So I Thought

Most children these days have it good. Most kids these days know what McDonald's is, they have PSPs, probably know how to navigate the net let alone operate a computer.

When I was growing up, I thought God had thrown me to a wrong family. It was difficult for me to get anything. I believed that my father could not afford to get me fancy toys. When the craze was 'Game n Watch', I remember looking thru glass cases and wishing that my mother would read my mind and help me persuade my father to get me one. I remember it was Rm150 then. After a while, the price dropped to RM75 and my father still frowned whenever I stood still in front of the glass cases in one of the shops in old Semenyih town. He'd ignore my puppy look and pretend not to understand my intention.

You see, my father was the sole breadwinner. He was a lower middle-class government servant who quit teaching to join the Education Ministry. Our first house after my father was accepted into the ministry was a rented single-storey terrace. It was small, but big enough for a 7 year old to run around. Life was simple. I don't remember eating out. It was always homecooked meal. I remember envying my cousins who lived the next block, whose mom worked, often times eating out at warongs in Kajang town. My mom would always tell me that my aunty, her sister, could afford to eat out often because she worked. I always had the impression that we were not well-off at all.

I wondered why God gave me not-too-well-off parents.

I envied my cousins who would come over and show me their toys. Theirs seem cooler and captivating. They had those robots that can transform into cars and trucks... boys' toys, what can I say? For a girl who played dolls and bears all day, those Transformers definitely were eye-openers.

And I wondered why they were lucky to have working parents.

Little that I know then, that I was actually the blessed one. For one, my mother was very creative in the kitchen. Every afternoon, she would make traditional kuehs for tea. When my father arrived home from work, and as I recall it now, it was always at 5:30 pm (despite having to travel 32 kms), the three of us would sit and have tea. That would be the time when my mother would tend to her small garden, and my father would sit reading the newspaper, while I'd savor the tasty kueh that my mother had cooked up. Day in, day out. The only thing that would differ would be the kuehs.

During school holidays, my mother and I would make trips to the nearest China town on our bicycles. Or we'd cycle to my grandparents' and stay there until it's almost time for my father to arrive home.

Now that I have a family of my own, I realized that I was growing up in an almost perfect environment. Protected, sheltered, not pampered. And I forgot to mention I was the only child then. Looking at my kids, they haven't come close to the quality of life I was having then. As a working mom, I seldom cook. Homecooked meal would come once or twice on weeknights and once on weekends. I hardly make kuehs for afternoon tea. After all, one can't have tea when the mother arrives home past 6 and almost dinner time (need I mention that the travelling from home to work only takes 5 minutes?). And I hardly have time to cycle with my kids. Who does when there's laundry and other house chores to juggle?

I grew up amazed at my daun setawar farm, my kids grow up amazed at each other's PS2 skills. I grew up knowing the nooks and crannys of my neighborhood, my kids grow up knowing every corner of the house. I grew up having tasted every Malay kueh, my kids grow up knowing almost every warong in Taman Melawati.

And I thought I wasn't blessed...

:)