Sayang Anak Tangan-Tangankan..

Which loosely translate as 'If you love your kids, you've got to learn to punish them so that they could differentiate the good and the bad' or something like that..

I was at one of the fast food restaurant with my son to have an early dinner just now. We proceeded to the upper floor of the restaurant so that Daniel could play at the play area while we ate. There was just a family eating at one of the tables closer to the play area. We took another table close to them.

Then, a burly Malay guy came upstairs with 2 of his children. They went to the rest room area which was at the far end of the room from us. They approached 2 female workers who were cleaning the area, and he confronted them. The conversation went something like this:

Man: (asking his children) Siapa yang marah tadi? (Who scolded you just now?)

The kid must have pointed to one of the workers (I didn't bother to look at the incident)

Man: Kenapa awak marah anak saya tadi? (Why you scolded my child just now?)

Worker: Mana ada marah Encik! Lantai ni licin tadi saya cuci, jadi saya tak bagi diorang main kat sini takut jatuh. Mana saya ada marah diorang! (I didn't scold them, Sir! The floor was slippery just now after I cleaned them, so I didn't allow them to play around at this area so that they won't fall. I didn't scold them!)

Man: (Shouting to them, very angrily) Sampai menangis budak-budak ni tadi kena marah! Diorang ni budak-budak. Diorang tak tau apa-apa! Awak tu sebagai orang dewasa kena faham la. Jangan sesuka hati nak marah-marah budak-budak. Kalau tak boleh guna tandas, cakap baik-baik. Diorang bukannya faham! (You scolded them until they cried! They are just kids! They don't understand! You as adult should understand. Don't simply scold the kids. If the toilets couldn't be used, tell them nicely. They don't understand!)

And then he continued lecturing them on top of his voice for maybe another 5 minutes.

While I pretended not to care about the chaos, I couldn't help but feel pity for the worker, but also the guy for his lack of intelligence. It was not such a big deal that should have caused such a scene! First of all, he shouldn't have let his children wander around themselves upstairs when he was downstairs if he really cared about them. And, if that was they way he treated his children, it's not impossible that they would continue to be spoilt brats whom would cause more trouble to the people around them in the future.

Hallo brader! Orang lain pun sayang anak, ok! Rilekla...Kalau nak marah pun biarlah kena gaya dan tempatnya!