My parents can be said to be a good split. My father is very stern and my mom is very compassionate and thanks to that, my upbringing has been filled with joyful and painful memories. According to 易经，a stern father and a compassionate mother (aka my parents) will eventually give rise to a responsible and well behaved child. Well, this holds true especially in my younger brother. He is the kind of child that almost all parents, if not all would want to have. Good grades, good athletic abilities, good social skills and most of all, good manners that make up the whole package. He is the epitome of what you would call a perfect child. Physical complexion aside, he is your fairy tale's prince charming. Well, let's stop at there, shall we?
My father is a businessman and has been dealing in earnest for his entire life. His motto is "honesty is the best policy" and though he doesn't look like it, he really despises heinous acts and selfish remarks. Due to this, he set very high expectations for both my older brother and I and of which, we have never failed to fall short. He does not believe that children need to be dotted in order for them to succeed, he is more to the type, if you want your child to succeed, give them the necessary materials and let them build up their own identity. In that respect, he has groomed us to become who we are today and I guess you can say that I am grateful for that. I will never forget the spartan years I had when I was still a child and all the beatings I received from my dad that made me such a tough piece of work! However, my dad is very lenient when it comes to food and he would always bring my brother and I to eat whenever we had co-curricular activities and because of that, I always look forward to Saturdays when we had co-curricular activities. Not to mention my dad is very knowledgeable when it comes to Chinese traditions and history and I doubt there is anyone in Malaysia who could compete with my dad when it comes to these knowledge about China and thanks to his constant teachings (naggings when we were younger), I have a certain amount of knowledge regarding China and its roots. In addition, I also got to know about my own roots and my family ancestral tree and how my name was thought of. Thanks to my dad, I am proud to be a Chinese!
On the other hand, my mother is the kind and understanding type. She has a different philosophy and believes in the saying that "a child needs love to grow" and is the total opposite of my dad. I remember there was once when I stole some money from her purse and received a beating from her. Boy, I remember as if it was yesterday, I was beaten so badly that I cried like mad on my bed and eventually cried into a slumber. After some time, I felt a warm hand applying some ointments on my bruises and when I took a peek, I saw my mother, with tears in her eyes, applying that ointment over my bruises. At that time, my heart jerked so much that tears wouldn't stop pouring from my eyes. It was on that very day that I swore I will never let my mom down again, I would achieve all the targets she sets for me and would make her proud when I grow up. Thanks to the kindness she showed me, my brothers and I all have nurtured a heart that knows how to care and give and the three of us view taking as something that is trivial and not worth making a fuss over.
My dad and mom do have some similar traits in their upbringing. They emphasize a lot on education and will not mind going the extra mile just so that the three of us can excel in our learning. They always tell the three of us the same thing, "It doesn't matter what grades you get as long as you tried your best." Those words still reverberate inside my head vividly and there's no way I can forget those words. Contrary to the both of them, my grandma was the actual driving force in my life, she was the one who have me the most encouragements and support. In my family, my older brother would get more attention from my mom and my younger brother would receive more attention from my dad and being a gloomy person in the past, I always had negative thoughts about being an "extra" and doesn't belong. I always perched on the wood railings outside our house and stared off into space. My grandma would always come and sit down beside me and talked with me regarding the any issues that came into her mind. I truly enjoyed her company back then as it reminded me that I am not alone in this world. However, all good things must come to an end, my grandma passed away a few years back and I never cried so much in my entire life, even remembering it brings tears to my eyes. My grandma's words of wisdom are etched in my heart and even if my memories were to be wiped out, I would never forget the lessons she had taught me.
So, that concludes my post about my parents. They are not the best parents out there but in my heart, I couldn't ask for better parents than them, they are No.1 in my heart and soul.
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| "What better parents could you hope for?" |
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