Call me inconsiderate if you like, but I gave up memorising my sibling's schedules years back. Not only are their timing are subject to change nearly every other week, no two days of schedule are identical, since... I don't know, forever? Plus, I have THREE other siblings! I'd rather reserve my constantly dying braincells for other stuff. Like people always say, MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS, right? What I'm so totally impressed with is my mom's super brain ability to keep track of everything in everyone's lives. She gave up her job in a legal firm more than a decade ago, to dedicate her time to carrying us all around KL and Selangor. Allow me to just state a brief example of her tough job. As a young girl, I lived in Kepong, studied in Ampang, attended tuition in Kota Raya, and PJ, among others. Yes there are more. And that's just me. I remember a year back, my mom was the "crazy" woman with 4 kids in 4 different schools, Taylors, Kepong (2), Lai Meng, and Bandar Utama Damansara (2). How she memorised all our off-times, holidays, who to pick first, who to drop next, which route to take, and who's got tuition next, etc, is unbelievable. Unlike certain families, we are not blessed with the power to afford a driver. Sure, we have a domestic helper in the house, who takes her own sweet time doing cleaning work ONLY. Mom still manages to juggle kids AND marketing AND cooking AND shopping AND bills!
I suppose you're wondering why am I assessing the syllabus of Mom-hood, out of the blue. Here's why.
Just to make myself clear, that's not my mom, not my brother and not our car. Haha, it's some random auntie I shot discreetly with my brand new handphone. Just take a look at those thunder thighs, I definitely don't want her charging at me with those waving her fists for photographing her. *sniggers*
Let me tell you what this auntie is all about. She has a daughter studying in SJK (C) Kepong 2, who finishes her "normal" classes at 1pm. After that, it will be followed by a compulsory "tuition" session in the extended school compound that will start after their 45 minutes lunch break. It ends somewhere around 4 something in the afternoon. The weird thing is, she'll be facing the same subject teachers in those classes. Those teachers must love their students so much they want to spend nearly all the time allowed by God for daylight just to be with them. But, nevermind that. What you see in this picture is the fully-equiped mom has parked her car in this strategic parking spot, waiting for her daughter. By the word "strategic", I mean the following: shady, less than 10 seconds from the entrance, has to come at least 30 minutes earlier to snatch it from other desperate moms. The next 30 minutes will be spent to open up the booth to create extra shade, blasting the air conditioner, setting up a little table with stools, bringing out their carefully prepared, nutritious homemade lunches, and pulling out a pair of glasses to spot her daughter. I tell you, its only a matter of time before these moms move on to a pair of binoculars. In less than a second after the school bell rang, a stampede will come into sight. All your see is little heads bobbing out of the school at FULL SPEED! The crowd itself is bad enough, without having your kid being hidden behind a gigantic schoolbag.
It's like some kind of telematch. I see the kid sprinting towards the auntie, who has her arms spread out in such a position that she could grab the schoolbag as the girl rushed pass her. Instinctively, I see the girl swallowing her lunch, while her mom unloaded some of the unnecessaries, such as a DICTIONARY! Might I add that, a typical chinese dictionary is about twice as big as The Oxford Dictionary?! And they don't carry those small pocket sized ones, because their schoolwork is so advanced, the tiny information deprived budget version just doesn't quite cut it. Then, I saw her magically pull our a hanky, wet it with a bottle of water, then rub it all over her face. Seriously, these aunties can think of everthing! That sight, just struck a chord in me.
They may be uneducated, scruffy, and a little rough on the edges. But, to working parents who earn 5 digits worth of moolah each month to spend on daycare, nannies and maids, they are incomparable super-moms.
**added on 14/09**
So long PIBG. Introducing the latest Student's Defense Council >>> PI (Persatuan Ibu). They attack in droves, and has built an army large enough to rival Julius Caesar's. I can't even capture all on a single camera screen! As for Bapa & Guru? Get your own stools.
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