In few weeks, most schools will shut, and kids will enter the annual black whole phase. In this phase, from the age of 4 all the way to 18, kids and young men use it to define their character. Therefore, it is an extremely important chapter in their lives, and essential in defining the future of Bahrain. Below, I will write up some of my personal advice to us all that I believe can have the ability to make a change, a positive change in the current and future society we live in.
We all agree that kids at a young age are more vulnerable and able to learn massively more than when they’re older. What this means is that they are extra sensitive to information, whatever floating information. If it comes their way, they’d be attracting it at a much higher rate, and eventually reflecting in their character. I don’t usually make comparisons between a homo sapiens and objects, but for the sake of clarity, let me just simplify this explanation. Spilling water on a plastic material is different than spilling it on a sponge. Young fellas here are the sponge.
So what kind of liquid would you want the sponge to absorb? Remember, you’d want to make good use of this sponge to clear up the always-existing smudges in society? That’s a very important question you should ask yourself. There is always something to develop in a society, and you should develop your kids to play an important role in this. At this moment, you are faced with three options: Do nothing and keep the sponge dry throughout the summer; Allow the sponge to absorb whatever it wants to absorb in a very liquidy environment; Be very selective to make sure that only useful and clean liquid is absorbed by the sponge.
While reading the choices above, and because you’re actually reading, you’d be more susceptible to choose between the first and the third, which is to keep your kids away from social issues, or teach them what you believe are necessary skills for tomorrow’s world. Let’s tackle them one by one, and let me show you which is the best, and why.
Parents specifically in Bahrain are from different social stratifications[1]. You would think that Bahrainis couldn’t hide from each other because we live in a relatively small island. Well, you’d be staggered to know that the size of this country does little to mix people together. Because of our human nature attitude, we would tend to prefer mingling and mixing with our likes, and similarly keep our kids’ social circles a reflection of ours.
Well, we have all seen what happened in Bahrain more than two years ago, and a large contributing factor was because we have all simply failed. We failed miserably by not understanding each other, by not allowing our circles of trust include and intersect other circles within our same small society. We have failed as well because we prevented ourselves from seeing others, feeling them, and helping solve their daily and normal issues. If we pass on our failure to our kids, we will pass our problems to them. We will again allow foreign ideologies to come in between us.
This is a small society we all live in, and this means we cannot hide from any small issue in any part of the country. What happens in one side of the nation is immediately felt in the other side. Thus, choosing to keep our sponge dry is the first step of denial and one towards cowardice. In Bahrain, you simply cannot build a wall around your children, because they’d grow up disliking their unpreparedness to engage in reality.
Like it or not, information flows, and your kids will use one of the numerous existing means to absorb them. You are better off teaching them how to filter good from bad, and provide real deal examples for better results. Thus, here’s what’s best for you to do.
If there are two swim classes, a more expensive one that you can afford in a closed and gated community like the Riffa Views, and more cheaper one in the Bahrain Swimming Association, which of the two would you choose for your son, given that you can easily afford both?
Assuming both are of the same quality, you should always opt for the second. During summer time, part of enjoying camps and learning news skills and hobbies, is to actually make friends are extend your natural trust circle to a much larger group, preferably to a pot where everyone can melt in. What you kids will learn from a more general and public arena is in simple terms priceless.
Years ago, when I was young, I preferred not travelling during summers and staying back to play Football (Soccer) at a local club. I did this 3 years in a row, but maintained my friendship with many till this day. Some grew up becoming true national football stars, and others weren’t lucky enough. Some can lift me if I needed, and others may need me to lift them. It is a beautiful life, and such friendships strike through our barriers of social stratifications.
[1] Google for definition (basically socio-economic differences)
Dr. @saqeralkhalifa 
I loved reading about how you used to spend your vacations at the local football club, in an Instagram,Facebook fueled world where -the more pictures of yourself in an exotic location the more likes you get- I think people have lost sight of the value of the possibilities of community locally.