masterwordsmith-unplugged

How many of you have children who are sitting for public exams? My son will be sitting for his UPSR next week and he and I are stressed for different reasons.

I am stressed that he is not stressed. And he is stressed that I am stressed because he is not stressed :-).

Here are some funny incidents in my home.

In a bid to stay healthy, the whole family is taking this multi-vitamin called Surbex-Zinc. One snag though - it gives us a ferocious appetite. To give you an idea of how ferocious, let me share with you what happened yesterday.

I had lunch with my girlfriend and before going out, I forgot to cook rice. Impossible? Possible if you are me. There have been many occasions when this has happened and other occasions when I forgot to switch on the rice cooker.

While at lunch, I called up US Pizza which gives a special offer for pizzas on Tuesdays. Happily, I placed my order for a Macho Meat Lover and a Jumnbo Deluxe (large) at the price of 38RM for two (a savings of RM27.90).

I timed it perfectly and when the delivery man arrived, the school bus dropped my son. He was grinning from ear to ear.

Well, after his shower, he was pizzarized while I was blogging. After four wedges, he said he was still hungry so I told him he could eat more. I continued to blog and to facebook while he was devouring the pizzas.

By dinner time, I wanted to put the pizzas in the oven and to my horror, he had taken all but one tiny wedge of one pizza.

"It's all because of the multi-vitamin which gave me a good appetite so it is also your fault as you asked me to eat the multi-vitamin," he proclaimed in his defense.

Oh well, I took a good look at the mirror and indeed son and I have grown more horizontally challenged.

When my older boy took his UPSR in 2001, I labored with him. I went through every single test paper and analyzed all the past year papers and did a content analysis of everything and anything.

With my younger son, I confess I really let him grow like lallang in the field. I learnt from my previous mistake of being so protective and stressing him out in the process. In fact, a few months before my older boy's SPM years ago, he developed a nervous twitch which still comes back whenever he is under stress.

From then, I learnt to let go and to let God. I do not want him or my younger boy to live out my dreams. They must study because they want to and not because I tell them to. Many of my friends think I teach my younger boy but actually, despite being a teacher, I don't teach him. He sits beside me while I blog or read and he does what he has to do.

I have never ever opened any of his exercise books to see what mistakes he has made or whether he has done his homework.

Previously, I checked everything with my older boy.

I know. I swung from one extreme to the other.

Well, the litmus test will come soon.

Next week will be the season of reckoning. I can just pray and hope for the best. There is only this much that I can do as a mom but the most important thing is to let him know that I am here for him, standing with him, behind him and always loving him because he is God's gift to my husband and me.

Am I worried? Er...yes, but not as worried as I used to be. I just hope and pray he will have a clear mind and make the right choices and write the correct answers in the exam.

Sighs. I am already quite old and still have a long way to go with my younger one. To those of you who are planning for kids, please do not wait too long to have them. I do regret starting late. Still, I am glad I have my two boys although now, I do wish I had like four kids.

For all your mums and dads who have children taking public exams such as UPSR, PMR, SPM and STPM or A levels or SAM etc, I pray that God will give all of us strength for this season and the wisdom to say the right things and when not to say anything :-). May God bless all your children and their friends as well.

In the mean time, take care and do leave a comment to share your experiences. Thanks! Have a lovely evening. Cheers!

*Blogger is not updating my new posts in Google Reader. If you have not subscribed to my newsfeed via RSS, please do so. I have experienced this problem a few times a year and fortunately, it is the first time for this year. Do swing by clicking on the blog link to check out for new posts as they may not be updated on blogger or google reader but are updated on feedburner feeds. Thanks! Next post will be up at 6 a.m. tomorrow.