Last Monday I brought two of my nephews to KLCC. They are 13 and 12 years old. If you observe them in my home, it'd never occur to you that these 13- and 12-year-old would like to be children. Mostly because all day they were "training" to be a soccer player and entitled themselves to be adults.
"Saya dah besar sekarang, dah orang dewasa. Eh, tak, tak, saya dewasa muda..." Pegged the 12-year-old one day. Translated as, "I'm big now, an adult now. Oh, no, no, I'm a young adult..." But who knows, deep inside, they felt differently.
At KLCC, I brought them to the park beside the lake, where we could see people running, hanging out, dating, and all sorts of thing people did in a park. Then, we reached to a place where there was a big children's playground, with a small pool for children to play in. Obviously they couldn't play in the pool, since they didn't bring any extra clothes, but I could see from their eyes that they were dying to play in the playground. Upon seeing the 12-year-old holding his pride and ego, I asked him with a translation,
"Don't you want to play?"
"No, I'm too big for this..." He said, trying not to look so excited.
Granted, although he was supposed to be older, but the 13-year-old couldn't resist the temptation much longer, and after some convincing, he finally gave in and started to stand closer to the playground. Closer and closer until he climbed up and explored the place. The 12-year-old looked a little jealous, and I told him that I'd buy him anything he wanted after that if he would just go in and play. After some convincing too, he finally played together with his brother.
The two looked a bit hesitant when there were people around, but time after time, they just didn't care. The playground was too fun for them to be caring about what people thought. And no, no one looked at them in a judgmental way, so they finally believed that they could enjoy.
As I watched them over, I couldn't help but think we adults (I mean older adults) always stress the idea of growing up, the idea of preparing for adulthood, until we forget that they are children and they should enjoy their childhood while it lasts. My nephews, no matter how they wanted to declared their adulthood, they were still "children," technically so. Have we ever stopped and thought that maybe, the idea of adulthood seems so good to them because we plant that kind of idea into their head in the first place? We do not tolerate mistakes from them, we asked them to do things adults do, and we make it an obligations things they are not obliged to do until several years later. They are socialized to appreciate and reach adulthood until they forget to enjoy their childhood.
It's not wrong to prepare them for adulthood, but perhaps we could balance out a bit the time where they can be children too. They need to know that being children is not wrong, except it's fun!
3 comments:
Sebab tu bila dah dah usia senja, sikap keanak-anakan kadang2 masih tebal dalam diri kita bila waktu kanak2 dulu tidak dinikmati atau tidak punya masa untuk dinikmati...Mungkin waktu kanak2 kita terlalu didewasakan oleh ibu bapa...Lagi2 kalau keluarga yang tidak berkemampuan dari segi ekonomi...
Dah lama tak jenguk sini...Sihat ke kawanku ni?:)
Rasulullah SAW ada cakap kan. jadilah keanakan bila dengan anak-anak.. he~ lebih kurang gitu maksudnya.
ilmu ibu bapa ni. kena sentiasa belajar. kalau tak. kita tersilap ajar anak-anak. hmm.. kesian tengok budak2 sekarang ni. terlalu banyak kerja sekolah. then.. asek dengan Tablet je.
Cik tiniey: saya sihat aje. hehe, harap cik tiniey sihat sepanjang masa. hehe. Thanks sebab lawat.
Cik ain: Betol tu, mak bapak kenala sentiasa belajar dengan pada yang sama mentarbiyah. Kdg2 kene faham anak2.
Post a Comment