Life Education

Dearest Ashley,

We had a wonderful evening last evening. After the Malacca briefing, we head straight to West Mall to have our Pasta Mania dinner, did our shopping for the trip and played ice hockey at Time Zone.

Mummy loved to see your satisfied face as you dug into your crunchy cheese and ham pasta while I shared with you the Chinese newspaper article on Life Education written by a Mother for her 5 and a half years old son, all the children and parents in this world:

3 weeks ago, my friend's 15 years old son committed suicide over a trivial matter; 2 weeks ago, my neighbour, a mum carried her child and jumped off the block. This is very devastating news. I'm writing this article on Life Education to share with the parents and children.

One's character development must start young, especially the chapter on Life. As parents, we must cultivate Life value daily. Everyone of us must cherish our life for ourselves and for our family.

My 5 and a half years old boy recently threatened me to jump off from 7th floor if I didn't buy him the toy he wanted. He wanted to make me sad by jumping off the building so that I will lose a son. I sat down with him calmly and explained to him in details why we must cherish our Life: Son, you only wanted a toy, if you can't get it today, it doesn't mean you will not get it tomorrow, you will get it if you put in effort, not by threatening others.

Son, you threaten mum because you know mum loves you. You put your Life on the line with someone who loves you and you love, have you thought about it,if you really jumped, what is the impact on people who don't know you? What would be their reaction? At most, they will be uncomfortable for 1~2 days and not remember you after that. How about you? After you jumped, you will never enjoy the tender loving care from your Mum and Dad, you will never play with your friends, you will never enjoy your pizza, you will never get to see the future cool stuff better than iPad or Space shuttle that is beyond your imagination? Are you willing to give up all these, just because you are angry or can't get what you want at that moment?

My Mother, your Grandmother, did not buy me a piano just because I love music, even if I scored 100 marks, she also did not keep her promise; I was so sad then, but I never thought of ending my life. Today, at 37 years old, I finally get the opportunity to learn piano with my beloved son, this is what I live for.

Today, I'm a writer. If I were to commit suicide when my teacher scolded me, my mother caned me, my friends misunderstood me, I will never enjoy the wonderful life and my beloved son today.

I cannot stop other people from doing wrong. As a Mum, I can only teach you to do the right things and cherish your life. We all experience negative thoughts, feelings and events. We cannot control what happened to us but we can control our reaction and the outcome.

Remember the incident where you dropped your bread twice when you someone accidentally knocked you? Mummy cannot stop people from knocking you but I can encourage you to hold your tray firmer and pick a new bread. Just because someone knocked you and caused you to drop your bread twice, you just stand there and complain. Does it serve any purpose?

Ashley, your future is beyond your imagination. You're blessed with many talents that will take you very far if you continue to work hard and put in the 10,000 hours to sharpen your skills. No pain, no gain. Cherish your talents and your life. We love you, our beloved son.