parenting-advice-givers of being too negative about the subject.
    Intrigued¹, I asked her what the benefits were. She explained that her single mother took a full-time² job when she was 9. This meant my friend was alone in the house until about 7 every night. Her mother wrote out a set of rules, gave her a key, and told her which neighbor to call if there was a problem. These were the days before pagers and cell phones so when she closed and locked the door behind her she was truly alone.
    Benefits:
    1. She felt her mother trusted her and expected her to be responsible.
    "This was a heady feeling. It made me feel good about myself."2. She learned³ how to cook.
    On weekends she and her mother prepared simple dishes together until her mother felt her daughter could safely cook supper for both of them. "I felt grown-up because none of my friends could get supper on the table and I could do it! Cooking is still my passion."3. "I was treated like and felt like my mom's partner, not like a kid.
    Kids today have a lot more than I ever did but they don't have any idea what it means to earn money and be careful with money, they just know how to spend it. I turned out the light when I left a room because I knew how hard my mom worked and how expensive electricity was." My friend had the benefit of reality, not the fantasy world of TV or a video game.
    4. She learned how to be content with just herself.
    "When supper was cooking and my homework was done I wrote little poems, I wrote my thoughts in my diary, I listened to music, I read. TV was around but we didn't have a set."5. She figured out how to deal with new or challenging things by herself.
    "I didn't have a parent around to tell me what to do if the toilet didn't flush⁴ but I remembered my mom using a plunger （橡胶吸盘，俗称“拔子”）and I figured out how to do it."6. She learned how to deal with strong feelings like fear or loneliness.
    "I was afraid sometimes in the beginning but I taught myself to figure out what was going on when I heard a noise."7. "I became very close to my mother, I admired her and her important job, and I made something of myself."This is the benefit of having a strong role model.
    All these points are worth thinking about. Mothers who don't go to work should try to give their children some of these benefits. An hour in the kitchen helping⁵ prepare supper is much better than an hour in front of the TV set.

1 intrigued   

adj.好奇的，被迷住了的v.搞阴谋诡计(intrigue的过去式)；激起…的兴趣或好奇心；“intrigue”的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• You've really intrigued me—tell me more! 你说的真有意思—再给我讲一些吧！
• He was intrigued by her story. 他被她的故事迷住了。

2 full-time   

adj.满工作日的或工作周的，全时间的

参考例句：

• A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
• I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作，我不知道她是如何对付的。

3 learned   

adj.有学问的，博学的；learn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He went into a rage when he learned about it.他听到这事后勃然大怒。
• In this little village,he passed for a learned man.在这个小村子里，他被视为有学问的人。

4 flush   

vi.奔流；vt.冲洗；adj.齐平的；n.脸色，脸红

参考例句：

• Father asked me to flush off the garage floor.父亲叫我冲洗车库的地板。
• There was a flush in her cheeks.她满脸通红。

5 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。