Child talks like adult!

Was chatting with my little niece on saturday. She is primary 2 going on to primary 3 next year; ie: 8 going on to 9 years old.

I cannot believe how mature she is. She was talking about how time flies, how days, weeks and months fly past and before one knows it, it would be a year gone.

I do not remember children of my era talking like that lor! Not me at least. When I was her age, I would be looking out for my father to come and fetch me home after the school lowering flag ceremony. When I grew older, I stayed back in school awhile to play five-stones and zero-points with my friends.

Though I was the only child, I was never a pampered one. I was well-protected, not pampered. My father never allowed me to boil anything or use the iron until I was in Sec 2. BBQs etc were out of the question until Sec 3 or 4. However, I could hang out with friends after school at Parkway, near school etc till evening. Of course I had more and more freedom when I grew older.

Till now, I still think I had alot of pocket money in the past, $8 a day in Secondary School, $10 a day in JC and $15 to $20 a day in the uni. However, I remembered myself being a sensible child. In primary school, I would use my pocket money to rent story books, buy nice stationery that I cannot bear to use, buy my own piggy bank/safe box etc. I never asked for extra money to buy things. If I did not have enough, I would save for it.

Later, I bought my first Aiwa walkman with my pocket money too and my first guess watch which is still in working condition when I got my first pay-check after my 'O' levels exams. I also gave tution when I was in JC and uni and paid for my own pager and mobile phone bills.

Maybe I was mature in a way too, but I never talked like an adult. Or maybe I did not have anyone to talk to and with friends we did not talk about mature stuff. Even if we did, we started in secondary school, definately not in primary school!

Of course the past cannot be used as benchmarks. However, nowadays children are very different. Some different for the better but some different for the worse.