Memento - A Picture Tells A Thousand Words

Ten Things I Learned in the Last Two Weeks - from Kids 2

<< Previous * Part 1 * Next >>

Marga Ever Smiling
Paranaque, April 2004

This is part 2

From Rianna (5 years old):

6. Your word is king. How many times have we promised something that we wanted to do but not commit to it? You don’t do that to a 5-year old. I promised to be back home at 9:00pm, just before her bedtime to bring the loot she left in the car for her to play with before hitting the sack. Because of Friday traffic, I arrived past 10, but not upon hearing from the cellfone that the lil girl cried a bucket after I reneged on our agreement. Despite that, I received a tight hug and a big kiss upon my arrival.

7. The Value of Having Personal Time. Yanna will always find some ways to enjoy her personal time. Despite the ruckus around her, she will continue to be by herself, making up stories, humming a not-so-familiar tune, kicking stones or plainly spending time looking at her kuya and ate and just enjoying the view. Soon enough, she’d join the fray, only after being relaxed having spent some personal time herself. When was the last time we felt happy for others? and also happy being with ourselves lang.

8. Being compassionate. She asked her Tita who among the dogs she liked as a pet. Despite a showbiz answer of “all of them”, she wanted a firm solitary answer. My wife chose the quiet and very demure female pup we have. Yana chose otherwise and picked Paris. Asked why she picked Paris despite being the furniture wrecker, the dog she can’t hardly walk before she gets pulled and tugged, or the one who causes so much trouble eating anything in front of him, from plants to the mail to all the slippers left outside. Her answer was that “kakaawa kasi siya, lagi siyang napapagalitan. Mabait din naman siya.” Why do we always choose the better one, when this 5-year old kid sees the goodness of anything despite the abrasive façade?

Marga (1 year old)

9. Wear a Smile Despite and Inspite of Anything. Marga has a 24 by 7 smile. She even wears a ready smile upon waking up. Her pleasant disposition despite creating a small bump in the head she made herself assures us adults that she is alright and everything is fine. Our adult problems in the workplace or traffic shouldn't stop us from looking at the brighter side of things. We can always smile it off, our bumps can always heal in time and solved in His time.

10. Think Big. No one is small to enjoy the company of big people. Marga knows that she is the smallest in the room but she can enjoy and whoop it up with the bigger ones. She doesn’t feel small nor frail to even enjoy a little bit of bed wrestling.

One learning that we found out from the experience was that it was really hard to raise kids with different personalities, much more disparate idiosyncracies, caprices and whims. Add to that having to work as well. Our hats to parents who are able to juggle their time to give their kids the best type of living. To Ate and Onald, you’ve raised your kids so well. Thank you for the experience.