Two Big Lessons Our Son Learned from Us (His Parents)

Despite the pandemic, we are able to continue with Theo's schooling because he is homeschooled. We decided to start the 2020-2021 schoolyear last August 3. For the record, he is now in Grade 10 (Fourth Year, Junior High School). 

For his very first task, I just asked him to write an essay, instead of diving in to the lessons right away. I knew it would be a good warm up for him since he is a natural writer.

The topic I gave him was "What are the two big lessons you learned from me and your Dad that had a big impact on you and will make you remember us throughout your life?" To clarify, he had to discuss two lessons each from me and Papa B.

With so much pride as a mom, let me share here what he wrote.

These are some big lessons that I learned from my mom and dad. I will also be mentioning some of the ways I will remember them throughout my life. (Author’s note: At the time of writing this, the enter key was pretty buggy and tried its best to not let me start a new paragraph.)

One of the things I learned from my dad is that you should never sing, talk loudly, or laugh loudly within a 5-meter radius around him if he is sleeping. Otherwise he will wake up and be quite mad about it. This lesson applies not only to him but to anyone who is sleeping or doing something similar.

In other words, this first lesson is to be considerate toward others, which can mean not playing old 70’s OPM from loudspeakers if someone is sleeping, recording audio, or doing basically anything in close proximity to said loudspeakers. This is only an example and being considerate toward others covers a much wider range than this.

The next lesson comes from my mom. She teaches that as much as possible, do not do unnecessary things. This includes:

·         Attempting to grab a computer mouse while a cup of water is beside it.

·         Lifting a cat that has a cold onto an elevated surface, aiming said cat toward a person, and allowing said cat to sneeze from said surface.

·         Attempting various pranks that may or may not fail and instead cause a problem.

These examples do not comprise all unnecessary things, and in fact make up only

a very small part of them.

However, keeping this in mind will be very useful later on in life. (Author’s note: At the time of writing this, many of the keys on my keyboard were bugging out and caused many typos.)

Another lesson that I learned from my dad, ironically, is that anger rarely helps in solving problems and, on the contrary, distorts your thinking and causes the problem to get bigger. This is not something that he taught me voluntarily, but I learned it through years of experience with him as the example.

It seems that he is also starting to realize this and is attempting to minimize his anger. This is good, because it lets him think more clearly and analyze a situation better than if he were angry. At the time of writing, one skill that he has to improve is being more patient when someone is attempting to help him, and he must also learn to listen more than he talks.

The second lesson that I learned from my mom, quite recently, is that you must identify your strengths and weaknesses in order to be successful. This is one of the most important things that anyone can learn. Because when you know your strengths and your weaknesses, you will be able to take advantage of your strengths, and if required, have someone help you with your weaknesses.

For example, if you know that one of your weaknesses is remembering directions, then instead of attempting to memorize every turn, every corridor, every place that you could go, which would be pretty useless seeing as your brain is not built for this kind of work, then you could just ask your husband or your son about directions, as there is a very good chance that they will know where to go.

Another example: if you know that one of your strengths is talking, then you can take advantage of that strength and take up a job that requires talking. If you know your strengths, then you will know what kinds of things you will enjoy doing. On the other hand, if you know your weaknesses, then you can avoid jobs/fields that involve those weaknesses, as you will not enjoy them and will probably not stand out in them.

 I will now write about how I will remember my parents.

I will remember my dad as a really cool father who, for some reason, really loves cleaning and things that involve washing objects. Recently, he found something he really liked doing, which is video game streaming, and it seems he loves it even more than cleaning, which means he must really enjoy it. He is also a morning person, so he wakes up early, takes a nap in the afternoon, and after said nap, announces that he is sleepy and asks for coffee.

I will remember my mom as the best mom ever. She is very understanding, and always understands things that my dad cannot, especially if something is said in English. She has the middle chronotype, which means she doesn’t wake up as early as my dad, which is really cool for me because I am a night owl. At night, we talk (if near my dad who is sleeping, we whisper) about random stuff, ranging from nonsense to thought experiments and physics. This is also why she is the coolest mom ever.

That is all for this essay, I hope you enjoyed reading this, and one last note: the keys on my keyboard were still buggy as I typed this last paragraph.

Not only did he improve so much with the way he writes, but I am so happy to note that there is so much heart and honesty on his piece. The humor has always been there, but this time, it is pleasantly more subtle and natural.

There are some private jokes that only our family can understand, like the one about "playing old 70's OPM from loudspeakers" where Theo was actually referring to a neighbor. That part where he mentioned about "remembering directions" as a weakness, was actually about me😂.

My favorite part is the second to the last paragraph plus something he said after I read his essay, which had me trying so hard to hold back my tears. He said, if somebody says otherwise (meaning, the opposite of what he wrote about me), he will "ora ora" that person. 

JoJo from Wikipedia (fair use)

"Ora ora" is often said in the Japanese manga series, "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure" when the main character is in a fight. Looking up other meanings of the word "ora," it is also used in scolding people when they do something that is not proper. It can also mean something like, "take this!"

In other words, Theo was trying to tell me that he will protect me against anyone who will think badly of me. This was quite a surprise for me because he is not usually very expressive. 

I gave Theo an A+ for this essay. 💗😉👏👍🤗