Where's thy childhood???

A few conversations that I was engaged today led to this entry. Where's thy childhood?

How was your childhood like? If you were my age, you'd be talking about life in the early 1990s when the most interesting thing to have and the most high tech gaming device was SEGA. You will reminiscence about playing ZERO-POINT, hopscotch, chapteh, han-tam bola, marble etc at any part of school.

It has been a decade and things had evolved in the schools with students playing with handphones, PSP and any other hand-held devices than those that we did in the scorching sun last time. School starts at the age of 4 for those who are rich enough to afford it for nursery and thereafter K1 and K2 at 5 and 6. Yet, parents today sent their child for lessons at the age of.. er.. 6 months? Haha.. That was the conversation that I had with my superiors today over lunch and it seems to be the upcoming trend. They were deciding about the place to send them for lessons be it MindsChamp or what not. They are very very willing to spend the money for their kids and sees it as part of their investment in their child.

I am not against the idea of them investing in their kids [cause I bet if I have a child and I have the capabilities to do so, I'll do so too] but on the hindsight, what are the kids losing? Their childhood? Their time to enjoy their innocence? Their time to have fun and not worry about anything? I dunno. I have not been in both shoes but looking at Dawn's niece, I think her parents must be very proud to have a very smart and inquisitive daughter but that will be at the expense of what?

I guess our future generations will be having a more and more stressful life with more work and less play. I hope that I am wrong about it as it will be very depressing to know that one lives just to work and not to appreciate life. Personally, I started studying when I was 5 and it will most probably end when I am 26. That is a whooping 21 years of studying. Following that, it will be work till 62 and that will account for another 36 years of my life. So am I going to rest after 62? I wonder. but that's the way it is. Time to time, we will have to reflect upon our lives and enjoy along the way.

Things to ponder about..

'When we were young we yearn to grow up to have more freedom. yet when we grew older, we wanted to be young once again for those innocence that we once had.'

'When we were young we raised our hands even before our teachers asked for volunteers to answer questions and yet when we grew older, our hands seems to get heavier and weighed more than a ton.'

My take for this entry is this.. Grow older and be more mature but bring with you the good qualities of a child. =D