Saiga's Notes

I think it's this: It’s not my job to pass the exit examination, let the child care about it. My job is to give him skills useful throughout life. Supervising my son’s education, I remind this wisdom to myself again and again. I also remind it to my wife.  Want a free bonus? Catch an add-on for the mantra:  Even if his/her current academic grades are far from perfect.

Thanks to a charismatic yet ill-mannered older relative, my son has taken to annoy people with uncalled-for thoughtless categorical remarks. That stuff had stuck in him so deeply that he didn't realize doing this, just couldn't keep in. Often, we his parents couldn't help getting mad trying to discuss something important with him. We're not so bad at adapting to different personalities but with this issue, he always took us aback, coming to this mood out of the blue as if he'd got up on the wrong side of the bed. Understanding came too late, after the wrong words has already been said. That day, he started squabbling while we were working on his study plan. Whatever I said, was met with penny arguments. “Look, you just object to everything I say and it doesn't get us nowhere,” I said, feeling ready to burst out with anger. “No I don't.” “Yes you do. Right now you're inhaling and your mouth is open to give another argument.” He realized that he was in...

Working at my standing desk, I hear voices of my wife and son through the open door. We live in a very compact apartment where privacy is a scarce luxury so I got used to this background noise just like tickling of a clock or humming of a vent. Murmuring goes up and down, colors of voices swing from warm to cold and back to warm, now and then out breaks of laughter or tears happen at difficult or funny tasks. This time, though, I notice voices grow louder making me lose concentration, air smells with anger. Both the teacher and pupil are rapidly losing temper and a major storm of quarrel is coming. My sweet curator Looks like time for a weatherman to step in. I close the netbook's lid and walk into the “classroom”. Sitting silently on the couch and watching the scene, I choose among several peacemaking plans. Mint tea probably? Yeah, that’ll work. I lit gas under the kettle and, while it’s hissing, sit down on the couch again to observe more. According to an old reliable...