Do you remember the time when kids were kids?

Did you notice that parents now no longer use baby talk to their kids? And did you also notice that parents now keep track of their children’s growth by knowing how adept they have become at using their laptops or their touch screen cellphones with Android power and Swype feature?


Our parents had it differently then. When they wanted us to chew on something, it was “nam-nam”; when they wanted us to swallow something, it was “ma-mam”. When our bladder was full, it was time to “wi-wi”; when our ass was full, it was time to “u-uuu”. And do you still remember how hard it was for our parents to make us “u-uuu” by resorting to onomatopoeia to “pump-prime” shit? Sometimes it took us too long that our parents would start spreading their necks like cobras and turning red like diyoy.


A digression: According to psychologists, this baby-talk would oftentimes lead to children developing late their communication skills. I don’t know. All I know is I had childhood friends who couldn’t produce the right sound of words even if we were already in elementary. And because there were no speech therapists then, my friends were made to eat the vagina of sows just so they (my friends, not the sows) could articulate words correctly.


Moving on: Do you still remember the time when our parents would make us stand erect as they chalk-marked our height on the wall? And do you still remember the time when entering first grade required no tests on letters, numbers, shapes and colors, just the ability to touch your left ear with your right hand wrapped over your head?

Nowadays it’s the children who speak in tongues to baffle their parents. No, I’m not talking about words like erpat and ermat morphing into tapre and tamre. Nor I am talking about tsula, the new term for kiss and orimos, the new term for having sex. Rather I’m talking about words that are coined with the intention to mislead and deceive.

As for deception, our parents had it differently then. Remember the time when our parents didn’t want us to know what they were talking by resorting to speaking in English or spelling the words? Consider the following scene.

Father (upon seeing Mother come out of the room): Mupanaw kaw?
Mother (quickly pointing her lips at you as you played with your sarsa on the floor): Careful, the little boy is listening. (Then nods at your Father.)
Father: Where to?
Mother: T.A.N.D.A.G.

Poor you! Because there was no cable TV then to teach you English or how to spell before you entered Grade One, you were clueless that a classified information had been exchanged right under your nose.

Now you remember.


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(photo: stolen from the Net)