10 going 25
My eldest daughter and I arrived at the party place and lo and behold - what did we see? Three 10-year olds dripping from swimming and helping themselves to Jollibee take outs, all by themselves with no adult overseeing them. I asked the children if there was a lifeguard on duty and they said yes. As I was taking pictures, I saw the huge warning sign negating the children’s claims of the presence of a lifeguard.
They were fine. They knew where to stay given their swimming capacities. There was only one good swimmer in the group which was my daughter. One friend cannot swim but was waving her floater proudly and the other can swim ‘a little’-whatever that meant. It felt more like a planned gimmick than a party.
Qualities of 10-year olds
I admire their liberty, their planning and organizing proficiency. Maybe these are the reasons why parents do not keep watch over kids anymore at these 'gimmicks' - at least the parents of the kids that my daughter hangs around with.
I remember my own daughter’s birthday last year when she made invitations and asked me to print out a map for her friends who vowed to come to wherever she was spending her birthday at. Nobody asked me for my phone number, which was my wont just in case, we never know, we get lost. I had no idea how the kids would get to our house, how they would know that it is our house and how they will go home. We couldn't ferry them home because we didn't have a car and we had no idea where they live. But they came anyway. They came, some with parents and a few with only chaperons or just someone to take them to and from the house. That was amazing, considering the many crimes happening around us and here pa, in the Philippines!
One time, the March celebrant came and fetched my daughter to go watch a movie with her. Oh, there were grown-ups: the driver and the friend’s mom’s friend. Kigao made our 14-year old go with them and gave them money for the movie. When they were gone, he panicked. He woke me up from my much needed sleep and I was all cranky and angry. How could he let the kids go with someone he didn’t know and only introduced herself as Sara Park!? Duh. Sara Park! The name is so common for Koreans it’s like Juan dela Cruz in the Philippines! And giving them our eldest daughter to boot! Sigh. Anyways, turned out it was all legit.
The other friend went to Diru’s party in a tricycle – the tricycle the family contacts when transportation is needed (Diru assumed). But that was it - the friend and the tricycle driver and the map. She was picked up at a certain time by the same tricycle. This same girl, on this March birthday occasion, was picked up by the celebrant, went to the pool with her buddies, not an adult with her in sight. She walks to and from school with her siblings as her house is fairly near. Sometimes, she walks by herself if their schedules clash and they don't want to wait for each other. Maybe she is granted this independence because of the proximity of their house to the school. But I mean, come on, we make sure that our kids here in the campus are at least with an adult to watch over them when they go swimming and we live less than 500 meters from the pool! But hey, who am I to judge the decisions and the running of a family.
Back to this birthday
Of course, the birthday celebrant’s mom came for her in the afternoon and brought us all home with the celebrant giving the directions to all our houses in Korean to her mom - another amazing feat! She remembered the way to all our houses! All is well. The simplicity of how and what she had in mind for her birthday – spend the afternoon playing in the pool with her best buddies - Ilaw called it cute. I call it impressive. Yes, that’s the word that I was looking for. I am impressed.
"I am an X in an indeterminate equation. And that X is the rock upon which I stand." - Mario Puzo
Comments
I landed here after reading a post presumably written by you, in 2006, about Cacnipa island.
God Bless