Piak!

Everytime I hear a 'piak' sound, my heart misses a beat, or two; my mind wonders, 'sheesh! What is it this time, that snapped?!' Its an unmistakable sound of something snapping in the midst of pressure applied to it. (ok, does this sound like your physics textbook?)

An unforgettable experience of the infamous 'piak' sound was a couple of weeks ago, my phone, when crushed ACCIDENTALLY against a pole, snapped its screen. Nevertheless, mates around me has asked time and again, 'Oh my, what happened to your screen?!' or the other more painful statement, yet obvious one would be, 'Oh my, isn't this a new phone?!'

Wasn't it obvious, like really obvious that it is a NEW phone that was launched RECENTLY in the market, and isn't it more obvious that it cracked, and I didn't draw over it or something?!

I found it hard explaining what actually happened, the entire scenario, and how it was my carelessness, or perhaps a design flaw of the chair with a judding pole, the caused the accident. Yet I appreciated my friends for asking, choosing to believe that it was their sincerity to find out what was happening to me, and not what other stunts I've been trying to do with my phone.

Another heart-wrenching time when I hear the piak sound in public is when I see a parent hitting a child publicly, against the fleshier parts of the body.

Allow me to relate an incident I saw the other day, vividly remember...

A mother was slapping the child, hitting the legs and whacking the daylights out of the child, who had already cried to a point where tears were all over her face, but yet had dried eyes.

"'Piak, piak... piak!' FINISH YOUR MILK!!"

My heart ached. I ended up chatting with the mother briefly, understanding that this is what the child goes thro for 2 hours every feeding time, 4 feeding times a day.

Before being able to establish contact point and chat with the mother, members of the public was already telling me to call the police. I was upset. Not just by the sight of a child, helplessly being whacked, but how the public reacted.

They stood, they watched, they commented, they left. I rebutted a member of the public, when she told me to call the police, 'Does it solve the problem?'

I asked the mother, doesn't it pain you to always have to whack your child each time she feeds? Her reply was quick, swift and sure, 'Yes, but it hurts me more that the child doesn't finish her milk.' By then, the mother was clearly stressed, tired, frustrated, and in pain.

'Piak', when you hear it on your very own child, inflicted by your hands, is not just the flesh of the beaten that hurt, but it too, slaps the heart of the disciplinarian.

How can one parallel the snapping of a parent, who unquestionably has the best intention for the child, but just unable to express as well as others do; to the snapping of a treasured object?

Yet, I couldn't help but see the similarity of public disciplining of children by desparate parents who felt disempowered and had lost control of the child, ultimately themselves to the rage; thus snapping, and the snapping of my phone under undue pressure that it was put through. That they both snap under great pressure/duress.

Parents are humans too. They were never borned with the knowledge and know-hows to be parents of kids. Yet they try, giving their best, with loving intentions, but at times drastic actions for the child. Children in their youth, egocentrically believes the world exist around them, frustrating the 'ever-giving, always-loving' parents more. How unappreciative!

But I have learnt, when the mother said...' but it hurts me more that the child doesn't finish her milk' that she had the interest of the child at heart, having enough to grow. Why would she spend money feeding her, when its so frustrating anyhow? Why spend money on torturing herself by going thro' feeding again?

And so each time I hear the 'piak' sound, I remember the snapping point of many parents, put into the deep end of parenthood; struggling, to give their best to their children, with the greatest love, of all.