Afterthoughts

image from holobank.com

Afterthoughts

lazy panda, a blogger friend, wrote something in the comments in my blog that struck a chord with me. She wrote : " but tat's wat my mum yelled to my brothers tho: "come back eat rice lah!!" I will always remember those words, that's what my mother ( or my auntie) used to yell at me and my cousins every meal time. "COME BACK EAT RICE!!" And we would be back, sweaty and dirty from play. It would be a rare sight to see us sitting down looking at our school books.

Even when I have grown older and in national service, my mother used to ask me, "have you eaten rice?" when I came home from camp. I used to tell her the army feeds me well, but most times there was more beer than rice inside.

So we were poor then, but never hungry, my parents made sure of that. Sometimes, I waited in an alley for the fishermen to come back with their catch. I stretched out 30 cents and I can have a few groupers, sea bass, golden travelly or parrot fish, still threashing in the baskets. How much would that cost today?

Panda is lucky to have a dad that is so understanding. Do not stress out the kid! I agree with her dad too. I have seen enough of parents who overload their children with too much activities: tuition classes every day, in addition to music lessons in at least 2 instruments, swimming classes, bowling classes. Lessons and classes after school. Now, will these children have fond memories of their childhood?