The Mother, The Child & The Pineapple
The three minutes video clip of Khaleej Times is about the story of a mother and a child. The mother was a fruit vendor who wanted to give everything for her daughter. Every time her daughter helps her from cutting fruits for them to sell, even though her daughter does not know how to cut those fruits, yet she still want to help her mother. As a mother, of course she wanted to teach her daughter on how to cut fruits properly but because she did not go to school, she does not know how to teach her daughter. So she thought maybe she can teach her daughter on how to cut fruits by showing her the exact thing on how to do it. It made her happy because it does teach her daughter on how to cut those. One day, when her daughter went home from school, saw some of her school mates buying ice cream on stick. As a child, her daughter really wanted to buy one yet she cannot afford to. The sad part that hurts her is that she saw her daughter staring on those children who were happily eating ice cream. And because she wanted to give everything for her daughter even though they cannot afford everything, she got an idea on how to make her daughter happy. The only thing they have are fruits which are their goods for selling. She made her own fruit ice cream which was specifically made from a pineapple fruit. She cut it into pieces and put a stick on it. She dipped the pineapple on stick on a container filled with ice cubes overnight. After that day, she gave it to her daughter and it made her happy because she made her daughter happy. While her daughter was eating the pineapple ice cream, she thought of a bright idea. Her daughter told her that it tastes good than an ice cream, so maybe they could sell it. She thought also about what her daughter told her. Then after that day, her daughter started selling their new product, the pineapple ice cream. Her daughter peddled in the market and trying to sell their product the whole day. Until the afternoon, the ice cubes were already liquefied and she planned to go home. Her daughter was wondering and asked her, how come no one wants to buy her pineapple ice cream. She then recall the time when her daughter does not know how to cut the fruits. Where she show her how to do it in a right way. So she told her daughter to go to the market and to see how vendors sell their goods. Her daughter then went to the market and observed what every vendors do to sell their goods. Her daughter noticed that other vendors used banners to show what goods are they selling, also other vendors were announcing about what their products are or how much is it and others were giving a promo which every consumer’s pleasure. Then her daughter decided to make a mini banner for her pineapple ice cream and she need to learn how to sales talk. After that day, her daughter started to peddle again and unexpectedly, everybody wanted now to buy her pineapple ice cream even the children who were eating ice creams that day.
The video clip obviously tells us that it is much better to let children learn their lessons in their own way than teaching them. Let them learn from their experiences, their mistakes and everything that they do in their lives. In that way, children become independent and can decide on their own. They can now decide what is good for them base on the things that they experienced which may results something bad or something good. By letting them learn from their surroundings or from the people they will meet is much better because they can learn a lot of things than teach them what to do. The things we teach on them has limitation because the things we only know limits the things that they can learn. Perhaps, by letting them learn things on their own maybe much wider than the things we know. We cannot teach them everything about life because we cannot stay always on their sides. Even if they are still small, they should start to learn things on their own way so that when the time comes that they need to be separated from their parents and live on their own, they will now know the things they need to do to live. Yet letting them learn on their own has a bad sides. Consider that we cannot stay always on their sides, maybe they can experience something that they were not aware if it is a bad or a good thing to practice. Guidance is still needed so that they will not lost on the right path where they should be. If we would let them do things, perhaps, they maybe do something which for them does not mean anything but for us it may be a bad things. Like for some street children, most of them learn things from the street. From the people they see and from the things they experience on the street. The good thing about them is that, some of the street children learn how to survive in the street in a good way. Some of them look for work like helping in the market, carrying heavy things just to have a money even if it is just a small amount of money. They can endure everything just for them to eat and to live. Others are ‘nanglilimos’ in the street, mostly when it is having a heavy traffic. They will approach anyone who were on the cars and asking for a money. But that way is dangerous for them especially that most of them are small children. The bad thing about them is that, others are stealing things from the people who just passed-by. They are making their situations much worst. Because when they will be captured by the police, they will be sent to jail if they are not minors anymore. Others who are still minors will be sent to DSWD or Department of Social Welfare and Development and there, they will teach them how to forget their usual life on the streets. Other sample are the children who were misguided by their parents. Most of them were influenced by their friends. Influenced in a way that they started to drink alcoholic drinks, started to smoke and the worst is, started to take illegal drugs. They will now then involve in crimes. They will start to steal things from other people just to maintain their usage of illegal drugs. Once you start to take it, you will get addicted. Later on, most of them will regret about what they have done. So from that experience, they will learn their lesson. They will learn the real world.
The video clip can be relate on some aspects of our life. The message does not only limits about children learning things on their own. The relationship between God and us, humans can be relate too. God as our father, gives us the earth our planet to live for. Gives us many resources, such as the water, the forest, the animals and other more, to use for us to survive. Base on the bible in the book of Genesis, in the time where Adam and Eve where the only humans God ever made. They were told by God not to eat the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. But then they were seduced by the evil snake and told them to eat the forbidden fruit. God let them do anything for them to learn. Because if God does not let them do that, perhaps, God has a power to stop them, but then again God let them do it. Base on their experience, they now learn that doing a bad things has an equivalent punishment. Nowadays, people do things the way they want it to do. People now discovered and invented a lot of thing, and learn new things. God wanted us to explore the world to become productive. God let us do things even if it is bad or good for us because at the end of the day, it is for us to learn from our mistakes. Then if we learn from those, we will now be aware on things we should or should not do. God as our father, does not always let us do things in our way, because we all know that He is always there on our sides to guide us and be there when we need Him. God has the power to control everything if He wants to. But then for us human, He let us do things in the way we want it to be. Because of His undying love for us and because we are His children, He trust us about everything we do. Because He already know, before we do those things that we can learn a lot about it for us to become a well-rounded person.
Teachers, Professors and Facilitators are considered to be our second parents in our school. They teach us lessons and everything about their respective field. They teach us how to solve a mathematical problem, how to make a speech, how to program, how to dance and sing, how to be physically fit, and many more. At first, they will give us lessons to learn and study. But not all the time they will just be teaching. They will also give us time to do things on our own. That is why they will give us quizzes, assignments, activities and examination. For us to learn how to apply the things that we had learn from them. They will give us instructions on how to learn things on our own. In school, we learn things not only from our Teachers, Professors and Facilitators but also from other people. Such as from our classmates and friends. Others are too dependent on their classmates. In a way that they will not do their home works but instead copying it from their classmates. Sometimes they will not study their lessons anymore because they prefer to ask their seatmates when it is time for quizzes or examinations. A time will come, they will get tired of letting you copy their works and asking answer from them. Which for me is too irritating. Because I’m not that kind of student who always ask something from my classmates. I prefer to be independent from them because it is better to do things on my own. We also learn things from our experiences, such as whenever we have given a task to do something within the given time. Honestly, most of us will do that task when the deadline is coming. It is our attitude being procrastinator. If there are still few days before the deadline, we still prefer to do it the next day. We always say that ‘sunod na, gi tamad pa ko’. Which was a bad habit to do. The ending is possibly we cannot do the task given or we have not done it so we prefer not to pass it. After that, most of us learned our lessons, others still doing the same habit. From that, we can learn from our mistakes. Others will turn out to be a responsible students. They will now prefer to do things early before the deadline comes because the consequence could be unacceptable. We could possibly get a failing grades which could make us feel down. In our home, we learn some primary things that we necessary to learn. In school, it expands our knowledge about the primary things we learned from our home. In school, we are taught to become a well-rounded person before we can be engage with the outside world or the real world. In other terms, we are trained in school to become a real warrior before we engage to the war outside. We are taught with different techniques and styles of teaching for us to learn a lot of things.
The video clip also shows about poverty. Poverty is one of the problem we are experiencing in our country now a days. In our news every day, they always tell us how poor our country is. Our country is an archipelagic state, it means our country is a group of islands connected by a body of water. Because our country is composed of islands, we also have a lot of tourist spots and abundant in natural resources regarding also that we are a tropical country. Despite of those things that we are rich in, our country is poor specifically our economy. Additionally, we have a lots of governments who obviously corrupted most of the money of our country which makes our country poorer. To develop and make a changes in the statues of our country, we should change our form of government or change anything from our government to improve our situation. Base on the video clip, poverty has a disadvantage and advantage. The disadvantage is that the mother did not go to school which it gives her a hard time teaching her daughter about anything that her daughter needs to know. And also because of it, the mother does not have a proper job to sustain her family. Selling fruits is her only means of livelihood. Yet she can afford to sustain their everyday life and she can afford to send her daughter to school. While the advantage is that, because of poverty she let her daughter learn things by her own. Fortunately, it helps her daughter learn about some sort of things in the real world which it also helps her finish her schooling and became successful in her life.
It also shows discipline of a mother to her daughter. I can see that the mother disciplined her daughter well. On the scene where her daughter saw some of her school mates eating ice cream, common reaction from a child is, it will force her parents just to eat one of that ice cream. But on her, he was just watching and not even bothering asking her mother to buy her one. Maybe she was aware of their situation in life. So her mother made her own ice cream just to not make her daughter jealous from the other children. The mother discipline her daughter in a way that the daughter can still do everything she want to do.
Creativity was there also where the mother thought of that kind of idea. From a simple idea of an ice cream, she applied to the fruits which she was selling. She just put a stick on it, then dipped it to a container filled with ice cubes. The mother was unconscious with the idea she had come up. She just thought of her daughter on how to make it happy. For me, I did not thought of making ice cream with a fruit.
In the video clip, it also shows marketing. The mother thought of an idea without knowing that it can be the key of their success. From just selling of fruits that cut into pieces into innovating it and become a fruit ice cream. By just adding a stick on the fruit, specifically pineapple, then dipped it on a container with filled with ice cubes, it can now made a new product. That idea become successful because consumers always wanted a products who are unique for them or really a new product. Just like now a days, people prefer to buy things who are unique for them because they become ignorant about it. Curious about if does It taste good or not.
The video clip also shows a virtue. It can be seen from the people who are humble, mostly to the poor people. Their humbleness remain until they succeed in their life. Before they were just selling fruits on the street. But because of her daughter, she got an idea of making the pineapple ice cream. Then later on, their consumers grow faster. Despite of the food that they had discover, they remain their foot on the ground. Her daughter become successful because she has been a good daughter to her mother. Even though she is eager to learn new things, she is still patient and followed the instruction of her mother to observed what the people do in the market. She perhaps observed most of the people that she met. She learned new things from them with just observing their actions. In that way, she apply it to her studies. She perhaps observed her teachers or classmates in school on how they do things. And use them as tools on how to survive in her everyday life.
Caring someone is equivalent to loving them. A mother’s love is one of the most important thing you can have. Even the world is too cruel for you, yet your mother is still there to accept you. Your first teacher is you mother. Mostly of your firsts are your mother. She feeds you with her breast milk. She will cradle you for you to have a good sleep. She will take you to a bath. She will need to maintain your cleanliness. She will teach you common words you need to know. She will guide you so that you will be able to walk on your own. She will buy you toys so that you have something to play with. She will protect you whenever you will be afraid to something. She will comfort you whenever you are sad. She will bring you anywhere so that you can see new things. She will teach you how to talk. She will teach you how to write and draw. She will sent you to school. She will cook you your favorite food. A mother’s love is everywhere. Anything you do, you can always think about your mother. Your mother is your super hero. She can conquer everything for you and she can protect you whenever you need her. As a child, we need to respect our mother together with our father. We need to give back the things that they give to us. Like when we were still kids, they mostly give the things we want, such as toys, foods or anything that we all want. They give us shelter and feed us. They both do anything to make us live even if their work were too hard, they still give us everything we want. For us to give back what they do to us. We also need to make everything for them to live longer enough.
I can relate the video clip to myself. Our family is not that rich and not that poor. I cannot say that we are a middle class family. But we can afford to eat three times a day. But because of the status of our family, it became one of the factors of who I am right now. I learned things on my own. Ever since I started studying in my early grade school, I started to do all my school works on my own. The reason also because my parents were not educated enough to help me in my school works. There is just a difference between the mother in the video clip and my parents. The mother did not really go to school ever since, but my parents were just college level. Yet I prefer to do my school works alone. Ever since from grade school, to high school until now, I prefer doing my projects, assignments and other things alone. I became independent in my studies whenever it is an examination time. Also because I cannot ask help from my parents because they were busy doing their part as our parents. I tried my best doing my works alone because I do not want to be an encumbrance to my parents. So I started also became independent not only in my studies but also for some sort of things that is necessary being a human. I much prefer also to be independent in many things. I can learn a lot more than being too dependent to someone. Every time there is some scenario which you need to do things on your own, all you have to trust now is yourself only. As of now, I cannot see what the future brings for me. I may not yet know if I could be successful someday. As long as I will do my best to do the things I need to, I know successful will just be there around.
Later on, if I can have my own family already, I may do also what her mother did to her. I will let her know things on her own for her to learn. But I will still guide her so that she will not get lost on her way. I will teach her to be independent on things she needed to be. Like for example, when a baby who tries to walk on his own, there is a possibility that he will be falling down. As early as that, we need to teach them how to get up on its own. Than picking them every time they fall down. But whenever they cried, we need to comfort them, and told them that it is alright. From that, they will learn how to be independent in some ways and will think that they do not need to be independent all the time. Most of the case where every time the baby got fell down, they mostly became spoiled. They will thought that whenever they got hurt, their parents will picked them up always and then they will now get used to it. Also like for a toddler who started to learn new things. Whenever they play something, we got too worried about the thing they were playing. Perhaps when they were playing clay doughs. Most of us think that what if they will eat that and what if they got dirty. We became too concerned. Why not we let them play it and what if they have a talent in sculpting something. They maybe become more creative. We just need to guide them. Whenever they attempted to eat it, because we all know that children that small eats whatever they see either it is a food or just a thing. We will tell them that it is not healthy to eat that. It will hurt their stomach or something like that. For children who already playing outside with their friends. Playing hide and side, running, hopscotch, Chinese garter, marbles, and many more thing that they can play. We will get worried, what if they will get dirty and what if they will get wounds from somewhere. For them to learn, we need to let them play outside. It is their rights to play for them to develop their skills. We should let them play even they will get dirty. It is not good if we will just keep them inside the house. They need to experience how to be a human. Let them play but still have a limitation. They should have curfew, like whenever evening time comes, they need to be at home at a specific time. It is not only because we want them home because you do not have time to bond anymore or like that. But because it is for their safety. We still need to protect them from harm that will occur at night. We still need to show them that we were not just letting them play outside because we are tired of watching over them. But because we want them to learn new things, to experience what really having a life means and to develop friendship from anyone who they were playing with. We still need to care them by reminding them not to get too sweaty because they may become sick. Not to play more on dirt because they may get some germs from it. Whenever they got thirsty, they need to drink enough water to keep their body hydrated. We need to show them that we still take good care of them. Because may be they may thought, we let them play outside because we are tired of taking care of them. And for those children who became teenager already, we should let them learn things also on their own. Like me, my parents were too strict in terms of when I want to go somewhere with my friends. They always decline me whenever I ask permission to go to. They always thought that my friends were bad influence. And always told me why not they should just stay on their house than going anywhere. They always thought that we will do bad things. Like drinking hard liquor or perhaps smoking cigarettes. There are times also whenever we need to do our school works and we need to go home late because we need to finish our work early. They still not allowing me to go home late even if the reason is to make our school works. It disgusted me because they were lack of trust on me. They always thought about the negative sides. They thought I may be influenced by my friends. But I know to myself that my friends are not a bad influence to me. Perhaps, I know how to choose my friends. I am aware of people who could be a bad influence to me. I know how to choose my friends. They do not need to worry. Perhaps I only have few friends. I know how to deal with choosing the right friends. All I need from them is a trust. That is why I am an indoor type of person. I used to stay at home. I always just used my computer and spend the whole day surfing in the internet or watch televisions or movies. Now that I am in college, whenever my friends invited me to go somewhere like having a reunion, I always declined. Because I know that my parents would not allow me to go to that is why I do not bother asking them if I can go with them. And also because I do not have enough budget to go to. Whenever I ask permission, they will just scold me and tell a lot of things about ‘what ifs’. What if we will drink hard liquor? What if we will do something like what other adults do? What if we will stay overnight and do something bad? Full of what ifs. But for me as their daughter, I also know that they will just do those things because they just want to protect me. I disregarded the thought that they just want to take good care of me. They do not want me to get influenced by bad people. They do not want me to get lost on the right path. They do not want me to become what other people, the same age with me, do to their lives. Like those who have been become a young mother. They do not want me to engage in premarital sex. They do not want me to experience taking illegal drugs. I know those where just too deep for me to always prohibit me to go somewhere. Well I thought also that it is much better to stay home than to waste my time, money and energy going somewhere. Perhaps we have everything in home to prefer staying. I know they want me to learn a lot of things. But also those can be learn from a different way than in a way where every teenagers experienced. All they want to do is to keep me safe.
We should not stop from learning new things. We should not think that we are smart enough already to solve every problem we will encounter. We should not just think that the things we used to do every day is enough to makes us knowledgeable enough. We should explore every little thing. Because sometimes little thing is a big help for us. Even if we grow old, we should not stop from learning new things. Perhaps we can discover things that not yet known by everyone. For me as a student, I cannot just stop from learning new things because of the obstacles I am experiencing right now. They cannot be my hindrance to stop me from learning. I want to explore more about the field I am dealing right now especially in the world of multimedia. And also, if ever I will be graduated, I will not just stop from learning new things. I want to learn more about the field I really want to be. I would not let anyone or any problem to stop me from learning. Just like what the mother thought for her daughter. She want to let her daughter learn new things on her own so that when the time comes that she need to leave her, because we all that our life has limitation. Her daughter will be knowledgeable enough to face every problem or every obstacle she will encounter in the future. The same with my parents, they want me to become the person I really want to be, so that in the future I would not regret why I took this field. They just let me choose what I really want to become. They want me to be knowledgeable enough to face my problems in the future. When the time comes that they will need to leave us. We can now sustain our own life. We can now make our own family. We can now have a decent job. We can now have money on our own. We can now get the things we really want that they cannot afford to give us. We can now live on our own.
