She’s leaving home…

I love this song by the Beatles…and I’ve used it before in my English Language lessons to teach social issues…

It’s about this girl running away from home…and these were the things the parents said:

We gave her most of our lives
Sacrificed most of our lives
We gave her everything money could buy…

…Daddy our baby’s gone
Why would she treat us so thoughtlessly?
How could she do this to me?

We never thought of ourselves
Never a thought for ourselves
We struggled hard all our lives to get by…

Well, the answer lies in this line: “She’s leaving home after living alone for so many years. Bye, bye!” I love the message in the song – that parents in their selfish daily pursuit of material wealth should always remember that their child needs more than that – they need love, especially in their formative growing up years.

My daughter is leaving home today but not in the way as portrayed in the song. After three weeks at home – spending quality time together and bonding, eating or just going for a walk or a drive together, it is time for her to go back to the institute in Sungai Petani, Kedah for the final semester in her 1st year. Next year, she’ll be going even further away – to Wellington in New Zealand. Sigh!

Everytime I look at my wife’s potted plant at my house, another favourite song of mine comes to mind – Bob Carlisle’s “Butterfly kisses”

I remember I bought the cassette tape with that song at Mahkota Parade in Malacca many many years ago when I was there for a meeting and staying at the hotel next door.  I am sure most of you know the song which is about a father bringing up a daughter – from childhood to adulthood up till the day she got married but anyway, here’s the video clip for the benefit of those who have never heard the song before…

My daughter does not like this song though. As a matter of fact, she does not like any of those parent-child songs where the child gets married in the end as she wants to stay and take care of her parents forever. Well, time passes, things change, so we’ll never really know…

As in the closing lines of the song:
I couldn’t ask God for more than this is what love is
I know I’ve got to let her go but I’ll always remember
Every hug in the mornin’ and butterfly kisses…