can determination and dedication overcome the dread?

have a serious dread for mondays and tuesdays.

I dun dread mondays cos i have no monday blues. since there are no lessons for me on mondays, i can't have the blues and so, can't dread it right?

damn wrong.

mon and tue are the days which i give tuition to my p3 kid.

and it is not the first time i feel the dread and the desire to quit it once and for all.

but having only gone in a month for this new kid, it's far too early to quit.

not when i tip the scales in favor of money.

the reason why i contemplated quitting? it's really hard to keep him focused.

on top of that, it doesn't seem to work when i raise my voice a little. or when i use some sarcasm.

all these, in a bid to keep him concentrating on his work and stop fiddling around.

raising my voice after a long, tired day is extremely easy because i'm really beat and a little pissed. raising my voice really loud is even easier. scolding and perhaps, a shout here and there ought to work.

but patience has always been my friend, and today, it is still my friend.

taking into account that he doesn't really have a complete understanding of his surroundings and the demands imposed on him, i find no reason to shout or raise my voice.

and the fact that threats only work if they come from the father, so far my guess is that with time, i can make my own threats work. but issuing threats is something i very much despise, and is often the very, very last resort (the time for this to happen might be mightily surprising to you).

simply lack the strength to even raise the tone a little. of course, being patient works.

the only form of punishment, if that can even be construed as harsh, is that i took away his privilege of sitting down to do his work or answer my questions.

ok, if you count writing a word over and over again as punishment (so far, i ask for 10 of the same word, eng or chi), i have 2 forms of punishment. but how can this be punishment? i'm not making him stay back after class to write stuff like "I shall do my work properly next time" 100 times. it's decent writing practice!

the reason why i took away his chair was apparent. the floor in the kitchen itself does not provide ample grip on the chair. so you can sit on it and slide about in the kitchen. the thing is, his sitting position is sometimes so bad that i need to hold the chair properly in order to keep him from sliding off the chair.

and he fell today, though no injuries at all. he might have as well hit his head on the glass table when he was picking himself up.

perhaps this is the way to go. for repeated nonsense and bad attitude, i start taking away the privileges.

by no means is it harsh... it's by far the most non-violent way for me. i view shouting as violent already (think hitting with a cane. hey, i'm here as a tuition teacher, not torture master)!

so, standing up includes standing up straight and on two legs. no things like putting one leg on the chair still, or leaning against the chair... etc.

i sure hope the title for this entry will come true.

i even contemplated not having children after marriage! serious!

but as an afterthought... nvm.

putting off the births are ok. but no matter...

this decision i leave to my wife to decide.

of cos la - she's the one slogging 10 months away and i'm just having a wild nite!

muz be fair... muz be.