已為人父母的我們,
Being as parents,
該好好自我深思,
we should ruminate over the ways of educating our children.
我們對孩子的教育方法做對了嗎? 智明~
Are they actually the right ways?

如果你們不能一輩子供給我優渥的生活，那為什麼從小要讓我養成這種習慣
日前在聯合副刊看到一篇讀者投書，作者叫佳佳.內容如下:

"If you could not afford providing me a comfortably off life, my whole life through, why did you let me be accustomed to a spending habit like this, from as early as I was still a kid?"  The passage was quoted from a contribution to the supplement edtion of United Daily News, by the author named Jia-Jia. There she wrote:

有一對父母,他們的小孩大學畢業,上班了，有了收入,所以父母不再給零用錢，
可是入了社會的小孩.用好的吃好的.追流行 .錢根本不夠用.結果丟了一句話給父母
" 如果你們不能一輩子供給我優渥的生活，那為什麼從小要讓我養成這種習慣?………"
看了打了個冷顫, 我們是不是也是這樣的父母?
我們要怎樣教我們的孩子愛物惜物 ?
A college graduate who was receiving no more allowance from his parents because he had income of his own from work, but his earnings being unable to allow him to pursue chic brands and gourmet food any longer; so once said to his parents.  "If you could not afford providing me a comfortably off life, my whole life through, why did you let me be accustomed to a spending
habit like this, from as early as I was a kid?’. That makes me quiver with a chill of fear. Do we bear similarity to the parents of the kind?How do we teach our children cherishing what they have had?

我今年二十歲，目前因故休學，在一家安親班打工。
安親班鄰近便利商店，孩子很喜歡去那裡買東西。
常見包子吃一口就丟，飲料喝半罐就不要.
洋芋片才吃兩片，就買一包別的來吃。
這些孩子平常也喜歡偷藏別人的東西開玩笑，愛看人家著急的神情。
我曾多次制止，他們卻毫不覺得不妥，甚至腦筋還動到我的火車月票上。

I am twenty years old, now temporarily quitted school for some reasons, and having a job in a daycare center.  Kids of the center are used to buy things at a convenience store nearby, and I often watch them cast aside unfinished buns and beverages, replace potato chips just began eating with a new pack. The kids are fond of playing practical joke on others by hiding their belongings, gloating over their look of dire anxiety. I’ve tried to exhort the kids not to play pranks, but they don’t think it is a wrong way to do so, and they even think of an evil plan on my train pass.

我生活一向儉約，身上很少帶超過五十元 。
失去月票，我回不了家，只能投宿朋友家.
而我怎樣也沒有想到–竟是他們偷拿我的東西！
他們非常聰明，一直等到月票過期了才拿出來還給我 。
我說，這種行為是不對的，我會寫在聯絡簿上告知家長。這些孩子竟然從錢包掏出兩千元摔在我面前：「小氣鬼，才兩千，賠妳就是了！」.「才」兩千元嗎？ 我還不到可以老氣橫秋地說「我們那個年代啊……」的年紀，
我也沒嘗過貧窮的滋味，但那兩千元也是我辛苦從生活費中儉省下來的，是我半個月的生活費啊! 這些孩子竟然可以這麼不屑地從錢包掏出來摔在我面前！
I’ve always been frugal, seldom having over fifty dollars in my pocket. So I have to double up with my friend because I just can’t go home without my train pass. It is just beyond my imagination that it was they who had stole my pass. They are nastily clever too, not until the validation of the pass is expired had they returned the loot to me. I told them it was a bad-behaved act, and I would tell their parents via teacher-parent coordination.  Guess what? One of the kids just took out 2,000 dollars from his wallet and drop them in front of me and said, "There you go, just 2,000, big deal!".  Big deal, 2,000?  I’m not yet old enough to tell them in a Dutch Uncle manner that "when I was your age…..", and I havn’t experienced a life of poverty either, but when it comes to 2,000 dollars, the result of painstaking savings from daily life, is able to sustain me for half a month! How could these kids take out the money from their wallet and drop it in front of me so contemptuously.

這讓我想起之前某一次當家教，
我看那個孩子家中並非十分富
醫科生的我，時薪是可以索價五百到七百元的，但我只要了時薪三百元。
我認真地教他，無奈學生不用心，
總是想聊天，不想聽課，後來竟挑明了說：
「要不是我媽說,上妳一小時課.給我五百元，我才不想聽妳講這些無聊東西呢！」
This reminds me of that once I was hired as the tutor to a pupil of seemingly not a so well-to-do family. As a medical student, I could ask an hourly pay in between 500 to 700, instead, I only asked 300. I was a diligent turtor, but teaching a careless pupil who loved to chat and paid little heed to what I taught him. At last, he overtly fessed up that if it was not for the 500 dollars per hour his mother gave to him for taking my class, he would have not cared about the tedious stuff I said.

原來請我當家教，比請他當學生便宜多了！
我不知道這些孩子的家庭是否真的很富裕， 但他們生活的態度簡直像暴發戶。
Then I realized the price that asking me to be the tutor had been much chaper than asking him to be the pupil. I didn’t know whether these kids are from wealthy families or not, yet their attitude toward life was just like they are from families of nouveau riche.
這樣對孩子好嗎？
父母不能供應孩子一輩子!
是不是應教會"孩子節儉".比期望孩子以後能賺大錢 .維持闊綽生活，可實際多了。
Does this do any good to our kids? Children definitly won’t live off their parents whole life through, so is it more pratical to teach our kids getting used to a frugal life than expecting them to make big money and lead an ostentatious life?
昨天我在教室的白板上心痛地寫下：
「一粥一飯，當思來處不易；半絲半縷，恆念物力維艱。」
這是一個很古老的諺語，但我不認為這不合時代。
With a great deal of heartache I inscribed following words on the whiteboard in classroom. "Think of a single bowl of gruel or rice, it
doesn’t come easy. Think of a thread or a piece of cloth, it is made of a lot of efforts.". It’s an old saying, but I don’t think it’s an anachronism in the modern world.
教給孩子這個美德，是留給他們一項比萬貫家財還要重要的資產。
Leave your children this kind of virtue, then you bequeath them an imprtant asset that much outweighed the properties or heirlooms of your family.

因為自己.小時候過得辛苦，便盡量給孩子好日子過的家長"請深思 "，這樣究竟是愛孩子，還是害了孩子。
Think seriously and ask youself is it a love or a hurt to your children
that you spoil and cosset them just because you were poor when you were their age.

捨不得孩子吃苦，將來他會更苦！
許多父母養小孩是把孩子捧在手心上， 怕他凍著、怕他餓著、摔著．．．
其實這種過度的保護，
只會讓他更低能、更依賴、更不知如何面對人生的大風大浪。
Their own times will be harder if you are not willing to let them cope with anything hard now.  Many parents coddle their children too much lest they should get cold, get hungry or get tumbled.
In fact, over-protection will only make them more impotent, more dependent and more unaware of how to weather the storm ahead of them in their own life.