My Average Child

I was pretty upset with Elgin as he did poorly in his last term exam. He merely achieved position 23 in his class. I didn't expect him to score flying colours but I didn't expect him to be lagging behind either.

As a mother, I am always torn between the thought of giving my child a stress free childhood or imposing pressure for him to be successful later in his life. Like every parents, I expect my child to excel in his study hence he wouldn't have to be the "dung collector or beggar". This has been my parents most favourite fear approach to their children in those days. Nevertheless this "profession" is no longer applicable today.

I was brought up carefree without having to attend tuition classes (that really saved my dad a lot of money). I have never given my parents any undue worries over my study as basically I was an "above average child". Basically I have no problem with my study and had always made my dad proud in many occasions of award presentation in schools. These are the testimonials of me being a brighter child, as compared to Elgin, I supposed. But I reckon the greatest contributing factor was none of others but my family background. Look, my poor dad can't even afford TV during those years. My sole entertainment was a transistor radio which most of the time I cuddled it to sleep. I spent most of time reading story books and listen to the radio (that reminds me of the song"yesterday once more"). My childhood years were basically free from any forms of temptations. No computers, no TVs, no PS2 no Internet games.

However, the current era is different. As we entered into this new millennium when computer becomes more like an essential than luxury, the impact has been devastating. This is a dharma degenerating age as the impact of new ages gadgets have profoundly affected our lives and family. Our children are more addicted in communicating with their virtual friends and building their imaginative virtual world than talking to their own parents. While we believe that technologies have made people closer, it has also eroded family cohesion, social values, and children’s moral and intellectual development.

Considering the impact, I uplifted some level of freedom and have imposed a restriction for Elgin to use the PCs and play Internet games only on weekends only. Obviously the decision has created some tension between us and we have many "mom-and-babe" arguments over the freedom of usage for he claims that this is his right and entitlement. I know what I did was right as I must pull him back to the right track. I can't afford to let my son be the victim of the technologies and deteriorate in the forces of dark ages.

There are 50 kids in the class and mathematically 24 of them have to be below average. My son is 23rd, perhaps I have to thank God for my child to be marginally above average. While I learn to accept the fact that Elgin was a child with average intelligent, I can't let him be the victim of the dark forces in this dharma degenerating era.