The Myth (?) of the Big Bad Jess (Written on Friday August 16)

I have noticed a rising trend since I’ve been here.  It all started when I went to our aunt’s house in Baku.  I wasn’t really paying attention and then I realized that our aunt’s daughter-in-law was threatening her little girl (who is maybe 3 years old) to be good or I would give her a shot because I’m a doctor.  As strange as it may seem to an American audience (I don’t know how Azerbaijani-ized I’ve been by this point), to me this seemed perfectly normal.  In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ve heard this threat before from Azeri mothers, so I pretty much ignored it.  But now, the more that our relatives have been bringing their kids to our house during all this wedding prep, the more I’ve heard threats made about things that I will do to small children who are bad.  For example, today I realized that they have been telling kids “Ces səni öldürəcək! – Jess is going to kill you!” if they touch something (also a common threat, but usually I hear “I’m going to kill you” instead of someone else is).  Or tonight my sister wanted to put something in a safe place until Thursday so she chose to put it in my suitcase so that she could tell the kids that it is mine and they had better not dare touch it.  I guess this would explain why when I try to speak to kids here they look at me like I have five heads.  So apparently I’m the Big Bad Wolf of Azerbaijan, or rather the Big Bad Jess.  But the confusing part for me is that I also have brought tons of presents for the kids and they have been playing with them and they are told to thank me for the presents – doesn’t that go against the whole Jess as the villain narrative??  I guess if it gets them to behave (I have been going crazy with how bratty kids can be!) then I’m down with being the bad guy – does that sort of make me the Big Bad Jess?  And do I really care?