Teaching Umar

My father had always taught us to be independent. Not so independent that you do not anybody else, just enough to try things on your own first and beg for help when necessary.... he he. He had this ask the police task that he developed. He will stop in front of a policeman or police station and forced us to ask for directions. It doesn't matter if we already knew the way but we have to stand up to our fears.

So of course, any sort of torture that I had as a kid, I do not want my own little goats ( kid kan... anak kambing dak ? he he ) to miss. As it turned out my opportunity came last week. Saturdays Umar has piano lessons and being me, he usually did his homework 1 hour before class. When we opened his theory book though, something looked amiss but we couldn’t figured it out yet. As we leafed through the pages, we saw all the book’s stickers were pasted all over the volume, at all the wrong places. We both looked at Titi as we were sure she was the perpetrator. Tak mengaku tu…

Anyway, I had to make Umar share the blame, as it is his book and therefore his responsibility. I told him that I will buy him a new book but he has to do all the explaining to his teacher. He looked terrified but I told him Mummy couldn’t bail him out all the time. There are things that he just has to handle on his own.

Discreetly, I called his piano teacher up. She is a sweet lady, very soft spoken and I am sure she will not kick up a fuss. I requested her to do just so. She was very, very doubtful, but I pleaded for her understanding that I have to teach my son about responsibility and that things are not rosy all the time. He has to accept his mistakes and take it like a man ( or woman or boy or girl whatever ). Throughout his journey in life, 60% of the people he meet could be nasty.

So we went there, I bought the book and since we were early, he did the 3 pages that he was supposed to do. As I watched him, I was trying to imagine the words he will use, as seriously, I couldn’t articulate any explaining in my head with his very little collection of vocabs.

Anyway, as we were waiting, Deva a chatty 8 year old with huge vocabs came along and sat near him and as usual started to prattle on.

Deva : Umar I am going on a holiday to Bali. Do you want to come with me ?

Umar : Where is that ?

Deva : In Indonesia.

Umar : I have been to Jakarta. What is there in Bali ?

Deva : There is a nice swimming pool there Umar. Do you want to come ?

Umar : Is it like the pool in my club ?

Deva : Where is your club ?

Umar : Bukit Kiara.

Deva : Where is that ? Is it near my house in Bukit Jelutong ?

Umar : No.. It is further than that ….

Further ? He used the word further ? I was impressed as I am sure at that age I would have used farer instead of further.

Anyway, then the teacher opened her class door to let a student out and to get Umar in. I didn’t think that he will say it right there and then, but as soon as he saw her, he got up and handed her the new book.

Umar : Teacher, this is my new theory book.

Teacher ( segan – segan lah sebab I was there. Bukannya senang berlakon ) : What happened to your book ?

Umar : My baby sister ( looked at Elsa who in turn looked guilty) messed up my book and I can’t use it anymore.

Teacher : What is wrong with the book ?

Umar : She kan… took out all the stickers and she ……. ( mencari perkataan untuk lekat until I mentioned the word pasted, then glued ) glued the stickers all over the book.

Teacher : Why did you leave the book where she can take it ?

Umar : I didn’t !! I put it on my mother’s bookshelf and she went and took it.

The teacher at this point looked lost and I knew I could only take it this far. So I assured the teacher it would not happen again and that I will pick Umar up in 30 minutes time.

All in all, I applauded Umar for his bravery and for his choice of word. Messed up…. Good one. I was further ( note the word further ) impressed with his vocab when in the car on the way home, he asked me if the song we were listening to was jazz. I said no, it was just a pop song with a little bit of saxophone used. I told him not all songs with saxophone or clarinet is jazz.

He then said, “ Mum, rock and roll kan… they use the element of rock… “ Element ? I looked at him, rather impressed when he again put my head back to reality where he is actually 6 and very much a baby. He said, “ But I couldn’t hear the rocks. How do they play the rocks ? “

Hmmm…. Guna batu rupanya rock and roll…… nasib baik dia tak kata the rock is rolled down the hill to make a sound….