"I love my family"
This is a picture of a wallet which Elias prepared for himself before he started Primary one. He was excited about being a Primary one student, and looked forward to going to school.
When he was in Primary four, I noticed that he had struck off the words – ‘I love school’. I asked him about it, and he replied, “School is not so fun afterall.”
We both felt a sense of loss in the air.
Then I suggested that he could write – “I love my family”, since that will not change. Immediately he cheered up and did that.
Yet recently, I had nearly caused him to lose his love for the family too.
I realised that the children are now two years older, and they looked so babyish just two years ago. And it suddenly occurred to me that this is the last year Elkan will be a child. Next year, he will be thirteen, and he will be a teenager.
Oh.
So I decided, that I will stop driving everyone, including myself, crazy. That I will start listening to the happy chatter-prattle of the children again, and encourage their love for living and curiosities about life. I don’t want to lose a year of my child to an examination, no matter how important it is. The children were happier yesterday, and so was I.
As I had written earlier, being a parent requires a huge amount of balancing, and constant re-balancing. For now, I believe that I have “saved” Elias’ love for the family.
Hopefully, none of our children, or ourselves will ever strike off the words, “I love my family” from our lives.
