It would be hard to find a funnier story this year than this. Professor Robert Kelly, an expert on Korea, was being interviewed on a serious news story, in a serious looking office with maps and books when his young daughter opened the door and danced her way into the room. The whole scene could not have been made funnier had it been a script from a comedy. Robert tries to pretend to ignore the whole situation but the reporter comments that it looks like his child has entered the room. Robert tries to block her and keeps the show going talking like nothing has happened when a baby in the walker wonders into the room. Seconds later mum arrives and tries to ‘descretely’ pull the kids out of the room. But there is no way to do it descretely at this point most viewers would be in hysterics, a far more exciting scene than anything that is happening between North and South Korea.
Robert apologizes as she scrambles them out of the room. He is clearly embarrassed, and then attempts to continue with the very serious interview.
I loved this because I understood it. Working from home is awesome. You choose your hours, you can work around your family needs and you save on travel time but kids interrupting you whilst you work is a huge draw back. Both my husband and I work from home so I could totally relate to this hilarious scene and I feel others must have been able to relate too as the story went viral.
Of course there are always the crazies with a cause who can’t just laugh at the unscripted mayhem and have to find a cause to jump on, we had people complaining that the child was being abused because he nudged her out of the way of the interview and calls of casual racism when many thought the woman who raced into the room was the nanny, not the mum.
Firstly, the ‘child abuse’. He merely tried to block her from the camera and continue doing his job. The girl wasn’t even upset. She also didn’t seem very scared to dance into her dad’s office so it doesn’t seem like a scene of abuse at all. I wish the crazies would focus on actual abused kids. There are so many kids who need help out there, pick someone who needs help, this girl and her brother, are clearly fine.
Then the racism. There was no racism. People make assumptions when they don’t have all the facts and the things that influence people to believe she is the nanny is A) she seems to be the person who should have been looking after the kids and keeping them out of the office because she is clearly in a panicked state. Nannies look after kids and nannies would be in a panic that they would lose their job if the kids hurt their dad’s reputation at work. Too be fair, mums also look after kids and panic if their husbands are going to get into trouble at work because of the behavior of the children. So it is a reasonable assumption either way.
B) She is dressed in the kinds of clothes you were about the house. Like a nanny or a mum. If she looked like she was heading off to a professional job then people may have thought differently.
C) In a lot of Asian countries hiring a nanny is very common.
D) Mixed marriages are less common than marriages of the same race.
E) To me, she looks so young in the clip, like a nanny. Maybe in the way she wears her hair, or her fast pace as she looks older in other pics. Although men can marry woman a lot younger so again neither mum or nanny is ruled out as an option.
F) At a quick glance the kids don’t look Korean, the subsequent photos yes, but we only saw a few seconds of her, so naturally when someone young of a different race in casual clothes walks in nanny is a reasonable assumption.
Why do people need to put their issues in the way of the video clip? https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/13/nanny-bbc-interview-robert-kelly-small-children Even the family themselves took no offense to being called the nanny by some. Lots of mums get confused with being a nanny or relative. I know at the supermarket random strangers have started speaking to me and were surprised I was the mum, “You are to young to have so many children.” When I was in my 30s people were still asking me for ID to buy alcohol. There is no need to take offense.
People even managed to find a way to take offense when comedy duo Jono and Ben asked if the interview would go down differently had it been a woman who was being interviewed and created a funny skit, but people claimed that was sexist.
When will society just grow up and have a laugh when something unpredictable and unexpected happens instead of creating into something it isn’t.
This family is awesome. I think they handled the whole situation so well. It makes me smile every time I see the clip. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to watch it without giggling. Honest, unscripted view of what it’s like working at home around kids and the Jono and Ben skit was funny as well. Learn to laugh and enjoy life. Why are we always looking for something to complain about? Be happy.
Revisionist Media 