When an important holiday comes, I usually think of what gifts to buy or prepare for my beloved and the ones that once helped or cared for me. It is the act itself rather than the thing you buy that matters. Either a small present or just a short message or a phone call can mean a lot to the receivers. However, I’ve never got anything so far from my son, who is a junior in a Beijing university. I know it is very common nowadays that parents will never forget to celebrate their son or daughter’s birthday or some other important occasions. However, their children seem to be very forgetful; they seldom, if ever, do something in return. I used to believe it is one of the disadvantages of the one-child policy and we have, to some extent, calmly accepted the reality.

Life is unpredictable and you just can never know what will happen tomorrow. When my son came back after the school broke up for the winter, we, as usual, met him at the station. Of course we were kind of excited that we were finally reunited after such a long separation. Upon arrival at home, much to my surprise, my son took out a wrist watch and gave it to me, saying it’s a New Year gift for me. It is a very fashionable-looking plastic watch, which shows not only hours, minutes and seconds but days as well. There’re many other fancy functions that I have yet to know how to use them. You can imagine how astonished and excited I was at that moment. It was just what I needed! I had long wanted to get one, for it is very inconvenient without a watch as a teacher. There’re many occasions when you need to know the time but are not permitted to carry a cell phone with you!

As parents, we sometimes expect too much of our kids. We even wish them to realize the dreams that we were unable to make them come true when we were young. We compare them with excellent children of other families, unwisely pushing them to challenge their limits. Consciously or unconsciously, we make them suffer, going through their childhood with little sense of happiness. On the other hand, some parents are overprotective or over tolerant. We do see some children that lack the basic manners. They just don’t know how to behave or whether they should behave themselves, which makes many people worried. Can they take the responsibilities they will have to shoulder? Will they be a lost generation? They get, some say, too much care and love from their parents and grandparents. They just take it for granted! It’s natural for some to have such concerns and worries, but things may not turn out as badly as expected. We do need to look more at the positive side of life. As a famous writer once put it, “Life is the best classroom one can ever get.”