A 2 year old girl, Yue Yue, was run over twice in Guangzhou, China. Many people passing by did not help her. Where were her parents?
I recall a horrifying experience some 20 years ago, also in Guangzhou. I stopped at a small town for dinner. After dinner, I was returning to the bus. I saw a small boy, also about 2 years old, on the opposite side trying to cross a busy road with many fast passing vehicles. There was no adults around to take care of the child. I was horrified that he could be hit by a passing vehicle, but there was nothing that I could do, as I was on the other side of a busy road.
After a while, the little boy saw a gap among the vehicles and run across the road safely to her parents who were nearby. I then realised that this boy, although very small, was street smart. He must have crossed the road many times safely. His parents knew that he could take care of himself.
This is so different from the over-protected children in Singapore!
I recall a horrifying experience some 20 years ago, also in Guangzhou. I stopped at a small town for dinner. After dinner, I was returning to the bus. I saw a small boy, also about 2 years old, on the opposite side trying to cross a busy road with many fast passing vehicles. There was no adults around to take care of the child. I was horrified that he could be hit by a passing vehicle, but there was nothing that I could do, as I was on the other side of a busy road.
After a while, the little boy saw a gap among the vehicles and run across the road safely to her parents who were nearby. I then realised that this boy, although very small, was street smart. He must have crossed the road many times safely. His parents knew that he could take care of himself.
This is so different from the over-protected children in Singapore!
4 comments:
Kim lian, Singaporean has only one or two kids so no point taking unnecessary risk to let the kids cross the road to take chances. It is a matter of risk management. Avoid if possible, if not manage the risk
Here dun agree with TKL.
Irresponsible to risk a two year child's life on the busy road, to demonstrate how protective parents are in Singapore.
A 2 year old child can't be as street smart as an adult.
Better example would be the NS boy having his maid carrying his army
haversack, or a parent confronting the school principal about his delinquent boy boy.
I am not suggesting that a 2 year old child should be left to take care of themselves. I am just pointing out two extremes. We need to have our children to be less protected, but not to the other extreme (as quoted in my example). Somehow, some Singaporeans only think in extremes - based on the feedback that I get here.
Think if you go to those rental HDB flats, you would find a lot of street smart kids.
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