Thursday 20 May 2010

Small blessings

The first thing that came to my mind when I saw a letter from Changi Hospital was, "Jeez. They must have forgotten to bill me for something."

It was addressed to YK. When I opened it, I found a "Get Well" card instead.

What a pleasant surprise! After many trips to the hospital lately, I have nothing but good things to say about the service in public hospitals.

Growing up, hospitals were such dreary places with that horrible disinfectant smell and angry nurses. When I started bringing mum to her hospital appointments few years ago, I was surprised to see the big change. The hospitals are now bright, cheerful and modern. Service has improved by leaps and bounds too.

With the makeover, they are no longer intimidating and frightful places to visit. Gosh, they even send out 'Get Well' cards now!

This reminds me of our policemen. Remember how much we feared the 'mata' (policeman) when we were kids? Each time we misbehaved, we were certain the 'mata' would come haul us away and our parents would have to rescue us from prison. Today, we have the friendly neighbourhood policeman smiling at babies. These threats won't work on our kids anymore.

Kids these days are lucky. Parents treat them with respect and tender loving care the minute they are born. Mum used to talk about how her dad ruled the household with an iron fist. The kids cowered in fear when he raised his voice, which was very often. Parents then didn't care about their feelings, and they don't spoil the kids. That could be a good thing but like all things, we have to move with the times.

2 comments:

Amel said...

That's VERY nice what the hospital did. :-D

Petunia Lee said...

Whenever we visit KK Hospital with Little Boy, The Husband looks on enviously when the nurses interact with Little Boy because they are really nice to the children.

The Husband gets scolded by nurses instead. He never fails to say "I wish they were nice to me too."

And I do understand. When you're feeling sick, you do want people to drop you kind words and kind smiles.

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