Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Taming the Final Exams Tension.. Kids!

I saw my three girls waiting for me when I reached home today. My Hanis (3yo), Haifa (6yo) and Hasya (9yo) looked excited. Ini mesti apa-apa ni, I thought.

Before I could pull the key out, my Hanna (11yo) opened the back door and jumped in. I turned to see her lying on the seat and saw that her face expression was somewhat sad.

I couldn’t ask her what was wrong, since Hasya was shoving some papers towards me. There were 2 cards and some Sekolah Agama exam papers.

Hasya : Ibu.. Ibu... Hasya ada 2 invitations untuk birthday party Ibu... satu on Saturday, satu on Sunday. Please Ibu, can I go?

Haifa : Best nya Hasya dapat pergi parties Ibu... Haifa pun best Ibu, dapat pergi chocolate factory esok!

A-ah la Hasya, you got taekwondo classlah. The exam’s next week, so you gotta go on both Saturday and Sunday. Bulan puasa hari tu kan dah sebulan rehat...

Hasya: Please Ibu... Please...

We’ll see.. Ok, Hasya?

By now Hanna was already out of the car. I could sense her tension. Hasya’s finals (Sekolah Kebangsaan and Sekolah Agama) were over today. Haifa’s Tadika assessment was also over. Tomorrow, Haifa will be going for a Tadika trip to a chocolate factory. She just couldn’t wait for tomorrow to come... Willy Wonka wannabe... Chocolate factory kan... And Hanna? She still has Sekolah Kebangsaan and Sekolah Agama finals to study for.

Itu yang Hanna tension tu. Hasya and Haifa were going to have ‘fun’. Haziq and Husna already went for their school trip before Deepavali that day. It seemed to her everybody else were ‘enjoying’ and she alone got to sit at her study table for 3 more days.

It was 6:45pm at the dinner table when she blurted her feelings out loud. Why Hasya could go to parties, why Haifa could go the chocolate factory – of all places! Why she gotta go for taekwondo classes for two days in a row when Hasya could skip one. Bla..bla..bla… and Hasya was arguing why she could go and stuff. Adoi... sakit kepala ku...

Just now, in Hasya’s room, I talked to Hanna.

Hanna... you saw HSM3 before the exam. You told me that your friends haven’t seen it yet, but you have. We did like 20 cupcakes last weekend and you did the toppings on most of them. I didn’t pressure you to study pun. But now when the exam’s here, you just have to do it. Don’t compare yourself with Hasya and Haifa coz they’re much younger than you. You’d been 6yo and 9yo before, so you must know how it was like then. When the exam’s over, you got like 2 months to do whatever you want. Nak buat paintings ke, buat sand castle kat beach ke, tengok wayang ke, main internet games ke....

Hanna nak buat jigsaw puzzle lah Ibu...

(Aikk.. of all things?) Oh... Ok. Jigsaw puzzle it is. OK?

OK Ibu.

Hmmh... that settled it. I just hope that the tension left her for good.... But I could anticipate that she’d feel the same thing tomorrow when Haifa (knowing how Haifa is) came back with her stories on the chocolate factory...

So I'm ready with the second round of the same-old same-old tomorrow..

**Sigh**

16 comments:

Unknown said...

Hard being a good mum huh? I dunno, you do. But anyhow, you seem to enjoy it, nevertheless :)
What a mum :)

wanshana said...

Alahai...kesiannya Hanna!

It's okay, just a couple more days ajer lagi. Lepas tu - MERDEKA!!!!

I nasib baik anak-anak I semua habis exam this Thursday serentak :)

(So, their Mommy pun merdeka lepas tu!)

Syaliza Abdul Rahman said...

Syana tersenyum baca entry ini ...

kesian hanna. sabar, tak lama habis la exam & then party jigsaw puzzle!

hmm... penuh dugaan & susah senang menjadi ibu, kak ja tetap berpeluang menjadi ibu yg terbaik :o)

syana harap, syana juga berpeluang mcm kak ja.

have a great week :o)

MAMAMIA said...

Syoknya pergi chocolate factory, aunty pun nak ikut... Where is this?

My primary school kids dah merdeka. Tapi still kena perintah berkurung, coz kakak is doing her 'vision' ( not revision, sebab baru nak last minute study)

NURAZZAH8 said...

Happy 17th Anniversary !!! Sorry terlambat... sbb lama tak baca blog...sibuk betul

Nanti jemput dtg rumah Che Long ya pada 22hb ni, kenduri dia nak gi haji InsyaAllah

jabishah said...

Hahaha... mmg! Cukup memeningkan. But Im sure you are an expert handling all that.

My girls habis exam serentak. Good thing.. Now results lah pulak. Pressure, pressure.

Daphne Ling said...

Hello Aunty Ja,

Hah...So young tension di ar? Sigh...

But, I learnt that we need something that we enjoy which would be de-stressing...

Like when I go out and do all these volunteer work in the community. Although my schedule pack giler, I am enjoying it.

Because it's the one time I get to play with puppets, meet people and laugh, and just run around and mem-bodoh away!

Pelik kan? Lagi banyak kerja, tapi the hati gembira...=)

Jigsaws work too!

Dalam Dakapan Ibu said...

Dear Akmal,
Yes, I do enjoy it... cuma sometimes my patience got so thin that I was afraid I might explode!

I'm still learning tho... and hope that the mistakes I made along the way could make me tougher and WISER :)

Dalam Dakapan Ibu said...

Shana dear,
The exam's over today for Hanna. Phew! But I wonder why Hasya pulak looked so gloomy these past 2 days. She wasn't herself. Risau jugak. Bila tanya, dia cakap tak ada apa.

This evening I'll bring her out to Baskin Robbins ke & try to korek from her why she's behaving this way... Risau..risau...

Dalam Dakapan Ibu said...

Dear Syana,
Banyak dugaan jadi Ibu ni... tapi berbaloi :)

Your turn will come, insyaallah. And I'm very confident that you'll be a wonderful Mom to all your kids nanti... Amiin.... ;)

Dalam Dakapan Ibu said...

Salam Mamamia,
It was Beryl's - that was what Haifa told me, I pun tak find out from the teacher... i was erally surprised when Haifa kata tak best pun... Goody bag pun yilek. Last year diorang pergi kilang roti, siap dapat banyak benda lagi...

Tak best kan?

Nak tergelak pasai 'vision' tu... hehehe... lawak...

Dalam Dakapan Ibu said...

Salam Che Uda,
TQ :)

Insyaallah kami pi. Cumanya sekarang MIL tengah nak start (1st time) dialysis... so esok nak balik Kluang. Next week tu kalau semua ok, insyaallah kami pi....

Dalam Dakapan Ibu said...

Ja dear,
Jadi mak-mak ni, sebelum exam finin, tengah exam finin, dah habis exam pun finin! Cuti sekolah pun finin!

Alahai.... finin...finin...

Dalam Dakapan Ibu said...

Dear Daphne,
I've already have a few unopened jigsaws at home... coz I used to be a jigsaw maniac dulu...hehehe..

But the next day Hanna was already ok... You know why? PMS rupanya..hihihi... False alarm!

Lee said...

Hi Ibu, I always enjoy reading your conversation with your kids. Very heart warming.
Yes, having kids does have its ups and downs, but always fun and a future to look forward to.
Have a great weekend, Lee.

Dalam Dakapan Ibu said...

Dear U.Lee,
The varieties of their behaviors, thinking, attitudes, etc etc actually make me stand on my toes all the time...hehehe...

TQ U.Lee... I hope you have a wonderful weekend too :)