Gender confusion
The gender of pronouns is constantly confused in this house and it always puzzles me because Croatian doesn’t use gender so you’d think they’d recognize gender differences in a language that only uses it in the pronouns. My mother in law refers to Tin as she and her constantly, saying things like in her room, which confuses me, or talking about Tatjana by saying, he doesn’t listen, who? I think to myself.
But this morning at 5:40 am, just as dawn was breaking, I was carrying Tin out to the car and T’s mother was following me. As I put him in the car, she stroked his arm and said, “I love it.” And I knew exactly what and who she was talking about.