Full Time Mum?

June month is Singapore school holiday. My baby sitter took a week off to bring her children back to her home town. I gladly agree even though that means D & I had to take turn and take day off from work to take care of the kids at home. It ended up that I took Monday to Wednesday off and D took Thursday and Friday off. When comes to taking care of the kids, most of the time we are quite equal.

People always asked me the big question, will you resign and take care of your children. Actually it is not something up to me because I needed the money to maintain our lifestyle. But one will say, money is not everything.. I always think it would be good if I can have a less stressful and demanding work which allows me to do a 9-5 job, then it would be ideal. However, on the other hand, I am kind of a workaholic, I would think less of myself if I don't have a career. Sad to say that I use my career to validate myself.

So after 3 days being full time mum at home, the answer is still no, I really do not see myself as a stay home mum. I respect those who are because they are doing a job that is so big, so much scarifies and so little glamourous reward.

Colombo

Rotitelur used to travel frequently to Sri Lanka for work from 1999-2000. I think I have been there 8-9 times, sometime stayed for 2 weeks or so. Although there was concerns about security but I had enjoyed all the trips. I know few friends there whom I still stayed in touch and they were really really nice to me. 

Last week, I had the chance to visit the country once again because of work. Colombo has changed a lot. The airport is bigger and nicer now. There are more restaurants in town. More shopping places. In short, just like any developing country, Colombo is getting more charming than 9 years ago. I am sure that this place will continue to develop given that now the civil war has ended.

D has a friend who is an expat there. British husband, Thai wife with 1 beautiful children, 7 years old girl and 4 years old boy. So this friend of D invited me home for dinner. I had the best home cook Thailand ever, much better than any Thai restaurant I have been with, no kidding, it was that good. 

So, Colombo, I will definitely come back again.

Global Warming

My daughter has a nickname called the AC girl. She does not like the heat, it really bothers her when  she feels warm, she will scream on the top of her voice in the middle of the night. When I heard that, most of the time she has wet the bed, not her wee wee but her sweat.

Lately I notice that the temperature in Singapore is getting warm, uncomfortably warm. I can't help to think what kind of temperature will be in Singapore when my children grow up. I used to think that as human and technology evolve, human will find a way to resolve the global warming issue. This is something for the scientist to worry about, no normal human being like myself. There is nothing to worry about. My view has changed now, I think if I would, I will make sure I become an environmental friendly person, just for the sake of my children.

Please do your part and support to save the earth.

Listen To Your Old Folks

Lately a reader of mine just welcomed his new born. This was a joyful occasion and we were all happy for him. As every parent, I believe the new parent also suffer some sleepless nights. There is always mixed emotion in parenting, excitement, anxiety, frustration....you name it. This brings back my memory when I was a new parent and I have few words to share with my friends out there on how to make your life better. It is simple, listen and follow what your parent did to you when you were baby.

When I first had my baby, I chose to go the opposite of what my mum told me to, thinking that her ways were out dated and no scientific prove to support that. For example, she urged me to put the baby into sarung for nap and bounce the baby but I said no because it would make the baby be accustomed to the motion and not able to sleep by himself. I also fight for a long time not to give pacifier but at the end, after listening to the PD, I let the baby use pacifier to help him to sleep better. I also against my mum's view of giving the baby a special pillow so that he could associate that with sleeping. Because of these fights against the old method of bring up a child, I found that I brought to myself more trouble and more work. Not only my son didn't get enough sleep, I also lost my sleep trying to claim him and sooth him to sleep.

So I learned from my experience of the first one. When the second one comes, the pacifier, sarung and pillow all come together. Not that my baby sleeps well and grow well, she is also a happy and contended baby. Is that really that good? no side effect? will she able to kick all those habit, I am not sure but it is already a blessing seeing her growing up well. 

So parents out there, sometimes those old methods may have some truth in it. Do not think that you studied more than your mum and ignore them. There is a saying, mum eat salt more than we eat rice. When comes to childcare, experience that counts.

Missing The News

I was in HK last week attending meetings. Before I left, I remember a kiasu tips which was to pre order the food on line with Singapore Airline. Just as what I expected, my food came first before others and it taste good. I think I will do the same next time.

HK was still the same, I was busy and couldn't meet up with some of my friends. I did meet up with one friend of mine who recently got connected again in Facebook. I was glad to see that she was doing well, probably getting married soon and live happily ever after. In our conversation, I learned about the Edison Chen scandal. I am not sure what happened in my life when the scandal happened, I missed the news entirely. Until now, I still couldn't see how I could miss such a big news of HK. D said it was because I did not red newspaper everyday. He did not know he is my newspaper. 

There is a price to pay to be famous. You have no privacy and you are constantly being judged of what you do and what you say. I am wondering if it worth it.

Next Generation

Today I finally spent time to open the ang pau my children. To my my surprise, both of them collected worth S$740 of ang pau. I am thinking, friends and relatives were generous but it could also due to inflation. 

I remember when I was young, I used to received ang pau in coins, 50 cents or 20 cents, I would happily put it into my piggy bank. My dad used to give us a piggy bank each to teach us how to save money. I am doing the same for my son but I wonder how he view money in future. The life of next generation is going to be so different than us. They are exposed to all the high end stuff and have little concept of saving penny. 

Parent in my generation are also very fortunately. Most of us are living a middle to high class life where we are not short of anything in life. Often, because the number of kids are less in the family, parent would not hesitate to buy the high end stuff for their kids. They think that they could afford, why not. I am not sure what kind of side effect would be bring to our next generation? Will they be able to live a simple life and still happy about it?

Stars Purchases

In the past 2 years, we have bought a lot of things for my 2 kids. Some of them were good purchases and some were waste of money or unnecessary. These are some 'star purchases' that I would like to share with my friends who have baby at home. They make life much easier and it is worth to spend the money.

(1) Baby Bouncer is very useful as it gives your young infant an alternative place to hang out other than his bed. The bouncing effect makes them feel comfortable. I have one that can rock and vibrate but the vibration is not necessary. You can buy a hanger of toys as add on, something to entertain the baby when he is awakes. Mine is from fisher price, cost about S$100. My friends got this for me as a gift. 

(2) Tricycle is very useful if you have active toddler that like to go out but do not like to sit in the pram anymore. My son started to use it when he was about 10 months old. The beauty of this is that it has a post which you can steer to where you want to go, there is a basket for you to put the water bottle for the little one, there is a bar at the seat to prevent toddler from falling and you can remove the foot rest when the toddler is older where he can then paddle. I don't really care for the sun shade as it doesn't do much and block my view of the toddler. I bought this at Carrefour and paid about S$50 for it. 

(3) Foam Mat is good for infant and toddler to hang out. It helps define the place where they can play so that toys will not be everywhere on the floor. It is safe for infant who is learning how to roll over. Kids like colorful thing and some mat can be a puzzle for them to play as well. The only thing is you need to assemble them back for them.  For convenience purpose, you can buy the 2 feet wide but the 1 feet is more common and can make it more prevailing for kids. To make a 4 by 4 feet area, it cost around S$25.