Children and Worldviews: Peter's story
The Children and Worldviews Project explores qualitative, narrative methods to investigate the worldviews of children, that is, the way in which they make sense of their experiences and matters which are of particular importance to them.
I really care about my Mum because she gave me birth and gave me everything and she never ignores me.
I really care about my family because they are my blood.
I really care about my pets and one of them is a dog and his name is Tommy.
I really care about my world because people smoke and pollute.
I really get worried when people knock on my door and run away.
I really care for trees because they give us fresh air and keep the air clean.
I really care about people when they hurt themselves. I was really worried when my Grandad was hurt and in the hospital.
My family
I love my Mum because she gave me birth and she gave me all the food and sometimes I really feel sorry when she has to do all that work and I be having dinner happily and having fun with my brothers and sisters. I really feel sorry so I just sit down and go to sleep.
I feel sorry that we do the naughty things and she has to like clear up and then my Dad doesn't like shout at me he just says 'don't do it again' and everytime we do it he just says don't do it again but he doesn't never hit us neither does my Mum.
I don't do bad things, it's like people do bad things to me so I feel like doing bad things back to them and then my Mum comes sometimes when people do bad things to me.
Sometimes I really want to get out of this school, break everything, but I can't cos then somebody just makes me, stops me. My mum and dad calm me down, so does my sister. I go home, I have a bit of drink and I talk to my Mum.
My sister know how to make lots of things, she knows how to make Indian Chicken, she knows how to make bhindi, she knows how to make all sorts of things but she doesn't have to, my Mum does all the work so I tell my Mum not to do work and tell my sister to do the work. Its cos I feel so sorry, every time I see her she always just keep working and then she never has a chance to have a little rest, not a little second. There's nothing else I can do, if I were a girl then I could do that work for her, but I can't because I don't know how to make lots of things like girls, they're quite clever like that. I know how to make tea, I know how to make chapatis and samosas. I do it sometimes when there's a party coming up, like my big brother's birthday.
My grandad's about 203, he's dead now, he hasn't got any age now. He's in heaven. Last year my Grandad died, when I was eight, you see water came on his heart and he wasn't allowed to have any water, but he got so thirsty so we gave him some water the doctors we weren't allowed to give him water but he was so thirsty we gave it and then my Grandad said to the doctor can he have some water and the doctor gave him a jug full, a jug full of water and the next minute he was like closed his eyes, but he never died, but they said emergency ward, they went to the emergency ward and they quickly done the operation and when they came back, there was a dead body, my Grandad. I started crying, I really wanted to kill the doctors like they done it to my Grandad.
My Dad's sister, my aunty, like she doesn't care about me, she does know I'm her nephew but she's sort of like disabled, but she's not. And then whenever somebody like does something she sort of like just - you see my Dad's brothers they are little, about thirteen, fourteen years old, they kept tickling her and then she got angry, there was a bowl of boiling water she picked it up, she chucked it and my nephew came in the way. My nephew got burnt by the leg, but I said 'calm down, calm down'. He started going 'aaarrgghh!'
My uncle was married, he had about four children and they're married now and their Mum died and before she died she said 'when I die get married again' and he said he doesn't want to get married again he just loves her. She give him a 'sharat', that means like whatever she says that's gonna be true. He cried and then when he found a lady he married her, they got a stepmother now.
My religion
We are Sikh. I used to have a top knot because one of the five rules for the Sikhs are don't cut your hair and wear a Kara. My religion is very important to me because God is always in front of us, we might not see him, but he's always in our hearts. All the gods done it to the whole world, he said there is only one God, Guru Nanak did and all the Gods. That means he came to Jerusalem, his name was Jesus and he came to Pakistan to be a Allah and came to our world to be Guru Nanak and Guru Gobhind, but in China, I don't know what they call it.
Bethany's Story
Bethany was responding to Peter's Story.
I'm called Bethany and I'm 6 years old. What do you like? I think God has a dress on and black sandals. I think he looks after everyone. Are you a good boy? How old are you? I'm a good girl - I play with my friends. Where are you from?