Seize the day

She was in her early forty. She smiled back at me the morning we first met in a not too large room in a building in Kuningan area. She was gonna be the speaker in a seminar about teaching babies to read. Another wanna-know-does-it-really-work young mom, she might think of me.  I took a deep breath, wishing the session would not bore me. Once again, I asked my self : how can she convince me then prove that a baby can really read?
No. She couldn’t. Somebody else has already done that, according to her. So, what was she there for? To share her precious experiences with her daughter, Dea. Dea was 14 years old girl, a bright and smart teenager, and unsurprisingly always being on top in her Global Jaya. Dea plans to go to a Singapore univ, wanna take major in art design, or maybe language, or maybe the other. She hasn’t  firmly made up her mind yet.
Mrs. Irene asked what our dreams are. Does anyone reach most of them, all of them? Then, what kind of life we want our kids to have and enjoy in their own time? No need to doubt, no one would ever wish for something less for her children. She asked again : so what did we, young working moms, do daily after long hours of working outside home? Sleeping? Watching some never ending telenovelas? Chatting with some friends? Hovering around malls? Browsing some sites? Doing office matters? How many percent of our time had been dedicated to our child?  “Does the baby sitter know your baby better than you?” She straightly shot us in the heads. The point was : we expected too much with too little willingness and commitment.
She told us that she and Dea had been through a great baby-moon and kid-moon, and now teen-moon. When Dea was 3 mois, Mrs. Irene  read a book titled How to teach your baby to read. She didn’t believe it at the first place. But since she had not much to do, she began to follow the steps from the book. She wrote down some words in 15x60 cm white cards. Bunda and Dea were among the first words. She didn’t expect much at that time. It was only an always-win game. Nevertheless, on Dea’s first birthday, she was able to step on some words in a seek-and-step-on-it game. When she was 18 mois, she took her mom’s hand and showed and mentioned a word on the body of  a square 1992 Toyota in a parking line. The magic word was “Kijang”.  Since then, the whole world was in her reach, thanks to her ability to read.
This story was just a sweetener of her message. She said : please, go home and play with your kids. Caution : time won’t be on our side and suddenly they will fly away.
I smiled due to my own sins. Too little has I given my own child compared to great things she has brought into my life.