Of dye-dye-generation.

I’m not an expert on children or on how parenting is since I’m not a parent. But my mom and I always agree on this, ‘Are the children of today’s generation too protected?’.

Here’s a case:

My mom and her service-mate where talking about the service-mate’s children. It went something like,

Service-mate: ‘Ate Leah, yung isa kong anak nagtanong sa kin kung ano ang basa dun sa mga Pinoy games. Tinanong sa kin “What’s this mama? Pi-ku?”. Sabi ko, “It’s Piko”. Tapos nagtanong ulit “How about this? Loksong Teynik?” “It’s Luksong Tinik”.

Mama: ‘Hay naku ______, wag kang madamot. Nung bata ka pinaglaro ka nyan ng mga magulang mo…’

I’m not sure about the lyrics, but somewhere in the song ‘The Greatest Love of All’ there’s a part there regarding children and letting them play.

I remembered I had the time of my life when I was young. I was able to play all sorts of games (even the game of love? Heh!). There’s tumbang preso, step yes no, shato, black 1-2-3, taguan, patintero, agawan base (or moro-moro), pepsi seven-up, mataya-taya, langit lupa, teks, luksong tinik, luksong baka, mashed potato, 10-20, teleberg (hehehe… it’s I love you teddy bear), dampa, and more.

There was a time when I climbed on trees and created traps (simple traps such as string connected with a can full of stones), dug dirt on the street, and played during floods.

“Smart” games such as Monopoly, Cluedo, Mastermind, Games of the Generals, Chess (chess na!), Sorry, Pictionary, Millionares’ Game, Pick-up sticks, foozball, etc.

And of course the advent of the electronic devices came too. There’s game and watch, family computer, Atari, personal computers, brick games, gameboy, etc.

I’m not a sports type of person though. I’m not fit to play basketball, I hated volleyball, I loved soccer but it doesn’t love me back, I’m bad with track, I succumbed with swimming, and I’d love to try baseball but there aren’t any baseball classes.

Now, when I go out in the street I’m not seeing the little kids (even the kids) running and panting and sweating. It’s too quiet.

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So, where are you going again with this argument? I really don’t know.

Maybe parents love their children so much that there is such a word called reality (reality in the sense that when the parents are gone, where their children will ask assistance?) I believe parents don’t even hit their child anymore (I’m not saying you have to hit the child more often than you wanted it to be). When I was young I encountered the usual kurot, tapik, luhod sa mungo, luhod sa mungo with books sa dalawang kamay, and even the dreaded leather belt.

I believe it is even written in the bible that you can hit the child, seven years old and below.

But no, it’s all spoil, talk and spoil; blame the material generation.

I can proudly say that I’m not spoiled (I always claim this, depends on the person’s pov). I never got what I wanted when I was young. Even when I graduated, they promised me an extravagant gift and all I got was a greeting in the newspaper. It was a tabloid. Right below Xerex Xaviera’s column (I wasn’t mad with my mom or anything. Doing something like this is priceless. I still have the newspaper). It doesn’t matter though, I have work and I’m grateful that they focused on my studies and right now I’m reaping the reward.

And I can earn that extravagant gift in seven years time. So, no worries with that.

Going back… It seems we are in a different generation, where their young are controlling parents. It should be the other way around.

And don’t forget frustration tolerance. That is a different ballgame.

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I guess it is always with the parents’ parenting (hello? Redundant.) I’m just looking from my eyes.

Aaahhh… (feeling mo parent ka. Ni wala ka ngang anak e. bwahahaha)