The Best Parents

By James (Age 10, Renaissance College Hong Kong)

Once upon a time, there was a boy called Dell. He had a very strict father and mother. They made Dell do all his homework in three hours. They also forced Dell to play the piano and the violin for at least one hour every day. They didn't let Dell go for sleepovers and after-school activities, and made him sleep at ten o'clock every night. They also didn't let Dell eat unhealthy and food that was meat. Dell only could eat vegetables. He only got friends that were very dorky, like people that had very good grades. Dell also needed to get good grades. Dell needed to walk to school every day because his mom thought that he needed more time to do more exercise.

One day, when Dell woke up, he looked at the clock and it was eleven o'clock on a Sunday morning. He quickly woke up and ran to brush his teeth and change his clothes. He dressed up and saw his dad and mom cooking breakfast. He ran down and dropped to his knees and said, "I am sorry, dad, mom, I know I should have woken up at eight o'clock in the morning, but I didn't. Sorry, can you forgive me?"

His dad said, "We turned off your alarm clock because we think we've been too strict on you. We read this article about tiger parents. We know that we should give you freedom. So, today, the whole day is your freedom day. You can do whatever you like and you can say all of your wishes out and we will make them come true."

Dell stood up and hugged them both and said thank you. He wrote down a lot of things and told his parents to buy them. The things he wrote were: PSP (new version), NDS I, iPhone 5, iPod Touch, a MacBook Pro, a 43-inch television, and a Visa card. He played with all of the things he bought the whole day until it was 11:48. Dell asked his dad and mom if he could have two wishes. He said, "Dad, mom, can I have two wishes? If I can, my first wish is to own the things you bought for me today. The second wish is that I want to have just a little bit of freedom: like after I finish my homework, piano and violin, can I play games for awhile? I want to have sleepovers with friends and I want to sleep at eleven every night. I also want these wishes to last forever in my life."

The next day, when Dell woke up in the morning, it was eight o'clock. Dell ran down and saw that breakfast was ready. Dell ate his breakfast and changed his clothes and went to school. This time, Dell's dad and mom said to drive him to school. After school that night, when they ate dinner, Dell's dad and mom said, "Dell, we thought about it all night. We want you to have more freedom. Now, we will set the rules again. You can play with your things after you finish your piano and violin and homework. Piano and violin practice will be changed to fifty minutes. You can have other friends but they can't make you go crazy because you are our only son. You still need to get good grades but you can get one B. We will not be so strict like before. You can eat a little meat but you still need to eat vegetables. You can sleep at eleven o'clock but no later than that. The real thing is, we just want to help you." Dell hugged them and went to play the piano.