My Longkang

Boy burnt at petrol kiosk

I refer to the above link. Muhammad Ikmal Imran Ahmad Nizam suffered 70% burns on his face and body. This is indeed a shocking incident. I have heard of incidents where smoking is involved or mobile phones are involved but this is the first time I have heard of an incident like this.

As a parent, I wonder how I can protect my child.

There are so many ways a child can hurt himself. Like using a fork when eating, crossing a road carelessly to look at a stray cat, running over the the driver’s side to say goodbye. There are lots of risks even in the home. For example the gas stove, the water tank, reversing the car not knowing a child is behind, hot water, electrical outlets etc.

I take for example Benghui. When he is excited, he is absent-minded and forgets about road safety. He climbed up the sink and fell down. He tried to pet a stray dog. He got lost in the supermarket. He tried to use the micro-wave and ended up spoiling it. There was a period he was fascinated by fire and played with matches or once he tried to iron his own clothes without our knowledge. He tried to test how hot the iron was by putting it against his face.

Another time he fell down while swimming and didn’t know how to stop breathing while under water and didn’t know how to get up. Once he came too close while I was opening the door and the keys narrowly missed his eyes. Or last Friday he closed the car door with his index finger still on the door.

As parents we all despair. We worry for their future. We see the political developments in the country and worry. We worry about their education, their future job opportunities, how they will turn out etc. We worry too about the company they keep.

In other words most parents are ‘fuss-pots’. I recall as a child I was almost knocked down by a car. I almost drowned when I went swimming without permission. There were so many situations but life was safer then. I almost fell from a high rise trying to get a kite. Life is more complicated now.

I was chatting with Josh Incorrigible and I learned a lot about parenting tips: how to be good parents etc. but in the end it is a child’s destiny. We can but guide and protect them. The rest we can only leave it to God. We have to learn to trust God.

Mathew 6: 25-27,34

34: Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day.