A communicator's communication

Different families will have different ways in communicating with each member. In some cases, it gets a little wacky. As for my mom, she tells me things through newspaper articles. Yeap… readings u get from the daily newspaper…

Being a loyal newspaper reader, my mom would go though the daily tabloid, without fail, during the wee hours of the day when everything else is practically dead. Sometimes she gets a little edgy if she didn’t consume her “daily dosage” of information.

So with that habit of hers, she’d cut out articles that interest her, files them up or sticks them in her scrap book. And for certain articles that would have a hidden message within it, she would cut it out and get me to read them the next day.

I remember once I was being stopped by both my parents from getting into a relationship, and she then gave me a few articles about relationships and even cuttings from Big Bro. She didn’t have to verbally tell me. I was warned through the writings of others which are being circulated nationwide.

Studying away from home allowed me to come back to a whole stack of newspaper cuttings she collected throughout the year. Articles ranging from interviews of famous Malaysian icons to “How to win in a singing competition”.

After reading each article, I’d hv to guess “what exactly r u trying to tell me this time, mom?”

I used to get paranoid with this form of communication between my mom and I. “Why cant u be a little normal and just tell me straight so I don’t hv to go around guessing”

But now, I could see that some things are better left unsaid—and better just being read and understood. Sometimes its also not easy bringing up a topic that is not worth discussing because it could make the whole situation even weirder and much worse. Plus, we still are not adaptable to the culture of just blurting out whatever we feel about something and expect the discussion to solve every equation. After all, we’re Asian—if you know wat I mean.

So in conclusion, my mom has a very unique and smart way in telling me things. Now I just gotta find a way to respond to her messages so that it could be a successful form of communication.