New Age Kids

Not so many hours ago, I was at a nearby clinic with my dad who was having a slight fever. While he was inside the doctor's consultation room, I took my seat outside at the waiting lounge watching people, those who are sick and those who are not.

And it was then that I saw, two children, one was about 6 years old and the other around 4, were playing tag and running around. They were screaming, shouting and laughing like the clinic and the people in it are no stranger to them.

They ran around the reception area, and the next thing I know, I saw their small heads popping up next to the receptionist, not from outside the counter, but from inside! And from there those imps took their new found excitement gleefully, jumping off the counter, running in and out of the reception area and even getting into the dispensary section freely.

The receptionist and the nurse could just look at one another and pray that someone would say something to stop those little devils.

I was thinking, 'Anak-anak doktor ke ni? Ape pasal macam syaiton..?' Tetapi rupe-rupenye bukan. The parents, were just sitting happily next to me, chatting to one another, like those children weren't theirs.

Things has really change nowadays. Parents don't do nothing even if their children behave like hooligans in front of their eyes. I guess this is how the new generations are taught. They do not learn through parents yelling or shouting at them. Neither do they learn through ass smacking nor ear pulling.

Is this right? Is this what their parents want? For their children to have no respect for others? And lack of proper decorum? Kalau aku macam tu dulu mase kecik-kecik dah lame kene penampar, jerit dan diheret balik rumah. Me and my sisters had always been forewarned before any outings, that we should behave well or we would suffer the consequences. And if at any point we forgot or even almost forgot to behave ourselves, one good stare from my mom (yang matanye sampai macam nak terkeluar, which to us was very, very, scary..) and that was enough to bring us back to earth.

Oh, those kids simply made me feel like turning myself into an ogre and scream at the...parents! And not the children. Tahu mengongkek dan mengeluarkan anak saje, tapi tak tahu marah anak. Those children, I only felt like shaking them until their teeth rattle, which in this case can never happen. So, I just gave them a hard evil, 'mak tiri' kind of stare.

Parents, please have mercy on those ailing people in the clinic, and also for innocent bystanders, like me. Just leave your healthy children at home if you're going to the clinic. And also, please try not to bring them to the supermarket when you're doing grocery shopping because they are nuisances to other people especially when they start fighting over who should push the cart and who gets to sit inside. In fact, don't even bring them to the mosque, if they don't know how to behave.

So make sure your children show proper behaviour before you actually decide to bring them out in the open. Or if they are not well-mannered but you had no choice but to bring them out still, just be prepared to scold them and be stern. Wokeh?!

P/s : Once I went to a mall with my mom, and there was this kid sitting under one of the clothes rack with a hanger. And he will whack people's leg who happened to walk pass him. I was one of the victim too, but after he hit me, I bent down, see eye to eye with him, gave him a smile, took the hanger off him and threw it onto another rack. And he then ran to his dad. Aku sangat geram pada mase itu. Was I cruel? I only think that that was appropriate at that time.