It’s my child, no way….

Parental love is unmatched in human kindness, unparallelled, priceless and only one way, to give all they had.  Eve Yap wrote an article in the Sunday Times on the special love that parents sacrificed their precious children that come in all forms and shapes and sizes. She blurted out with a long list of disorders that children could be inflicted with, Antley Bixler syndrome, Pyruvate dehydrogenase complex deficiency, Cornelia de Lange syndrome and spinal muscular atrophy, just to name a few, would have murdered the parents trying to pronounce these words and understand what they are. These are names of serious disorders that threaten the normal physical and mental development of children and are often live threatening. Children struck with such disorders need special care, full day attention, costly operations, special diet and may have their lives terminated at the slightest mishap.

It is at times like this, when the parents are most vulnerable, physically, financially, emotionally drained and psychologically in despair that the best in human kindness and parental love are displayed beyond belief. These parents gave up jobs to stay by their babies, struggle with debts to pay for their diet, operations and care, and suffered emotional and psychological stigmatisation for having difficult babies. Hurt, stressed out, emotionally and financially, they soldiered on with babies that may not even reach pre schools. Forget about the straight As and the beautiful family photographs to show around. The lives of these parents evolved around the lives of their babies. Nothing else matters. They live each day for their special babies.

One couple were asked three times over a period of five years if they wanted the child to be resuscitated. The answer was Yes. ‘As long as her child wills it, they will fight alongside her.’

Parents in such difficult parenthood conundrum could take the easy way out like our govt policy on foreign talents. If the locals are not good enough, replace them with foreign talents, the best that money can buy. Why struggle and waste time on one that is not going to make it? If only parents were so mean and calculative, things would be very different. But no parents worth the name of being called mother or father would abandon their children when their children needed them most. Parental love supercedes all things, particularly human greed for money and financial well being. 

Thank God humans are not made the way politicians are made. Politicians pride themselves by calling them tough decisions to make for the good of country and people. The meaning of self sacrificing parents does not come with what is in it for me or how much. The dire the situation, the greater the love and devotion and sacrifice from the parents.