Posted by: tituteo | May 27, 2005

New Generation Baby

When she was born, she was fed milk at room temperature. Gone were the days when we grew up on warm milk. Reason being the hospitals uses room temperature milk too! So it must be good! Hello? If you are a baby and can eat nothing but milk, will you prefer it warm or cold and tasteless?

While past babies soak in wet cloth diapers, she had pampers on 24 hours a day. Gone was the occasional dampness, the warm cloth around the butt. Hello to heat retaining, ventilation lacking pampers.

Old granny’s methods of rash creams and baby powder were taboo as “she’s too young and THE HOSPITALS DON’T USE IT!”

Her first month birthday was a huge celebration. Lots of relatives and friends, lots of presents, lots of praises, lots of showing off. She slept through it all. Oblivious.

Her first year birthday was another elaborate event. Lots of partying, lots of presents, lots of chit chats, lots of showing off. She slept through half of it. Bored.

Her second birthday is coming soon. There’ll be a buffet party. With lots of adults. Few kids. No balloons, no ice creams, no chocolates. I wonder how she’ll feel.

Soon, she’ll be sent to pre-school. At the raw age of 2 and a half. Sigh. Where is her childhood? Where is the fun?

I remember a time where we lived in a neighborhood filled with kids like us. I had an older sister but that is not enough. We loved the company of more friends. We played catching, hide and seek, A-E-I-O-U, Zero-point, Five stones. We ran around the void decks, cycling. We climbed into drains, fishing for guppies, and algae(!). Ohhh… we had fun! Great FUN!

We went to school at age five. And before that we PLAYED!! We spoke in dialect, and little Mandarin. English was learnt in school. Ah! That did not make me any worse than my other schoolmates. Oh right! I was real stupid in kindergarten. Ha! Can you believe I cannot read the word a-p-p-l-e without looking at the picture?! At that time, my granny had to stand outside the classroom window and take down my homework so I’ll know what to do when I reached home! Sometimes I marvel at how I graduated! But oh! I had FUN I remember looking forward to morning workout, then milo and cookies after that. Music lessons was fun when the teacher played an instrument and we sang. Best of all, I loved the weekly session of games, where we were brought a another classroom filled with TOYS Oh yeah! How much FUN I had!

Ok, I’m not exactly condoning play. I just feel that we should all enjoy our childhood, for we grow up way too fast! Before we know it, we are burdened with studies, work, relationships and whatever-nots of adulthood! It saddens me whenever I see little children behaving like little adults, with no sparkles of laughter and joy in the eyes. Oh, how I love kids with that naughty, mischievous look!


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Categories