Thursday, June 19, 2008

To Cane, or Not To Cane..?

The part time maid who is cleaning our apartment asked me one day: "Do you use cane to hit your child?"
Shocked by her question [since zee was only 8 month old then], i quickly replied with "No! Of course not! I'm not gonna hit her with any cane!" Not now, not ever, i added silently.
She just smiled. Curious, i asked her back whether she was using cane for her daughters. She replied no.

That episode would have been completely forgotten if today when i was with my friend waiting for the bus i did not see an elderly chinese lady carrying a rattan cane in her hand. She was traveling with two little girls, one about 5 years old and one about 2 years old, both my guess were her grand children.
When i saw the cane, i quickly told my friend about it. It was actually not very noticeable. The length of the cane was about 50 cm and about as thick as my forefinger. It shaped like a walking cane but smaller.
What made me intrigued was the fact that she's actually carrying it when traveling with her grandchildren. What was the need? Will they be behaving bad enough to receive a cane??
Or she brought it 'just in case'?

Whatever the reason is, it was quite a horror for me to imagine those two small girls got beat up with a nasty rattan cane which, i truly believe, hurt terribly!
I mean hey, they're only kids. Very little kids too.
My friend whisper to me that that's how singaporean discipline their children, both chinese and malay (not sure about the indian though). That's why she's having second thought all the time about sending her daughter to a school here.
Phew...

I choose NOT to cane!!!

3 comments:

[ w i n D ] said...

huaaaaa....iya...aku sering liat anak2 cina di medan si ibunya bawa gituan....menurut gwe yah..kalo sampe orang tua ngehukum anak pake alat,sebenernya itu sih bukti adanya ketidakmampuan si orang tua..makanya dia butuh dukungan alat...takut kalah ama anaknya..makanya dia pake alat untuk ngehukum,kayak dipenjara yah....

Atti Gunawan said...

Wah, bener jg win..
Serem aja gt ngebayangin mereka dipukul pake benda itu. dipukul pake tangan sendiri aja dah sakit bukan?
Apalagi pake tongkat rotan! Beuuuh!
Ngilu ngebayanginnya jg :(

Nah olang2, janganlah kau pukul anakmu yang bisa menyakitinya!

Dalam Islam jg boleh mukul anak klo ga mo solat setelah umur 10 taun, tapi kan bukan dengan maksud menyakiti. kalo pake tongkat rotan ga mungkin ga sakit tooohhhh???!!!

Heidy Kaeni said...

gilaaa...
parahhhhh.

tapi Ti, soal pukul memukulnya sendiri, lu tau kan, banyak banget orang yg melakukannya yg awalnya nggak pernah berniat 'main kasar' sama anaknya loh.

Pd akhirnya, banyak yg di antara mereka yg ngelakuinnya karna spontan (tentu bukan pas anaknya masih lucu2nya pas baby, biasanya di usia SD/abege).

Soo...i guess yg terbaik adalah nggak cuma bertekad sendiri, tapi jg minta ke Allah SWT utk dilindungi dari perbuatan yg sprti itu, dari 'setan' yg ada di diri kita sendiri...

huhhuuu.
gw juga jadi takutt...
(padahal punya aja belom, ha3)