monkey see, monkey do.

My son is that “spongy” age. He soaks up everything he sees and spills out everything he soaks, since he’s still unable to wholly differentiate between what’s right and what’s wrong.

Just last night, after dinner, some milk (for Luqman) and a light bath, we played kejar-kejar at home. I love these sessions with him because he gets all excited about the game and at the end of it all, bedtime would be so easy, since he would be all zonked out from all the running and teasing.

So we played. Again and again and again. And then at one point, he ran a tad too fast, causing him to crash into my back! He was actually okay with it, ye la mana tak nya, pipi pau tu yang terkena belakang Mama dia, but to be honest, my back kind of hurt.

It didn’t hurt enough for me to start crying, but I thought it would be nice to troll Luqman a bit, just to gauge his reaction. So, I mock-cried.

That boy never ceases to amaze me.

He rubbed my back and started patting my shoulder and went all, “Mama, Mama, Mama” on me while shushing me and rubbing my face and cheeks with those chubby little hands at the same time. I told him that my back hurt so he started rubbing my back again. I told him that I wanted a hug, so he gave me a huge, huge hug. I told him I wanted a kiss and he shoved to me his cheek for me to kiss (we’re still working on that), but still, it was just so sweet. I continued my mock-cries and I could see that there was genuine concern in his eyes. When I wouldn’t stop, he started to cry a bit with me as well, clearly confused why I wasn’t getting better.

Children do as they see. Children treat as they are treated.

And I’m so proud that this lil’ sponge of mine has learned compassion from all the life lessons we try to lead him by example.

People always say, “monkey see, monkey do”. I guess it’s more than true.

So, let us teach them well. Because that’s the least that we can do.