Different Childood

Having kids do makes you feel older. Yela, they grow up so fast and each year they age you couldn't help but feel a lil bit older. Also make you reflect on your own childhood. How different from them and yet we are still the same. Same in natural behavior such as excited about stuff, eager to know, happy go lucky, clumsy, carefree and simplistic. Different in environment, life experience, learning and can i add technology?

On this post I want to share my childhood. I love my childhood. I want to share how different it was from my kids today. Let's do the bullet point thing again ya! :)

• My bapak loves to read. He is the closest bookworm i know. He always nak galakkan kitorang membaca. Coincidentally when i was small he owned a bookshop. So memang banyak koleksi buku kat rumah. I couldn't remember when did i started to know how to read but i do remember having lots of books in my house and i read them or ask my parents to read them for me. So galakkan bapak i menjadi pasal i lekat jadi bookworm jugak (but not my elder sister though). During school holidays he would dump us in the public library sampai petang. I had fun, coz especially during school holiday there were lots of activities & games for us to do besides reading. At least better than hanging out in the malls like kids today right? Free of charge lagi, and also boleh pinjam 3 buku yang kita suka. My bapak never kedekut to buy us books. Like most kids (during my time), i started with Enid Blyton collection. The joy of reading is priceless! How i wish i have as much time to read now and start my own book collection or maybe own a huge bookshelf full of books! 

• Since i was little, i love to travel. But my parents did not have money to spend on vacation. The furthest we went pun KL tu pun macam 3 tahun sekali ja kot. Paling kerap pergi is Penang (i lived in kedah), tu pun pasal my bapak every year join Penang Bridge Marathon (he loves to run). My bapak was aware that i like to travel because i am the only child adventurous like that. He will allow me to go any rombongan sekolah. Atleast rombongan sekolah bayar untuk i seorang je, jimat dari whole family trip kan? So memang pantang ada rombongan gi memana pun i memang eager nak join. Sampai Singapore pun penah. Ada lagi ke rombongan sekolah macam tu sekarang ni ye? One more thing to save money, bapak i akan bagi i tumpang sesiapa yang nak travel. So i ni selalu la dengan muka tak malu tumpang sekaki join my relative pegi holiday. Begitula adanya cara my bapak nak layan kerenah anak dara dia yang suka travel dan tak reti homesick ni. If now nak buat macam tu kat anak i, ikut rombangan berhari-hari ke sana sini time kecik (i started i ikut rombongan since 8yrs old), i rasa i tak allow kot, risau sangat! 

• Sekrang kalau nak let go anak main mesti within eye distant je kan? Budak dulu round satu kampung nak Maghrib baru balik pun rilek je. Eventhough i tak tinggal kat kampung, i still round sana sini without fear. Dulu kalau tanya apa tu pedophile pun i tak tahu. Kalau jalan jauh-jauh pun benda yang paling takut adalah orang gila dan lembu sahaja. Istilah perogol, penculik dan perompak macam tak wujud dalam kamus. Pegi mengaji qur'an tiap-tiap hari jalan 3km pun rilek je walaupun baru tadika. Mak pun tenang kat rumah. Kalaula sekarang, our kids walk alone 500m from home pun rasa gundah gulana dah. Sigh, the freedom we had back than.

Hmm..i tak larat dah nak story banyak-banyak. Got something else to do. My point sharing this are, how i wish my kids life are more than just tv, games and entertainment. Like my first point, i hope my kids develop a reading habit and i wish i have a public library nearby to just dump them and they still enjoy themselves. My second point is travel. Do kids appreciate travelling nowadays? Nowadays it is easy & cheap to travel anywhere and easily take for granted. Do we even have rombongan sekolah now (apart from kidszania and zoo)? And finally the thirtd point. The freedom to let our kids have fun and create a little adventure for themselves. Memang tak la kan. Without parents worry sick and without third party waiting for the chance to attack our kids. Tu belum kira kena langgar kereta ke apa lagi due to lack of ample place to play & run about. 

So did you all get my points? Did you all have the same feeling? I have to accept the reality that my kids will have a different experience growing up. They will find joy in different thing. No matter what, i hope whatever their experience is, they will grow up fine and be a better human than me. Let's pray for that for every children ya! Aminnn....