the boy who wouldn't grow up

Bismillah ar Rahman ar Raheem

Had my 1st day of clinic for my childhood psychiatry posting and it was interesting.
There was this one peculiar case about a 7 years old kid.
He won't respond if anyone speaks to him in Malay.
When the teacher teaches "satu dua tiga..." he would just stare at her, but when she started teaching "one two three..." only then he would respond.
Whenever a friend talked to him in Malay, still he won't respond but when a friend talked to him in English, he'll play with the friend cheerfully.
What more, he's a Malay. So my supervisor suggested for him to be sent to a special education school but the mum doesn't want to. And so, "international school la~".

Oh well. There was this one case that made me think.
How will it feel like, having a child who'd be stuck at 7 years old or so?
The child was 10 going to be 11, but intellectually he is at the 7 years old milestone.
And he is really cute and adorable. Really. Oh he has ADHD by the way, plus some learning disability as a co-morbidity.
Last year I also met a 30+ years old patient but intellectually, he's about 11.
I just thought, perhaps it'll be nice to have such kids...
He'll stay a kid for us, being manja and all. He won't be those grown-up kids who would leave their parents and totally forget about them. He'll be afraid to venture out into the big bad world.
You will always have a kid.
Wouldn't that be nice?

Heh. Nope. It ain't that easy now is it? When you're old, you will want them to take care of you. You'll grow tired yourself by then, and you want them to be by your side. And I think as a parent (which obviously I'm not one yet), to see your kid grow and trying out new things and facing challenges in their own life is somewhat a great feeling. And to know that they'll need you when they need you, that is indescribable.

I guess people are just afraid of being left out. Or was it just me...? hmm..