Delayed Gratification

My parents taught me delayed gratification ever since we were kids. I didn't realize it back then, naturally, but when we were adults, Mom used to tell us that ever since we were kids, if we wanted a toy or something, she would say to us, "Right now we don't have the money yet, so you have to wait until next month, okay?" Mom told us that actually they DID have the money already back then, but they wanted to teach us the value of delayed gratification. I find that this lesson has been one of the MOST important things I've ever learnt in life. Funny thing is that I don't recall any grudge or sadness that even from a young age, I had to wait to get something. I should remember this lesson so that I can pass it on to my children one day. ;-D

Anyway, as you all probably know, I used to work as a private English tutor for kids. Naturally most of the kids I taught had rich parents or at least had parents from middle-classes families. I remember one time I asked one student of mine, "So school holiday's coming soon. Where are you going to go with your family? Any special plans?"

He said with a derogatory tone of voice, "Euuww...we'll probably go to Singapore AGAIN. SO boring!"

I was shocked when I heard his tone of voice (as if her mother took him to the local ZOO over and over again). Right then and there I wish I could have told him that I had saved money for four years by being a part-time private English tutor while I studied at the university in order to be able to go to Singapore ONCE and that I had always cherished that one short trip. However, I don't think that he would have understood it anyway even if I had told him about it. I just hope that later on life'll teach him this lesson.

It's just crazy how SOME kids of rich parents really take money for granted (I'm not saying ALL because not all of them do this). They can get anything they want without having to wait, so they feel that they have the world in their hands.

One thing I dislike about being a private English tutor was kids who had rich parents who felt as though they could do whatever they liked since they thought, "Well, my parents pay YOU to teach me, so if I feel lazy to come over to your house, it's MY choice." Some of my students came to my house since they lived nearby, and some of them really didn't appreciate my time. They would sometimes call me 15 minutes or 30 minutes before their appointed time and say, "Miss, I don't feel like coming today. I'm so lazy, OK?" GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!! I had spent time preparing the lesson and writing down exercises and I had waited for them to come, and they could just do that to me? After a while, I got so upset that I charged them for the lost hour. I wouldn't have charged them if they were really sick or they had urgent matters, but if they did it just because they were lazy, I couldn't take it. I could've used that hour to do something else instead.

Plus the toughest thing about teaching kids was when they weren't motivated to learn. They weren't interested in learning English whatsoever. They just came to my house simply because their Mom told them to. This was by far the toughest kind of student to deal with. No matter how good I was, no matter how many lessons I gave them, if they wouldn't meet me halfway, everything I gave vanished like thin air.

Gee...I have rambled off topic again ha ha ha...I need to do my homework again: writing today's diary he he he he he...