To Give or Not to Give

Almost every year, there will be at least 2 charity shows on TV and getting us Singaporean to donate money to the charity organizations to help the poor, handicaps or needies. It used to have more of these types of shows until the infamous NKF scandal happened in 2005 and following of many scandals on charity organizations uncovered in recent years. Because of these, I became resentful of such things and have not been that "charitable" any more.

However, on that day when another Mediacorp charity shows on TV, I wanted to "educate" our Zozo  on being benevolent and unselfish to others. I told her that there are many poor and unfortunate people in this world and we must help and "give" whenever we can. I explained to her that we are living in a comfortable lifestyle where we can eat and walk healthily while others can't even talk normally. The poor are so poor that they do not have enough to eat, unlike her where she can have all the tidbits and sweets everyday.

I know my Zozo is very kind-hearted and she listened quietly. Suddenly, she asked me why we did not buy tissue papers from the poor auntie in the coffeeshop. Zozo mentioned that the 4 packets of tissue paper only cost $1 and we could just donate $1 to her... (Well.. some background... Almost every Sunday, before we go to do our grocery shopping at NTUC supermart, we will take our breakfast at the nearby coffeeshop where Zozo and my hubby likes to eat the dry "ban mian" noodle. There was this middle age plump auntie always "loitering" at the coffeeshop and will always stuff 4 packets of tissue papers to us and ask us if we want to buy for $1. She did this without fail every time she sees us, even though we always tell her we do not want to buy.)

My hubby and me were dumbfounded. Oops, how to answer her? Did we set a bad example for her to be not so generous or not "giving" to people? Yeah, it is just $1 only...

No, she was mistaken... Thinking for a while, I replied her that that auntie is just making a living selling things. I could not buy tissue papers from her every weekend. Similarly, I am not buying things every time or whenever people ask me to buy. Moreover, the auntie is not one that need our donation and I praise her for having the will and effort to sell rather than begging people for money.

This incident make me realize more that whatever we do, act or talk as parent and adult, our child or the young will see and follow. Therefore, it is important that we really need to show good examples to them so that they will be molded to a better person as they walk through life.