As an umi..

From Google:  “Ummi” means “my mother”

As an umi to 4 teenagers (girls19, 15,14, & 12 yo boy) - they are all still kids to me anyway..

Yesterday evening, as expected, Im came to me before Maghrib prayer and said he needed my help for his 'little' homework since he had done sikit-sikit... Mind you, I have been telling him to work on his homework over the weekend - since Friday after school!

So, after prayer & then dinner, where he requested for me to hand-feed him (oh, btw I cooked nasi hujan panas & kurma daging which he likes better than nasi briyani & kambing briyani) then only we started with his homework which turns out to be the same Maths exercise Question 8-15 that we left from last Sunday & I had reminded him on the whiteboard on Monday *sigh* boys will be boys....

So I guided him along while ironing the school uniform at the same time. It took quite sometime like he couldn't remember the formula for triangle, multiple with 100 also need to be calculated in details so it took longer...

Then, let's check your other 'done' homework moment:

1st BM - penjodoh bilangan, he just wrote the word & not copying all the sentences *gulp!* Failed to follow the instruction. Do the corrections now.

2nd BI - quite a lot of mistakes over punctuation marks even for MCQs! Name of places & people? Do the corrections now.

Is there any other homework? What about Science? I didn't see any Science homework since like forever..? I mean, I see you have thick exercise books for Maths, BM & BI (as above) ..where is Sains?

Then only the Science paper came out! Oh, he said he will do Section B (fill in the blanks) I said, what about Section B MCQs? Oh..... so he worked on the questions while standing up since he said it will take only a moment but mind you, it was a full Science paper. I almost fall asleep waiting for him...we refer to his textbook from time to time - the syllabus is way different from during my time.

Somehow he mentioned about his money bank /piggy bank - he said, I have a lot of coins to be deposited into bank account! We have been wanting to open an account for all 3 of them since after Eid but lots of delay like need to go during office hours while the boarding girls are at home, has to be with the father as legal guardian etc. 

I asked him, what about your duit raya? Duit kertas? His face changed... What? You finished them all? I am gonna tell your ayah!! 

He said, please do not tell ayah, please.....*show his scared face* Hmmm.... I will wait but I want him to let his father know...not coming from me

So, after all the homework are done, I said, let's talk to ayah about your gone-duit-raya & I will ask him specifically not to get mad at you! Of course ayah got mad (under control) since the amount was more than RM200, almost RM300 - where did all the money gone? You didn't buy anything to show? 

*sigh* Ayah, both of us are at fault. We should have taken them to the bank ages ago...now, it is no more Syawal, already Zulhijjah! So, let's ask the two boarding girls about their money..

Later in our room, I told ayah, I dare not to take & keep duit raya on their behalf. I even shared what happened during the wedding reception last weekend - when Mak Ngah asked my permissions to ask for help from the two boarding girls to move around cookies on the tables, I said please do so...I but also dare not to ask them around since I'm their stepmother and I don't want the stigma of becoming a typical bullying stepmother

I remember his sad & scared face so right before bed, I went to his room to say goodnite & kind of to check on him too - oh my! Either he is a good stage actor or he was really sad.. he fall asleep with photo of ibu in his hand ...along with a folded paper. I took away the paper & put back the photo on the noticeboard.

It turns out, the paper is a letter from school asking parental permission for a school trip after exam! Hahahahaha