My younger daughter celebrated her 8th birthday last Saturday. A week before that, she came to me and said, “Mummy, you don’t need to get me any birthday presents this year. I just don’t want to go for my tuition class, and don’t want to do any schoolwork on that day. All I want to do is to chill out, uninterrupted in my room.” I was amused by her request but was at the same time quite concerned.
She flatly refused my offer to bring her for a short beach holiday (she loves the beach) as a present. When I suggested a poolside birthday party, she politely rejected it as well. Even the latest figurine of Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens did not help. Has school taken over my girl’s life? Is the workload too heavy for her? Did we make the wrong decision to send her to a day school, instead of the more common half-day government school? Doubts started cropping up and all kind of thoughts flashed through my mind. Aghhhh… it is so stressful being a parent. You will never know whether you had made the right decision until it is too late! When our girls were young, we sent them to a montessori based pre-school with mainly expatriate children. It was the only decent pre-school, that met my requirements, in the neighbourhood. Both my girls loved the environment there, where “proper” English was taught and used, and montessori based acitivites were implemented. When it was time for them to start school proper, we had a nightmare choosing their school. As working-class Malaysians earning average monthly income, we could not afford to send our girls to international or private schools. We might still be able to stretch our RM for one….. but two was way beyond our reach. We were reluctant to send them to government schools, as we prefered to have them taught in an environment with more focus on the English language. Thus, we settled for a day school, whereby the official curriculum is taught till lunch time (governement funded) and after that additional work on the main subjects are taught in English. Initially I was not sure whether my girls could handle the additional workload, but they seemed to be doing very well in school with fantastic academic results. Maybe it’s just me, I would be very miserable if I need to spend so much time in school. I need lots of “personal time” with my many endless hobbies which are non-school related. Whenever I put my daughters’ schedule in writing, it scares the shit out of me. School is from 7.15am until 5.45pm daily, except on Thursdays at 4.15pm. All daily school assignments which consists of workpapers and preparations of spelling, dictation and quizzes must to be completed before their bedtime at 9.00pm. On Saturdays I make them go for a 4km jog/run up the hill near our place from 6.30 to 8.00 in the morning. Directly after that, they have tuition classes from 9.00am until 2.00pm. Then it’s time for Wii/Playstation/DVD/TV, with their friends till dinner time, either at our place or their friend’s place. Sundays are our self-imposed family time, which we start off at 6.30am for a 4km jog/run up the hill, cos their mummy needs her daily run. *grin*. I am reminded once again how much my family members love me. They give-in to ALOT of my crazy demands.
Back to my daughter’s birthday. I gave her the day-off as requested. She was sooo happy, playing in her room with her barbie dolls and reading her High School Musical magazine with its soundtrack in the background. She looked so blissfully happy, and it only costs us a birthday cake + 2 large pizzas + plus lots of family time!
Her favourite cake, Death by Chocolate, from Just Heavenly KL. Allan & Nigel, my daughter wants me to thank you for another just heavenly experience.
