"What are you making?"

I was waiting for a meeting to start yesterday when a restless small boy stopped and looked at me. 
    "It's a wigwam for a goose's bridle," I told him.
He looked at me and then said,
    "You're being silly!"
    "Yes, I am. Do you want to have a look?"
He hesitated and then nodded. I showed him what I was knitting. 
    "It is only part of something else, "  I told him, "I'm making it so that other people can find out how to do it."
    "Can I do it?"
    "You can try a stitch if you want to."
We went through that complicated procedure with no more than four stitches lost. 
    "R...! Stop bothering the lady and come  here! I told you to stand still and wait for me."
His mother  had finally ceased staring out the window and  having a conversation on her phone. 
He gave me a long suffering look and said,
     "It is better fun helping you. I hate it when she talks all the time."
I can only sympathise.
Mobile phones are marvellous for emergencies. They are a curse for small children who would prefer their parents paid attention. I didn't mind showing him what I was doing. It showed a healthy curiosity in a relatively safe environment. In all possibility he had never seen anyone knitting before. 
I also wonder when his mother last paid him any real attention because, having finished one phone call, she began another. He was expected to simply stand there and wait. 
     "Sorry to keep you waiting Cat,"someone said, "And it's my fault. I didn't put my keys away and the dog took them off. He likes playing with them."
I couldn't help glancing over at little R.... now jigging up and down with impatience.
We went up in the lift to the meeting and I told my colleague what had happened.
     "I don't think I'm exaggerating but every time I have seen her she is on the phone," he said, "That poor kid spends half his life waiting for her to get off the phone - and if she isn't talking to someone else she doesn't listen to him any way."
I didn't say any more because we were at the meeting room and other people were coming in. I did think of my knitting and the need to sort out the mess made by R.... 
It was worth the mess though. An adult had paid him attention for a couple of minutes.
The conversations his mother was having were not urgent or important. I could hear what she was saying. She was arranging to have "time out" away from her children. She was  arranging for her parents to do the  necessary babysitting.
I am wondering how long it will take for R... to lose his natural curiosity and gain a greater resentment of the lack of interest his parent shows.  
The meeting concerned two children who are struggling to communicate for physical reasons. Thankfully their parents are doing their best to help and progress is being made. 
    "N.... is making real progress," someone else told his mother.
    "I hope so. I talk to him a lot."
Her phone rang towards the end of the meeting. She glanced at it and said, "They can wait."
Good.