Kids Have It Tough

Even as I write my first post on this blog, my 2nd daughter is sitting next to me struggling to finish her homework. Not sure what she was doing over the weekend but I think it was homework as well. Just P6. It's Chinese again- her weakest link. She has her Chinese electronic dictionary by her side. She's finally finished. Oops! She's gone down to tell the maid to wake her up earlier- did I hear 5.30am, so that she could finish typing her Chinese compo into the desktop.
It's amazing how much homework a child can receive. Daily, it's a toil to keep up with her homework. Half of them I cannot help her in. They're using 'modelling' for Maths- it's Greek to me. I give her the answer by my own method but that is not good enough, she tells me. Fortunately my wife is good in Chinese but she is working half the time. 'Tuition' is another option but that would mean even less time with the family. She tells me that most of her friends are receiving tuition, most of them sleep late and wake up very early. They have music, they have speech and drama, they have ballet, they have the band, brownies, remedial classes, enrichment classes, etc. etc.
My thoughts are- are we robbing our kids of their childhood? Where is the quality time to bond with the siblings and parents? When was the last time they ever saw a rainbow or even the fluffy clouds in the sky? When was the last time they ever smelled the flowers? Now the main preoccupation is with Neopets, Maple Story, Pokemon, Xboxes, Playstations. The only mushrooms they see are in this programme called Maple Story. They tell me that it is a Korean invention and that there are different levels to achieve. Occasionally they 'meet' friends in Maple Story. One can buy Maple Story cards, posters, water bottle, etc. The other day they made us bring them to Suntec City for this Maple Story event and we spent nearly 3 hours there...and we bumped into people we knew.
It's amazing too to see how our kids' lives have come to revolve around the computer. I guess times have changed since the days of marbles, longkang fish and spinning tops.
It is scary, I'm not sure how our kids will turn out. This is really uncharted territory.