Tensei Shite Inaka de Slowlife wo Okuritai - Ch. 61 - Family Portrait

[Grikath]

he's been both emotionally and physically abused multiple times by multiple family members at this point

If I review even the vague recollections of my childhood and what my two younger brothers and I visited on each other over slights real or imagined.... And then some more for the clutch of nephews/nieces...
And the ungodly bollockings we got by the parents/aunts/uncles for making a mess of things...

Yeah... You could see that as "Abuse". If you use the modern Snowflake definition.

Or you can accept the fact that siblings are utter bastards, kids in general are most definitely not the idealised compliant sweety-pies as "promoted" by the woke busybodies, and that Life isn't Perfect, nor Safe, nor does it comply to your Wishes.

 

[Med1um]

If I review even the vague recollections of my childhood and what my two younger brothers and I visited on each other over slights real or imagined.... And then some more for the clutch of nephews/nieces...
And the ungodly bollockings we got by the parents/aunts/uncles for making a mess of things...

Yeah... You could see that as "Abuse". If you use the modern Snowflake definition.

Or you can accept the fact that siblings are utter bastards, kids in general are most definitely not the idealised compliant sweety-pies as "promoted" by the woke busybodies, and that Life isn't Perfect, nor Safe, nor does it comply to your Wishes.

I myself really dislike nowadays spoiled snowflakes that scream abuse whenever, and think that some learning through pain is a must. And fights between siblings is something that i completely understand.

BUT! Just imagine you yourself, little brat at 4 years old, wanting some sweets, take upon yourself to collect money and ingridients, make your own unique recipe, and bake those, feeling proud of yourself. And then not even your siblings, your MOTHER look at it, take a bite, said "hey, that's pretty tasty", take everything and just left. And you just standing there flabbergasted.

Ok, now you know that you need to take care to not let it be stolen again, you make another "masterpiece", but sadly maid noticed it. You know that what maid knows, mother will also know, so you had no other choice but bribe the maid with half of your masterpiece (otherwise, you will lose everything), maid take the bribe and told mother anyway.

Wow, what a life!

I just don't like how author presented it as something completely natural, and repeating gag. It just screams "injustice", but since author's stance is that, there would not be event to make it "fair", everything is "exactly how it should be".

How anyone could ever say that sweet food that 4yo child made for himself through sweat and labour can be just taken by parent without second thought, without encouragement, without anything. There are reasons why i called it "confiscating". That kind of shit will kill any kind of enthusiasm in any normal kid, you don't need to be a special snowflake for that.

 

[Grikath]

BUT! Just imagine you yourself, little brat at 4 years old,

Ah, but our protag isn't a 4 yr old brat...

He's a , by now 31 year old.., old brat in the body of a 4 yr old, aiming for the Lazy Life.
Who is popping off novel stuff ( for this world..) that he wants if it suits him, and who treats his family members as a necessary nuisance he can sponge off on... And he's passive as hell about that as well.
If someone is abusing anyone it's our protag v/s the rest of the family + retainers.

Which he can get away with currently because they view him as a weird/talented precocious 4 yr old.
If the medieval pattern is truly followed people start to actually expect things from him when he turns 6...
Which would mean he'll have to start actively obstructing things, derailing expectations, and generally materialise the Big Disappointment he aims to become.

Honestly... He needs a bit of slapping around to knock some sense into him.

 

[Med1um]

Ah, but our protag isn't a 4 yr old brat...

He's a , by now 31 year old.., old brat in the body of a 4 yr old, aiming for the Lazy Life.
Who is popping off novel stuff ( for this world..) that he wants if it suits him, and who treats his family members as a necessary nuisance he can sponge off on... And he's passive as hell about that as well.
If someone is abusing anyone it's our protag v/s the rest of the family + retainers.

Which he can get away with currently because they view him as a weird/talented precocious 4 yr old.
If the medieval pattern is truly followed people start to actually expect things from him when he turns 6...
Which would mean he'll have to start actively obstructing things, derailing expectations, and generally materialise the Big Disappointment he aims to become.

Honestly... He needs a bit of slapping around to knock some sense into him.

As i said, what he actually is doesn't really matter, because family members have no idea.

When you read the reincarnation story, and parents without knowing about it still treating their newborn as someone their age... Would you also say that there is nothing unusual here, since character is actually that old?

I'm not talking about how his actual mental state being affected (quite frankly, he deserves quite a bit of whooping ), I'm talking about how parents actions are unacceptable, and have little to no sense plotwise.

Author wanted to present it as heartwarming, but it's not. Main character supposed to be lazy as hell with little to no motivation, but he somehow keep working his butt off to produce something again and again even after he was literally robbed (from his perspective) of his prize again and again. For someone who can gaze at clouds all day long - it's straight up unnatural.

So yeah, when someone asked why people don't like this manga/wn, it's because of this. Kinda lazy writing - supposedly goodhearted parents that readily snatch food from youngest son that he prepaired himself, and "that's it" gag ends. And mc that for some reason doesn't care about it, and won't even mention anything about it, not even "mommy, that's not fair". It's just "stuff happens", and then 5 sec later everyone forget that "stuff happens" ever happened, gag ended - move along. And something similar will happen in the next chapter. And that's sucks.

 

[AnotherDuck]

When you read the reincarnation story, and parents without knowing about it still treating their newborn as someone their age... Would you also say that there is nothing unusual here, since character is actually that old?

First it's 5, then 4-5, then 4, then newborn... Is he getting younger, or is it just that you find your argument to not be enough so you have to exaggerate?

The thing is, you can't really treat him as either his mental age or his reincarnated age. He's obviously, to any character, more mature than his physical age. He's obviously far more capable than anyone has any right to be at that age. It would be outright wrong to treat him as being that age.

At the same time, he's obviously more childish than his total mental age, so you can't go by that either. While the audience knows he should be that mature, he isn't, but it makes the story treat him as somewhat older than he probably should be.

In the end, we have a character of an indefinite age who gets treated as whatever suits the plot at the time.

As far as the "abused or not" argument, at face value he's abused, but accounting for comedic effect and how real, non-ideal families actually work, it's a bit different. I still think it's too much for comfort, but not to the extent of abuse.

 

[deathmailrock]

I don't remember much about "toys", there i was talking specifically about food, since it's one of his limited actual passions. And yes, they "confiscate" on a premise that "it's obvious that he needs to share with his family, and his food is delicious so i want it". But the problem is that they take it for granted, not even thank you, take ALL OF IT, and smiling wondering when he is gonna make more. No financial support either, they could have provided materials and asked to make more, but no - initial batch was done by his own fund, and if it's confiscated - it's gone, he needs to fund next one by himself as well.

And all of it wouldn't be that bad (while it's already really bad), but it was done to a 4-5 years old boy! That boy is almost toddler! Bright inventor with passion, and then results was taken from him without anything in return. Most obvious result would be him thinking that nothing is worth it, and going into depression stasis that just "live without caring about anything anymore". His family also knows that he is already struggling with finding purpose in life (i mean his wish to just laze around all day), and while it might not be that much of an issue, but just taking away food that he invented, funded, and produced, woould only make him feel that those struggles were kinda worthless, he might as well just discard them and keep lazying around. That's not how you raise a child!

P.S. And when i was talking about "offing himself", i was talking not about myself, you, or any other reader here. I was talking about a underappreciated young 4-5 years old boy, who is about to start thinking that "life is useless". Babies are delicate, VERY delicate. The only reason why it all ended relatively peacefully is because he mentally older and stronger, and just shrugged it off as just slight inconvenience. Fair enough, it's probably this exact attitude made his family to believe that it's acceptable to do this (would he behaved like his age and started crying and screaming, family would probably behaved differently as well), but that's not an excuse. Some kids just take all of it silently, bottle up the emotions, and hold grudge for years to come.

He's losing a few treats... you realize he still gets tons of snacks and drinks, right??? Sure, he's forced to share... but what kid hasn't had their treats sometimes taken??? And his family also shares with him as well.

 

[deathmailrock]

he's been both emotionally and physically abused multiple times by multiple family members at this point

Not really; he's slightly bullied... like most younger brothers... but that's not a big deal...

You are kinda over reacting... they have a pretty good family dynamic.

The ONLY time they went too far was when his dad gave him a concussion... and that was supposed to be humor. Outside of that, he's treated pretty well.

They actually encourage him, give him a good life and he actually has the least responsibilities and freedom in the family....

He's the most bullied, but also the most spoilt of the group...

If anyone is the real victim, it's Silvio....

He's always second fiddle to Al when it comes to his big sister, and if his little brother does something, he also gets punished...

 

[spamtrashed]

Thanks for all the hard work you put into scanlating for us! (^_^)

 

[Eals]

I really liked these 2 last chapters

 

[gearsky]

He's losing a few treats... you realize he still gets tons of snacks and drinks, right??? Sure, he's forced to share... but what kid hasn't had their treats sometimes taken??? And his family also shares with him as well.

It's not about losing treats, it's about working hard to earn something, and then working hard to take what was earned and make something tasty out of it, only to have that taken away with no recompense by those that are supposed to look after and take care of him. He shouldn't have to go through a bunch of skullduggery just to enjoy the product of his labor.
Yes, they feed him, and share their own stuff with him, but the issue at hand isn't neglect, it's the punishment of effort. Especially since it's not so much being made to "share" with the rest of his family as it is being forced to give everything to them.

And from the reader's perspective, it's not "losing a few treats" and having his "treats sometimes taken". I'd have to reread to be certain, but I'm pretty sure we've only seen one or two instances where he actually got to enjoy the treats he makes. Every other time we've been shown on-screen him making food, it's inevitably all been taken away by other members of the family leaving him with nothing.
Sure, it's entirely possible that these are the exceptions, and most of the time he's able to enjoy his creations unmolested, but we're not shown that. Because of that, we can only assume that it gets taken from him every time.

 

[deathmailrock]

It's not about losing treats, it's about working hard to earn something, and then working hard to take what was earned and make something tasty out of it, only to have that taken away with no recompense by those that are supposed to look after and take care of him. He shouldn't have to go through a bunch of skullduggery just to enjoy the product of his labor.
Yes, they feed him, and share their own stuff with him, but the issue at hand isn't neglect, it's the punishment of effort. Especially since it's not so much being made to "share" with the rest of his family as it is being forced to give everything to them.

And from the reader's perspective, it's not "losing a few treats" and having his "treats sometimes taken". I'd have to reread to be certain, but I'm pretty sure we've only seen one or two instances where he actually got to enjoy the treats he makes. Every other time we've been shown on-screen him making food, it's inevitably all been taken away by other members of the family leaving him with nothing.
Sure, it's entirely possible that these are the exceptions, and most of the time he's able to enjoy his creations unmolested, but we're not shown that. Because of that, we can only assume that it gets taken from him every time.

Yes, we aren't shown the instances... but that's because we have seem only a few days of his full 8 years. Much of the stuff is to be implied.

And what's taken is stuff that he's keeping secret (like secret stash of sugar when the family has a no hidden sugar policy)

But it's not like he doesn't get to enjoy his labor or anything like that. I feel you are taking 1 or 2 scenes and applying to every moment of his life.

Alfred does enjoy treats and freedom and snacks... the only time he hides it is when they are low and he wants to monopolize...
___________
I want to apologize. I kinda thought you were spoilt or something...

Instead, you seem to be making some weird head canon instead and just misunderstood a few family treat stealing moments as his daily life.

Alfred lives a good responsibility free life with no real work, enjoying good food and relaxation. The only time he's forced to work is when his parents feel he is being unhealthy... and that's literally just worry for his health.

They actually have a very healthy family dynamic...

A little bit of treat stealing isn't a big deal. In fact, he tried to do the same to his family.

It was the resource of the family and he tried to steal it for himself... gets caught and is forced to share....

 

[FireWyvern98]

Ah, old mangadex comments where people bickering to each other even though it's a great or wholesome chapter ☕

Just enjoy it god dangit

 

[MeganeYeyi]

This chapter really cheered me up! Thanks for the translation!

 

[Victim_16]

This was a good chapter. Will we ever see that princess again? The one who saw Al flying.

 

[senzlord]

I'm crying

 

[TNT261]

This was a great chapter and makes me profoundly jealous of their family dynamic.

 

[Helitrix]

soooo i came to see any comments on his unintentional telepathy and came to a debate x.x i mean one person mentioned he has it written on his face, but the mother not only heard it about wrinkles all 4 of them did, and all the mother said was i heard that. plus that "voice" in his sisters head is probably him actually using it and broadcasting that thought.

 

[Jayswing103]

I'm with Al here, I love just sitting outside, closing my eyes, and listening to nature. It's just so relaxing.

 

[orangerain7734]

It's kind of creepy that Al is the only thing Eleanora can draw decently well, or maybe more than that.

 

[Ezlsnow]

Is the mother psychic? How did she hear the thought balloon?

It's implied that he actually said those out loud, since the other family members heard it too. Also happened several times before, IIRC like when Al was at the Royal Capital.

It's kind of creepy that Al is the only thing Eleanora can draw decently well, or maybe more than that.

I think it's wholesome. It probably means she's been looking out for her brother to know his face very well.