L'Enfant Terrible

“Does he have structure at home?” the teacher of my 5-year old asked.

“Absolutely, he does. I’m not a permissive parent!” I answered, half indignantly yet the earnestness in my voice might have easily been decoded as “guilty-as-charged”.


One of these kids is not like the others

I spent the last 3 weeks putting a brave front sitting in at each of my 4 children's parent-teacher conferences and listening to shocking tales of my children's progress. It is that time of the year again. This school year, I will be sitting through 7 parent-teacher meetings because all 4 of them are at school. Meetings with Sean's and Monique’s teachers are nearly always uneventful and sound pretty much the same. Team Good (as we call the older 2) get the blanket glowing report and the only raps on the knuckles are Sean's tendencies to read during lessons and Monique's constant nattering. Both are benign flaws in the larger scheme of things, and I always walk out of the conferences wondering if those 2 really are my kids.


The naughty, the conflicted and the lost-in-space

But going to see Aidan’s teacher needs more courage and steeled nerves. This kid is, after all, captain of Team Naughty which comprises of him and Sophia. This same kid, 2 years ago, once did attempt to punch a music teacher in his knee caps (obviously too short to reach for his face) in retaliation to a punishment he felt was unjustified. Granted that his teacher who’d informed me about the matter, at the time, was shocked and vouched that she’d never seen him react so violently. Nonetheless, Aidan did display this side of him even if at another teacher. This same kid also furiously and fearlessly chased after a vicious and hungry monkey that had taken off with his sweet tempura leaf biscuit while the rest of us just allowed the furry bandits to run off with ours, rationalizing that it was better we went without than to be hissed at and/or bitten.



Evil Dr. Pork Chop

Even if Aidan's current teacher had no such violent stories to report, she did, however, point out that he is rather willful and stubborn. Of late, he’s learnt a new trick of spitting – a new fad amongst a couple of boys in his class – and has since gotten into trouble for it, just as the other boys have. Regardless of the deed, Aidan isn’t Sean nor is he Monique. He isn’t the kid who trembles in fear at the thought of being caught by authority, neither is he the kind of kid who would repent after being caught. In fact, he would continue with the inappropriate regardless of the consequence, and when the punishment is served up, he might cry but then right after you’ve turned your back, you get the inkling that he’s thumbing his nose right back at you.
 

Taming the unruly

I wonder if this is karma’s way of getting back at me for being a stubborn ass towards my mother?

Mrs Coger (Aidan’s home room teacher, a.k.a my hero) did sing some of his redeeming qualities; like how he’s extremely curious and enthusiastic during lessons, and how he likes doing puzzles and helps the other kids when they can’t figure out the pieces. She then added -- in an attempt to comfort me -- that her sister had a willful son quite like Aidan at the same age but at 22 years old now, is a fine young adult in a reputable University. I was heartened. But then she sighed and said, “He still has some issues like now he wants ‘sleeves’”.

Sleeves? What’s wrong with sleeves? The puzzled look on my face suggested how utterly un-hip and un-cool I’ve become these days and it qualified for a further explanation on her part.

“Sleeves,” she added, “are tattoos that run down the whole length of one’s arms -- on both arms. He is a drummer in a band.” She explained wryly.

Great. That’s re-assuring to know. Did I also mention that Aidan has a penchant for blasting out Neil Yong’s “Rocking in the free world” whilst playing air guitar in front of my full length mirror? Is this prophetic?


Hopefully, not life behind bars one day

Karma, obviously, is still pissed at me.