Monday, December 01, 2014

Happy childhood.

People say you don't get to choose your family, they're God's gifts to you. If that's the case, I must be truly damn lucky and blessed to have a pair of parents who rock. Alhamdulillah.

I had/have a happy childhood. Not once have I ever recalled a period of sadness whenever I went down my own memory lane, coz it was filled with tonnes of happy memories.

My dad grew up without a father figure (grandpa died when dad was 7, grandma never remarried). To think that he was raised singlehandedly by his mom, it was amazing how he turned out to be a great dad. My mom grew up in a small wooden house with 6 younger brothers to care for, her childhood was probably filled with responsibility yet it was amazing how she was able to provide a fun and carefree childhood for each of us.

When these two married and became parents, it was an explosive boomboompow combination. Two great souls who became a team of wonderful parents; My mom and dad.

When I was a child we didn't really have much, we didn't have fancy toys or went on expensive trips abroad but somehow it always feels enough. School holidays are spent at the zoo, in a random museum or simply a fun trip to the theme park. Both of them would ALWAYS make sure our school holidays are fun and exciting. It was never dull with mama abah as parents. Evenings on the weekends are spent by the beach, while my brother and I rollerskated along the pavements, my parents would sit together reading magazines or eating homemade sandwiches. Mornings on weekends would normally be filled with dad's endless physical activities, he would take us hiking or cycling or swimming. 

They subtly cultivated our love for books since we were kids. If ever there were a space in our house that closely resembles 'luxury', it would definitely be our bookshelves, which were filled with books and reading materials, in fact I have a hugeeeee collection of Enid Blyton while my brother used to have a large set of Mr Midnight, thanks to them. Also it was my dad who mailed me my first Harry Potter book as a birthday present while I was in boarding school. Looking back, mama abah had indeed spent a massive amount of money to fund our book collection, what with all the hard-cover books we grabbed at the bookstore without even looking at the price. Amazingly, they did it without a single fuss, in fact with a large encouraging smile. Ahh parents.. :)

Every now and then they would make sure we have plenty of things to do outside school. They enrolled us into the community taekwondo classes, sent us to mengaji sessions, put us through swimming classes, and when swimming classes were over they would find another thing for us to indulge in. After we learned swimming they would take us to the nearby public pool every weekend for us to practice. And then they even placed us in an art class to learn how to paint. The art class was the one I remembered most coz I loveeee drawing and coloring as a kid. My younger sisters get to learn the piano and violin when they grew up. All thanks to our parents.

Looking back, it was never stressful growing up. Yes of course there will be a few scoldings or slight rotan here and there but that was definitely our fault most of the times haha. All extra classes they put us in were actually fun. Sometimes I wonder where they get all those fun parenting ideas. 

Having these two as parents somehow place an invisible pressure on me, as if there would be a high expectation on me when I became one myself. I pray that when my husband and I have our own 'mini us', we would make a great team and raise them the way our parents raised us, so that they are proud to say how awesome their parents were.

We are always grateful on a lot of things in life; our grades, our careers, our houses and cars. Sometimes we forget to be grateful on things that are with us along the way, and that is the blessings of having a pair of amazing parents. Alhamdulillah thank you Allah for giving me them. :)






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