Friday, October 24, 2008 3:01 PM

Hi, i'm ibu iman

Wednesday, October 15, 2008 5:18 PM

The one that is totally absurd!

Long before Iman dominated my blog entries, I used to blog about the kids' antics at work.

Something happened yesterday, and I guess it's worth mentioning here.

But its nothing funny, nor cute. Its simply ridiculous, and sad.

I had to accompany my pupil to KKH (in the midst of exams and revisions!) cos he came to school, after more than a week of absence, with burns on his thigh the size of an adult palm.

Red, naked flesh staring at your face. Can you imagine that? Nasty, I tell you.

Source of burns; from a heated metal, most probably an iron.

Suspected child abuse case upon probing by medical social worker and police. Suspect, confirmed by child, is the mum. Before that, he had come up with a lot of other stories of how it happened, which he admitted were lies, cos his mum told him to lie abt it. The worse part, he had endured the pain for a whole 10 days without any medical attention!!

And he is only eight.

I called his mum when we were on the way to KKH, using my hp, cause I felt that it was my duty to inform her that I'm taking his son to the hospital (which I realised I shouldn't have used MY HP till later!)

The conversation was so absurd!! Of course she pretended not to know anything. And can you believe it, she asked me, "But he has exams today right?" Oh goodness me. We're talking about a mother who couldn't care less if her son comes to school or not (high absenteeism, 1 day come, 2-3 days never come with lame excuses such as cannot wake him up, no money to take bus, etc. Come on lah, their home is only about 15 mins walk!) and she's more concerned that he doesn't take his exams instead of worrying about the pain he is going thru?? Can't get your priorities right is it, d***ed woman?!

I was already so mad at her because she is the type of person who expects financial help from organisations, but at the same time she doesn't go out to work, with an excuse that nobody takes care of her children. Husband is in jail, by the way. But come on lah, theres only so much people can do to help you. The rest you have to put in the effort to sustain your family lah, right? Not everything can come free to you what! But then there are places that provides free childcare. Why not try that?

Anyway, back to the phone conversation, which was actually a very short one, but says a lot abt the kind of person this mother is. I replied, "Yes, he has already done the Listening Compre exam before we made our way here."

Then she said (without even sounding a tinge concerned), "Oh ok, then will you be sending him back?"

I was speechless for a while. mailto:#@!!%23%25!

I replied, "I don't think so. Anyway, thats all I need to tell you. After this, I think you'll be liasing with the MCYS officer (I wanted to add "and the Police!" but refrained myself from saying it) directly."

I think after that she panicked. But she still feigned ignorance. She can still sms me, 'Kindly update 2 me wat hapn? n wat e doc say. tanxs.'

Excuse me, but even if you didn't do it, the only thing to do, as a mother, is to rush down and be by your son's side, right?? Here your son is being interrogated by doctors, medical officers, social workers, the police... and being asked the same qns again and again, in so much pain somemore. It must have been so overwhelming for an eight year old child I would think!

And between 9am to 12pm, she called me like 8 times on my phone, all of which I ignored cause I've been told by the social worker to do just that. I don't want to vindicate myself in this matter more than I should.

And by that time too, she would have received the call from both MCYS and the police. So, what does she really have to say to me?? And for that I regretted using my HP to call her.

But on the other hand, I tried to understand what could have drove her into committing such a cruel act on her own son. This boy, I admit, he does make me want to strangle him whenever he's in school. Notorious one, he is. He had probably drove his mother up the wall with his notorious antics, to the point that was beyond her limit of patience. In a moment of anger, people can do incredible things.

As for now, I donno whats the latest verdict. I think the mother will only receive a warning.

But then now, as I was dicussing with a colleague of mine, another bad thing about this is, the boy now knows that it is possible for his parents to get into trouble and can use it to threaten against them. Resulting in him being more naughty in future. It somehows gives him power over his mother. I mean, that is if she can't think of other methods to discipline him. Just food for thought.

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Tmrw... the first of four days of PSLE marking... sigh..

Labels: ridiculous, students, work

1:02 AM

Paranoia sets in.

Funny how you don't really notice how fast a child grows up when you're with them almost all the time.

But you start thinking about it once they do something beyond your expectation.

For me, I realise that Iman is really growing up so fast, especially when I think about the things she she is able to communicate with us now.

At her age, we've been told that her range of vocab is quite wide. Sure she's parroting some of the things she's saying, but she does show understanding for others.

Take this morning for example, I was awoken by her tossing and turning at around 4+a.m. This will usually be followed by her crying. Most of the time for milk or water, sometimes for a diaper change or comforting and at other times for unknown reasons. So most of the time I play a guessing game to determine what she really wants.

But this morning, there was no crying. She opened her eyes, tapped my hand and said, "Ah-buuu.. (Yes she still calls me that!! Argghh).. Up.. up (Asking me to wake up)... merk, merk (milk, milk)... pweeeess (pleaseee) ..."

And waited patiently for her milk before gulping it down and falling back to sleep in less than 5 minutes.

How nice right?? Every night like that can??!!

She just turned 16 months by the way.

Ya so the moral of the story, she's growing up fast and I'm getting paranoid!

Pretty soon she'll be 16 years old!!

She being a girl and all, its so worrying.

I want to do whatever I can to protect her.

Including punching anyone who tries to disturb her ok!! :O

Labels: Iman

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