Cane, the magic wand

We bought our house from a nice family with two children. They left some furnitures for us to use as we did not intend to renovate the house. Moving in, I found two pieces of short rotan, around 40 cm long. What was this thing for, I thought, because I usually see it as furniture or baskets.

Later on, as we were getting use to staying in Singapore, I noticed that some stores sell those rotan with colourful handles. The ones in my house was bare. Finally, unable to resist I asked the shopkeeper what exactly that thing is for. The answer is simple, For caning lah... and after Rena went to Primary school, I noticed that the cane stock was more before and during test periods.

Cane is a powerful tool to discipline children for Singaporeans. Some even use it for the toddlers. They say using cane is very effective to make children listen. I myself never use it to cane my children. However, I used them sometimes to scare them enough and indeed it's effective.

I will not judge people who use cane to teach or discipline their children. Everybody has their own perspective. During test period like last week, temper is rising easily. Sometimes I really want to cane Rena... seriously. Lucky for her, the cane never really touch her. I cannot imagine how painful it is when we use the cane with so much anger. Hopefully I will never use it for its real purpose.

As for now, our canes are resting somewhere, unable to do it's magic.. ting.