Seriously?????????
Had a conversation with Joey over whatsapp one afternoon and we got very heated up in the midst of it. You might never guess what we fought over and whose stand is whose. It felt like a role reversal of some kind!
Joey insisted that I must send her for tuition classes because according to her, many of her classmates are in tuition classes. She even quoted a classmate who lives in JB but his mother fetches him to tuition classes in Singapore every week. She asked me why I hadn’t sent her for tuition classes at all??!
I was shocked. This is my daughter – Only 9 years old – asking me why I had withheld tuition classes from her, as if it was a limited edition Barbie Doll. What’s wrong with kids nowadays?!
At that point, it dawned upon me that she might be struggling in school and felt that she needed some help. But turned out, her only reason was because she saw that her friends were in tuition classes and that she should be too. Judging from the recent test papers she had been bringing home, apart from being extra careless in Math, she doesn’t seem to have major issues. At least, in my opinion, there was no need for tuition classes at this point. I hold the belief that tuition classes are inevitable, but I wish to delay them for as long as I can. When she gets to the Upper Primary level, it might not be a choice anymore, but a need. Till then, I hope not to clutter her daily life with too much supplementary classes. Already, she finishes school only at 3.30pm two out of 5 days in a week – That’s 8 hours spent in school in a day!
My girl obviously needed some awakening. To her, tuition classes are fun and interesting (So far, all the classes she’s been to are for blog reviews and are usually interesting and without homework because they are trial classes). The reality is once she starts tuition classes, she’d have to spend a few hours a week at that, and complete tuition homework on top of her school homework! On some days now, she already takes 2 to 3 hours a day to complete all her school homework. If I have to add tuition homework to her, she would have to totally give up TV time. When I brought that reality to her, it was like epiphany came upon her, and she conceded that tuition time can come later, when the real need comes.
Our heated whatsapp exchange ended cordially, but it also signaled to me that peer pressure is very real. Even if I endeavor not to be an extra kiasu parent, my kid may still become an extra kiasu kid because of the peer pressure she’s facing. How long more before I HAVE to start her on tuition classes? I’m keeping my fingers crossed for now.
