19/03/2006
When I was a mommy...
I believe that as our kids suck the life, energy, and finances out of us, we have to learn how to suck it out of them too! Believe it or not, I think all mothers do this…we thrive and survive on the joy that they give us, the smile that they can bring to our faces and the love that makes our hearts expand like an inflated balloon. No one can truly explain to you how a mother feels like when they look into the sleeping faces of their kids unless they are a mother themselves.
When the worst hits us, we can turn our thoughts and focus on our children and they will stabilize our emotions (on top of driving us insane with their consistent littering, but we’ll learn how to adapt to that). On a stressed day, you look at how simple their lives are and how they grow and learn from their little-little experiences, you’ll feel like… “Hey, what’s there to gripe about? I’ve got the best thing in the world with me…their butterfly kisses are all I need”
Well, I wasn’t feeling too uppity these past few days because it’s school holidays and when it’s this time of the year, I feel all stressed out because the kids are home ALL THE TIME and demanding my attention, want me to take them out, keep littering the house and can’t keep their gaps shut for one single second. They can’t make peace with each other and like to de-hair each other all the time! And I can’t find the time to work on my stuff.
But suddenly, one evening, Jared was singing on my swivel chair, dancing, and the chair (being a swivel chair) was about to tip over backwards. I screamed and grabbed him off the chair and chastised him for his foolishness.
He looked at me in earnest regret and said, “Sorry, mom. I promise not to hurt myself. Thank you for protecting me”.
Silence…..I was caught off guard as my mouth hung open. Jared is known for his comic relief but not his language-skills and communication skills. He’s 3+ for Crissakes!!
But here comes the clincher…..
He takes a deep breath and said, “When I was a mommy, I will protect you too. And when I was a mommy, I will take money and buy food for you; when I was a mommy, I will wash the plates in the kitchen and I will teach you how to do your homework. And when I was a mommy, I will kiss you before you go to sleep and I go work on the computer. When mommy was a kid, you can play and watch TV, ok?”
Oh boy…..he’s got my heart firmly in his hands. I hope that he will remember his words and keep his promise.
But yeah…it’s time like this that you thank God for giving you something back for those few hours spent in the labor room screaming at your husband. And it’s times like this that makes those hours of washing, cleaning, bathing, feeding, cooking, sweeping, picking and packing, ironing….all worth the time.
I swear to you my heart expanded to the size of a well-fed elephant when I grabbed him and gave him a big bear hug.
Jared, when you was a mommy, you’d better remember this friggin’ promise!
18:40 Posted in Family | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email this
06/02/2006
Things I recently learnt living on my own
Things I learnt after moving out of the safe confines of in-laws’ home and my own home.
1. When using plastic gloves to wash dishes, you lose the use of your touch (feel) faculty. Use eyes when washing dishes.
2. Dust is not only on your PC. Dust is EVERYWHERE.
3. Ants are hateful creatures. Worse than vultures! And worse yet, they are also very vengeful. Kill one hundred of their brothers (or sisters), a thousand of their kind will come raid your kitchen and dustbins. Thankfully, ants are not very smart creatures. They don’t know and can’t remember what a mortein (insect killer) can looks like.
4. It takes so painfully long to cook, and very short time to eat (spill, throw, stuff in fridge)
5. Each component in a cuisine (albeit dish) is delicately handcrafted by an art master. Read: Have to cut carrot, potato, onion, garlic, vegetable, and whateverelsethereisinthedumbdish each one individually one meh? Cannot cut all at one go?? Someone should design something like this.
6. There’s a very important reason why knives are made sharp – they CUT!!! Wash and use carefully.
7. Clothes don’t wash, dry, fold and return themselves to closet without human intervention
8. The toilet don’t flush, wash and clean itself. Keep soap at safe height.
9. One can actually get bored of canned food. (amazing discovery here. I thought we could actually feed the kids canned food until they are 18)
10. Food doesn’t grow in fridges and freezers.
08:50 Posted in Being human , Family , Ramblings | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email this | Tags: live, life, living, own, home, house, family, families
02/02/2006
Woe the holidays
I wonder if I am the only one on the planet that feels like holidays are…such a complete waste of time. Admittedly, I am one of those workaholics who cannot sit, stand, lie or squat still for a very long time. No, not a hyperactive person, but I do like being useful or doing something.
Therefore, holidays are always a bore to me. Strangely enough, when I was in school, I would end up going to school just to play or practice something. You know, in school, we always have this extra-curricular stuff going at one point or the other. And when I was working, I would end up spending more hours in the office during holidays than during the normal working days! Strange creature…me.
And it’s no different now that I am a mother and freelancer.
Having the kids home with me all the time is god-send. I mean, this is what I want – to have them with me and I have all the time in the world to spend with them, tickle them and play catch with them, enjoy their laughter and also to break up their fights. But heck, when in the world is the holiday going to end??!!! I have to get them out of my hair soon otherwise, I am never going to get any work done at all!
Sadly, even during the Chinese New Year, when just about every single Chinese in the world is taking a holiday or enjoying themselves, I am here, mulling over websites, articles and brochures!
Am I the only person in the world who doesn’t like holidays?
In fact, I spend so much more money during the holidays because I have to take the kids out all the time – they get bored pretty easily sitting at home, it seems. So, there we go strolling aimlessly around every shopping mall nearby and breaking every see saw and swing in every garden we find, stuffing our faces with pizzas, spaghettis, lasagnas and other out-of-the-budget food during the holidays is….well, something I can do without.
I can’t wait for school to start so that they can have their life back (they might disagree with me) and get off Astro Playhouse Disney and Cartoon Network and I can get some things done here. Otherwise, my clients are going to have my sorry behind for dinner!
08:55 Posted in Being human , Family , Ramblings | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email this | Tags: work, holidays, holidays, kid, kids, family
30/01/2006
Mom of boys
First, read this. It’s an excerpt from Sure Signs you’re the mother of boys by Sharon O’Donnell. I am quite picky about who I like as a writer and for me, Sharon O’Donnell has this way of writing that either touches you or tickles you. Everything that she writes about parenting and being a mother is so true that it makes you want to cry!
Excerpts from: Sure Signs You’re the Mother of Boys
by Sharon O’Donnell
- you find Power Ranger parts under your sofa. Sometimes your vacuum cleaner finds them first.
- your weekend schedule includes more total hours of little league sports than it does sleep
- they think PMS is the new Play Station video game system
- you have to chase down the playful family dog to retrieve your son’s jock strap
- the most romantic movie you’ve watched in the last five years is DieHard II
- you have to arrange two weeks ahead of time to take a bubble bath – and then must lock the door and scream “I’m in the tub – ask Dad!” every three minutes.
I not only find Power Ranger parts under the sofa, I find it in my underwear drawer, in the fridge in the wok and many other unimaginable places. And I have not been able to find the time to sit down to plan the next five minutes….a bath? Out of the question!! The only bath I get these days is in the condo pool. And I don’t think they allow red wine there….
14:00 Posted in Blog , Family , Ramblings | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email this | Tags: mom, moms, mother, mothers, motherhood, parent, parenting, parents
29/01/2006
Oh, how I love you but I hate your frigging guts!
I don’t know how they do it. I spend 99% of my time with them, watch them cuddle together on the couch watching Playhouse Disney and then the next moment, they’re trying to dismember each other! I just don’t know how they do it! They love each other to….erm…..life…and yet, they try to punch out each others’ teeth the next. I am talking about both my joys and boys…Joshua and Jared.
By virtue of the fact that they were born on the same date and also only 2 year apart, they practically share everything and have LOADS of things in common but why oh why do they have to fight about everything? They fight about who gets to choose the last book for me to read at night. They fight about who gets to use the green spoon. Funnily, the green spoon was not all that popular to begin with. It only began when Jared said that he liked the green Power Ranger and he wanted to use the green spoon to commemorate the green Power Ranger that he adored….and that is also precisely when Joshua started to think that the green spoon (and Power Ranger) was indeed pretty cool too.
Oh, but my boys don’t always fight all that much – only almost all the time. Joshua would be building his dominos (he’s really patient with these things) and Jared the destroyer would trot along with Ultraman in hand, and knocks his whol domino setup to bits and pieces. Needless to say, Joshua would be crying Red murder and Jared would claim innocence. “But Ultraman is trying to save people. He kills monsters” and Joshua cries harder. “There are no monsters, mom!!!”
I don’t know how they can be so cute and adorable at the same time? Kids have this talent, I believe.
Joshua would be so sensible and logical sometimes that I would like to think he was mature. But then he proves me wrong the next minute by kicking up a fuss about something as trivial as using the wrong colored bowl. Josh is really sweet and logical most of the time. And perhaps it’s because he’s got my temperamental genes that he’s not able to keep his temper and anger under check all the time. After all he’s only 6 and I am like….30+++++…and I still have trouble controlling my own temperament. So, why should I expect him to perform better than me, right?
As for Jared, I don’t know what to say. He’s the absolute cutie pie who knows exactly how to win your heart without much effort. If he did something wrong, he knows exactly what to say to get back into my good books – no doubt about that. He could have knocked my precious vase over – he would look at furious me, shuffle his feet, pout, squint a few tears in his eyes and say “Oops. I’m sorry, mom. I didn’t mean to. It was an accident” and I would have given him all the cookies in the world.
I don’t know if they do it consciously as well – but they both always like opposite things. Joshua likes to cover himself with a blanket from head to toe before he would sleep, Jared hates the blanket and would have slept naked if I allowed him to. Jared like cookies while Joshua prefers Oreos. Jared like rice while Joshua likes noodles. Joshua likes sketching while Jared likes coloring.
But I have to say that watching them grow up is pretty….erm…interesting, if not challenging. Sometimes I have to literally slap myself across the face and say, “They’re not the same person – you have to love them differently and yet the same”. They have their own individual characters that is just shining through so brightly that sometimes, as a parent, I am overwhelmed.
I, therefore, cannot understand why some people prefer not to raise their own kids. It baffles me completely! There’s nothing more precious than the time that I have spent single-handedly raising, nurturing, guiding, teaching, parenting, mothering, caring for and LOVING these two monsters.
I SERIOUSLY SERIOUSLY SERIOUSLY wouldn’t have it any other way. I wonder why some people can’t see how wonderful the parenting experience actually is….it’s their loss, really.
By the time they miss it, it’s too late.
22:20 Posted in Family | Permalink | Comments (4) | Email this | Tags: parent, parents, parenting, parenthood, kids, boys, kid, boys
26/01/2006
Sleep Sleep Sleep
The extra couple of hours of sleep, it seems, may not be the best thing for your body, I’ve just discovered. Why am I interested in the topic of sleep?
1. I suspect that my kids lack sleep (Joshua’s dark under-eye circle and Jared’s constant yawning could have something to do with it
2. My inability to wake up in the morning in time to send my kids to school on time could ALSO have increased my interest in the topic of sleep.
It seems that Eskimos sometimes sleep for 14 hours a day. Lucky them, I get something like 5 or 6 hours of sleep a night…if I am lucky. Sometimes, I have endure a full day with 3 hours or no sleep at all per day! And like they say, while no sleep is no good for the body, the Eskimos may not be leading all-that-healthy a lifestyle either.
Everything done is excess is no good and without a smidgen of doubt, if you don’t get enough of something (vitamins, food, water or sleep) it’s also detrimental to the mind and the body. Therefore, it’s important for kids to get about 10 hours of sleep and adults 8 hours of sleep per day. But Napoleon said that a man needs 6 hours of sleep, a woman need 7 hours of sleep and a fool needs 8. So, you decide.
And the most amazing thing is that most of us think that we are getting enough sleep because we can function during work. but researches in the US takes on a different view. They seem to think that the reason why people tend to sleep longer hours during weekends or holidays is because they are sleep-deprived during the week day – which is logical, if you ask me. Therefore, you start yawning while driving, it’s your body telling you that you need to spend more time sleeping.
During Victorian times, people used to think that sleeping 8 hours = idleness and laziness. During those times, men sleep 6 hours and women tend to sleep about 15 or 30 minutes more than men. It’s an acceptable fact that women sleep a little bit longer than men although they, during those times, are required to do less work (yeah, like housework is not really work, right? Bah!)
And preschoolers? It’s funny that my kids still continue to take naps even when they’re already BOTH attending preschool. I’ve read somewhere that preschoolers typically need about 10 – 12 hours a night! My goodness, then I have been doing everything wrong! Joshua and Jared sleeps at about 12 midnight and then wakes up about 8 in the morning. Which works out to be 8 hours of sleep a night. No wonder they still need an afternoon nap. By Western standards, I am probably a terrible parent! But I do intend to turn this around. soon, I will be reducing their afternoon nap to nothing and getting them to bed about 10 so that they can wake up bright and smiley in the morning. In fact, experts think that we can replace afternoon naps with a little bit of quiet time or reading…and maybe just lying down on a mat, listening to music or watching a little bit of educational TV. Hhhhmmm….I’ll try to work this one in.
And that works for me too. People who’ve lived with me know that I have this problem going to sleep and waking up. The funny thing is that even if I had enough sleep for a night, I STILL have problems waking up in the morning. I give the saying ‘Sleeping Like A Log’ a brand new meaning. My mother-in-law, mother and grandmother used to say that I sleep like the DEAD.
But all this is about to change. I no longer have the maids and my mother-in-law thumping over my leg and face to wake me in the morning so that I can send the kids to school. I only have the alarm clock that I can’t hear (the clock is really loud, by the way) to wake me.
02:40 Posted in Being human , Family | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: sleep, sleeps, sleeping, slept, nap, naps, napping, napped
20/01/2006
Sand Paper hands
It’s been…what…6 days since I moved out of the safe confines of my in-laws’ home. Gone are the days where you sleep until there’s food on the table. Gone are the days where you surf the net until someone tells you it’s time to fetch the kids. Gone are the days of peacefully working behind the computer while the kids entertain themselves with other cousins.
I have spent 90% of the time in this new apartment washing one thing or another. It’s amazing! Every time I finish washing something, there’s something else to wash. The kids have this radar thing going too – when the floor is clean, their radar spots it and they run around in the clean area until it’s dirty again.
My fingers are coarse like sand paper and no amount of lotion is going to repair this!!! My back aches. My nails are chipped. I call out ‘Joshua’ and ‘Jared’ in my sleep. I’ve pissed off at least 6 clients because of this house moving thing that has taken FOREVER!!! And I almost poisoned the whole family with overnight ikan bilis (anchovies) broth left wrongly in the refrigerator instead of the freezer!
So far, everything’s really…..swell?
13:35 Posted in Blog , Family , Ramblings | Permalink | Comments (3) | Email this | Tags: moving, move, shift, shifting, clean, cleanliness, dirty, new house
03/01/2006
Be CRUEL in order to be KIND
It’s the new year, the end of holidays for Malaysian kids and the beginning of a harrowing experience for new students – and the teachers! You won’t envy their job at the beginning of the year – especially if they’re teaching NURSERY.
Anyway, under normal circumstance, Jared is quite independent although sometimes quite clinghy, but he’s adapted to his school environment and understands the concept of ‘mommy coming back for you later’.
But the sad thing is that while he has adapted to his old school, he’s in a new school this year. We’re moving to a new condo this month (probably mid or end of the month) and it would be more convenient for both Joshua and Jared to attend the same school. Hence, I’ve taken Jared out from his old school and both my boys are enrolled with the same school.
I know I half expected Jared to accept the fact that he’s in a new school with new teachers and new friends easily…but that was naïve and wishful thinking. He cried and bawled senselessly and refused to quite down. The moment I said, “Mommy will come back for you later, ok?”, he would grab my thigh and cling dramatically to my leg.
But I’ve seen Joshua do this before and Jared wasn’t exactly easy going when he first started school, so, I know for a fact that you have to be cruel in order to be kind. You see, I remember the second day of Joshua’s school year (first time entering school and all) where he was thrashing around on the floor of the kindergarten when I tried to leave. His teacher tried to pick him up and he gave his teacher a nasty bonk on the nose! But the teachers assured me that he will be alright in 5 minutes. I wasn’t too sure. I stuck around outside, playing pink panther hiding behind trees and slides, spying on the status of my little boy in school.
Well, Joshua can throw a worse tantrum that any other kid I know, so, I was worried the teacher was going to peg him to the door by the back of his uniform or something. But none of that happened, of course. What actually happened was that, I spent approximately 10 minutes in hiding outside watching his eyes, nose and ears turn red with crying and then suddenly, like something snapped, he stopped, looked around and realized that HECK, mom’s stopped coming in the door….so…..the drama can stop too.
And with amazement, I watched as he colored stuff. Occasionally, he turned around towards the door and the teacher stops him. He sniffs and cries pitifully again but then always resumes his position and started doing some work again. That was the second day. He cried a total of 1 hour, I think. The third day, he cried all of ten minutes and even sang some songs. The fourth day, he sniffed at the door but waved goodbye as I drove away. And the fifth day…is history. When I changed him to a new school, he didn’t really cry either.
Jared, on the other hand, is a little bit younger than Joshua when the transition was made. Yesterday was traumatic because I hung around. Today, I went in, took him to class, spent 2 minutes reassuring him that I will be back and then just left. I heard his bawling and his ‘I want to go home!’ and ‘I want my mommy!’ but decidedly and purposefully walked out of the door.
In the case of first day of school jitters, let me issue a reminder to all parents – make the life of the teachers and the children easier. The longer you hang around, the worse it will be. Trust me, the moment you turn around, they’re going to adapt.
A very sordid scenario and example of how to be CRUEL in order to be KIND. If you love your child and want him to stop crying, turn around, walk out of the door, shut your ears and then don’t look back.
Oh, you can promise gifts and presents if you want but- after school and if there’s no crying. Works every time!!!
03:25 Posted in Family | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: school, kids, schooling, family, children, teacher, teachers, start school
19/12/2005
Guitar is a musical instrument too…isn’t it?
I love the piano and have spent my childhood days dreaming about playing wondering music and composing songs. Because I have this gift musically, I didn’t speak to my parents for close to a week, I think, because they sold my organ off. I didn’t know then but now I do – my parents had financial problems and selling off the piano was an option I think they didn’t want to (but have to) make.
But I swear to you…I was the maddest kid on the block for a long, long, LONG time!!
So, off Joshua goes to music class. This is not the first time he’s going to attend music class. The first music class he went to was under Musikgarten program. I have very good reviews about Musikgarten but they teach a whole lot of singing, dancing and drama in the classes. So, after about a year of classes under Musikgarten, I suppose I decided that Joshua’s reaped enough benefits through their program. In attending the music class, he’s come out of his very solitary shell and has become more confident and vocal about things. Like when I shout at him unreasonably (bad PMS mom in action), he will sniff silently and tell me, “Mom, you shouldn’t just simply shout at me”. The first time he told me that, it stunned me silent. Then I ran to him and gave him a big hug, telling him, “You’re right, Josh. I shouldn’t. I am so, so, sorry!”
And yet when I went to the music class with Josh and he stares at a young teen playing a guitar in the shop (probably practicing before class), he pointed at the teen and told me. “I think I want to learn how to play the guitar”.
My first thought was….”What? You don’t want to play the piano? Why not? it makes a beautiful sound and I like the piano and I desperately want to learn how to play the piano. Why not you?”
Then I snapped out of the dream-state and said to Josh, “Sure thing, Josh. You’re a little bit young for the guitar but let me try to sweet-talk your new teacher in accepting you as a student, ok?” And my sweet talk worked.
I got past myself in accepting the fact that my son is not playing the conventional piano but others have not.
A certain relative and her husband snigger and chuckle every time they see me and Josh lugging the guitar around. They’re like saying, “You’re really serious about this? What makes you think you can do this? Josh? Playing the guitar? Why not the piano? It’s not going to work, Marsha”
But they’re not the only one, elderly people have this ingrained perception that the guitar is not a proper musical instrument too. They continue to think and imagine the guitar as the kind of toy people bring around and strum aimlessly on during campfires. But with a piano, you can make a living, you can play in an orchestra or become someone….prominent. With a guitar, you don’t.
Eh, you never heard of Santana or Four Play, is it? They make bigger buckaroos than those people in orchestra, I would like to assume.
So, I say, let Josh make the decision. If he wants to switch to another musical instrument later on, let him. Don’t tell him he can’t without letting him try, right?
Marsha
www.marshamaung.com
www.creativejooz.com
www.allmomstuff.com
01:15 Posted in Family , Music , Ramblings | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email this
12/12/2005
Living in fear
My husband and his family members have been staying here, the house that we’re currently residing in, for decades! Decades! And when they bought the house, this place is a budding city with promises of being one of the most developed areas in our State. True enough, it has become so.
This area (I shall name it MyCity) is now one of the best place to raise a family and at every corner, there’s either a supermarket or a convenience store. There’s a popular mall here that people from every other places in Kuala Lumpur come to and sometimes, it might even seem as though the world is here. It’s a torture, sometimes, but I am proud to be a part of MyCity and have decided that this is where I want to raise my kids. This is going to be my city, my home town. I love it.
A place that used to be the perfect place to raise a family, in the past decade, has turned into Living Hell! In front of my house, there’s a settlement or kampong whereby lots of foreign workers or illegal workers come to set up their base. Their little kampong houses are sometimes even bigger than ours because they get their materials cheap, no need to pay licenses and labor…they build their own, don’t they? Anyway, as the years go on, I have seen how they have progressed from building single story, one-room wooden houses to the now three-storey brick houses with ‘hostels’ on the ground floor.
Illegals who come here without visa or permit will come to this little kampong and get a place to stay in the ‘hostels’ because the owner of the house likes helping his own kind. I understand that but this makes our place very dangerous to stay in.
There are illegals walking around in front of our houses all the time. Over the past 7 years I have been staying here, we’ve lost countless items. I have lost 5 pairs of shoes to illegals who climb over our gates and take our brand new shoes. Oh, they’re smart enough to leave the old ones behind. My kids have lost 3 pairs of shoes…Joshua – 2 and Jared – 1. My husband lost 2 pairs and I can’t remember the pairs of shoes others have lost – my father-in-law, mother-in-law and brother-in-law. One time, we caught an illegal (his wife waiting outside) taking out ladder from our yard! My maid screamed and he ran! But we know how he looks like now.
And then we’ve lost a bicycle. Since we have an automatic gate, I applaud them because it couldn’t have been easy to haul a bicycle (an old one with those silly-looking handlebars and a basket to boot) up the gate and pass it on to the other person outside the gate. We’ve lost a light bulb too, only recently. In its place, we found an old pajama which the robber must have used to turn the light bulb with because of the rain. Or maybe they decided to strip in the middle of the robbery, who knows what they’re thinking. Maybe stealing is kinky!!??
Oh, and we’ve lost tools like hammers and stuff and my husband got his car stolen about one and a half years ago too! My husband spent the one whole month of carlessness swearing. The inconvenience.
When my husband and his siblings were young, this house was broken into. My brother-in-law was awakened and pushed into my sister-in-law’s room and thank goodness my sister-in-law acted quickly. She had a large, huge (it’s MASSIVE I am telling you) baseball bat (not even a baseball bat because it’s too huge) that she used to knock the lights out of the intruder. He ran screaming…and my father-in-law (I think) ran screaming after him. But he was one of those ‘orang minyak’ (men who put oil all over their bodies so that they are not so easily caught) so, we didn’t catch the guy. I think there was an accomplice. Can’t be too sure.
And my neighbor moved away some time back, about a year ago, because there was an intruder who scared the living daylights out of her. The husband was at home with the kids and the wife just came home. She opened the gate and walked into the house with her handbag. A man came in from behind her, used a helmet to knock her right in front of her door and tried to pull the handbag away from her. She hung on and screamed. Her husband who was in the living room sprung into action and they fled on a motorbike.
And then there was this one time my mother-in-law took the kids out to the field (padang) nearby and she was carrying Jared. We had two bicycles, she was on one of them, carrying Jared (I think) and another maid was with her carrying two other kids. She was merely chatting up with her long-time friend when someone on a motorbike yanked her gold chain from behind giving her a nasty burn on her neck. They took the chain and left a befuddled and terrified mother-in-law, maid, neighbor and kids trudging home fearfully.
I love MyCity but the location of MyHouse has become impossible. Just yesterday, we found out that my husband found out that someone went into his car (we leave it unlock sometimes when the car is parked inside the house compound) and took his touch-n-go and SmartTag! That’s a couple of hundred dollars worth of toll fees in there and the cost of the cards and the tag?? In total, I think that’s already RM320 gone….just like that!
It’s just the thought of people coming into the house compound so easily, helping themselves to the stuff we have out on the compound makes me sick to my stomach. Everytime I want to open the gate, I am scared.
Thank goodness we’re going to be moving to a new place soon.
09:05 Posted in Being human , Blog , Family | Permalink | Comments (5) | Email this
07/12/2005
Oh, you’re good for nothing
I don’t believe in good for nothing.
I was walking down the aisle of a large supermarket when I heard a mother hissing to her crying child, “Good for nothing! Nothing! You better stop this now or I will leave you with the police man”. Not that I am angel when it comes to being a parent to my kids. Sometimes, I falter too and I will yell and shout and throw a massive, scary temper and my kids would cower in fright thinking that their mom was going crazy. Hey, I am human, amn’t I?
But I would never call my kids stupid or good for nothing.
For one thing, I sincerely believe that education is important – but it’s not everything. We, as parents, have to carry this grave responsibility of providing our children with education. Not only do we have to fund it, we have to ensure that they learn whatever they can learn from the education system so that they can benefit from it later on in life.
Knowledge is a funnel.
A funnel whereby information can flow into and train a mind to think and react in a certain knowledgeable way. It’s important.
But frankly, I don’t think it’s everything.
Listening to their cues
What’s more important to us, parents, is the listening skill, not directing or bossing skill. We need to learn how to take cues from our kids, open up gates and doors and let them explore and watch them. Watch how they are taking in the vast opportunities that are being presented to them. Do they like it? Are they interested? Is this their calling? Is this their gift? This is what goes through my mind whenever I introduce something new to my kids. We, parents, should not try to force something…ANYTHING…on to our kids.
As much as I hate being forced to do something (I quit the banking world for a reason, didn’t I?), I won’t force my kids to do something that they don’t like. Of course, there are things that they HAVE to do (like homework, cleaning up, showering, good manners…etc), I also have to bear the responsibility of ensuring that they are well disciplined and yet free to explore the world. But in other respects non-related to their safety and general well-being, force is not my style.
Even the worst kid in school can do well
I believe we all know of geniuses who have made it far beyond our human comprehension. People who we, today, claim as geniuses were called ‘buffoons’ in their early days. Let’s take Albert Einstein as an example. His teacher thought he was a complete loser and yet today, the world think and knows FOR A FACT that he is and was a genius. Even in death, he made a difference not only in his own life…but to the rest of the world too.
While we should not expect our child to be Einstein or paint like Da Vinci, we should always be on a lookout for their gift.
The gift…everyone has one
Everyone has a gift, God is fair. One person may fare well in math while the other did terribly. But if you look close enough, you’ll see that the second child who can’t count for nuts can paint like no one else! No one is born without a gift, which is what I believe. Some people have multiple gifts and are multi-talented in nature but no one in this world is without one.
Parents should set out to find out the gift of their child. It could be anything! ANYTHING! Like Don who loves cleaning out closets and is meticulous in arranging stuff – he’s a good accountant today. Like Gina who loves to play in the playground instead of doing her homework – she’s one of the most popular kids’ football team coaches in her country today. And Simon who was so weak in math that his mother almost told him to leave the house and never come back – he’s a professor in Philosophy today.
Think about it
No one is good for nothing. Even trees or worms are good for something. Trees give us oxygen and some serve as food. Worms digs holes in the ground and helps trees grow. Even bacteria are good at something. Bacteria can actually benefit our health. What about mud? Think mud pack? Everything is good for something….why not your child? Your job, as a parent, is to find that ‘good’, find that talent.
And perhaps, maybe it’s got nothing to do with education.
20:05 Posted in Being human , Family , Ramblings | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
27/11/2005
Ultraman crazy!!
This is going to be a short blog entry today but I am tired (and broke) of paying $26.00 for one small ULtraman figurine after another. Todate, we have about 20 or so Ultramans in their various heroid poses. That's $520 down the drain in case you don't have a calculator with you! Although he is hilarious, Jared is an Ultraman fanatic who tells me that he wants to ‘dream’ about Ultraman before he goes to sleep.
These Ultraman people are smart too….as if one Ultraman is not enough…they have Ultraman Cosmos, Ultraman King, Ultraman Leo, Ultraman Tiga, Ultraman Gaia, Ultraman Agul, Ultraman Chaos, Ultraman Nice (what a sissy Ultraman name!!), Ultraman Powered (I am quite proud of myself for remembering all those names. I didn't make them up...these Ultramans are for real...as real asn Ultraman can be)….and now….I feel compelled to create my own one….
Ultraman Jared. Oh, he’s going to hate me for putting his picture on Ultraman AND publishing it on the web…but he’s only 3, so, let him hate me when he’s 30 and suffering from the same problem I am now.
I hate Ultraman but I kiss the ground Jared walks on.
Marshawww.marshamaung.com
17:40 Posted in Blog , Family , Ramblings | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
07/11/2005
A ewe brush teeth
I am looking for toilet cleaner and the kids are noisily brushing their teeth inside the toilet. There is sound of the toilet flushing and as I head back into the toilet to help them rinse their teeth, Suddenly, Jared rushed out of the toilet in a mad, heady desperate frenzy, crying and bawling. He pulled at my shirt and shorts and cried, “Mommy, you go buy a ewe one. I want a ewe brush teeth. I don’t have a brush teeth anymore, mom”. So desperate was the cry I didn’t find it funny until later. ‘ewe’ = new.
Apparently, the poor chap dropped his toothbrush into the toilet bowl while he was flushing the toilet. He has thing attachment to his toothbrush like a child who is attached to his ‘chuet-chuet’ (pacifier), blanky, bolster or teddy. His toothbrush was his best friend, at least at night. To lose it is like losing a part of him (there ARE quite a bit of his cells wedged into those bristles, I’m sure). He was totally devastated!! I am sure he will have a nightmare about chasing after a Jared-sized toothbrush tonight. *tee hee*
I promised him that he would get a new toothbrush and cheered him up saying that the toothbrush has gone out into the drainpipes and the cats will find it. When they do, they can clean up their KITTY grins, then. He loves cats, by the way. And with that, he thought losing his toothbrush is not such a bad idea after all.
Poor chap.
Joshua, in the meantime, is getting PPPPPREETTTTYYYY good at reading Chinese (mandarin). He’s actually reading the Han Yin Pin Yin words at the bottom, though, and with a Gwai-Low accent too. But hey, who am I to complain? Although he refuses to allow me to speak to him in Cantonese, Mandarin or Hokkien (my mother tongue), he’s starting to open himself to the possibility of learning the language. Yippeee!!!! It took him the whole year. First half of the year he was fighting the notion of ever writing or reading Mandarin. Now, he’s starting to open his mind a little.
And as for the Nanowrimo challenge, I’ve reached 13,000 and still going! Things are starting to become a drag as I run out of plots and words to invent and write. But hey, this is definitely expected when you’re writing a novel, right? Better to get used to it. I’m not giving up yet and intend to stay with this thing I started right to the ‘bitter’ end. *fingers crossed*
Anyway, that’s it for today. Back to the manuscript and drawing board.
Tata
Marsha
18:25 Posted in Blog , Family | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
25/10/2005
I got a letter from Ainiwaer
I have this thing about children and their sufferings, therefore, you should understand why my previous post was so ‘passionate’ if not bordering on deranged. I dunno, I never was a lover-of-children before and I don’t recall ever being so passionate about children before this, before I had my own. As they say, motherhood does strange things to people.
Ainiwaer is my sponsored child. I sponsored him through World Vision Malaysia and so far everything’s been smooth flowing. He’s an 11-year-old boy from China who lives in Hotan, Xinjiang, China. Although he lives in a Chinese country, he’s a Muslim, that’s what I gather anyway. He’s got a brother and his parents are fine. The only problem is that where they live, there’s the Gobi desert and consistent sandstorm that disrupts their daily lives. Their living condition is deplorable and they eat nothing but ‘Nang’ (a bread-like substance) day in and day out. Clean water is precious. If not for contributions like mine, they wouldn’t even HAVE clean water. Since they live in a desert, water, as it is, is already hard to come by.
I don’t know what it was I expected from this sponsorship. I wanted to make a difference in someone else’s life. I really want to help someone, anyone. I wanted to sponsor a child because they are the future, they’re our hope. They are helpless and ill-equipped to fend for themselves, and because their parents are not in the position to give them a fulfilling life, in comes good Samaritans like us. They’re innocent.
These children can live a better life with just RM50 (USD13) a month. Like my sister said, “Are you sure they can survive just one RM50? They need more I’ll give RM100 or RM150 a month”. Well, I said the same thing and apparently, this is all they need to meet with their daily needs. The problem is we’re privileged and we’re thinking about a luxurious lifestyle. We have TVs, they don’t. Some have radios, most don’t. I don’t think they have computers, paper and color pencils are scarce, much less the computer!! So, yes, they can live on RM50 a month. I spend more than that on one single Sunday. In fact, I can spend 4 times more than that on any given day…and yet, these children can live on RM50 a month.
Today, I got a letter from Ainiwaer and boy, it sure lightened up my day!! It was probably a very standard letter that World Vision prepares in advance and gets the child to write in his or her own writing (if she can write already). If the child is too young, the parents will write on behalf of the child. But it really lifted my spirits. The letter, was written in Arabic language, I knew was written by someone other than Ainiwaer. He’s only 11 and the writing was so clean and organized. Couldn’t be the writing of a child.
But the picture. This picture is what Ainiwaer drew of himself and THIS is what brightened up my day.
He didn’t have to speak the same language. He didn’t have to know how to write. But with the picture that he drew, it melted my heart. It’s simple, isn’t it, what a picture from a child can do? It’s like when Joshua draws me on a piece of paper with too-short-legs and too-long-necks with a heart across is and he writes, ‘I loov yoo, moom’ and it sends me into hyperspace!!!
21:52 Posted in Family | Permalink | Comments (8) | Email this
24/10/2005
Yet another baby....DUMPED!!
With the rising number of babies being dumped and left to die, I can’t help but wonder what the world is coming to?? What is all this baby-dumping business that’s been going on? Why?? How??? How can you???
Is humanity digressing so much that we have come to this? Why can’t mothers or fathers or BOTH appreciate the gift of life? Regardless of how much burden a baby can be, it is yours, it’s your blood! How can you anyone leave their babies to die??
Sorry, I feel very strongly about this one. I am going to get foul-mouthed later on, so, be warned. If you don’t like reading rude opinions, click away now.
Anyhow, there are more and more parents who feel that they are not the best people to care for their own children. For one thing, more and more of my friends are leaving their kids to nannies that will care for their babies 24 hours a day, and the parents will only come and VISIT their baby after work. After that, they leave for home. The baby is part of the family, I don’t understand how anyone can just leave their babies in another home, like the baby is not part of their family at all???
I GAVE EVERYTHING UP TO CARE FOR MY OWN KIDS!! I will kill anyone who tries to take over the responsibility of caring for my kids. I loathe the thought of anyone else making the decision of caring for MY children for me and I will fight them with everything that is in me to be the main decision maker because as mother, I am given the instinct to know (most of the time) what is best for my babies.
And yet, many parents these days are leaving their kids to the care of other more adept and more experienced people. Some take the kids home during weekends. Some don’t even do that, visiting only at night and taking them home once a month. And you call yourself a PARENT??? Check out the word parent in a dictionary….
Worse still, there are those who know that the crying bundle is their own flesh and blood and yet they pack the babies in plastic bags, watch the baby struggle for breath and then leave the ‘package’ in a dump site???? Man, what is thing world coming to?
What is the true meaning of a family, this modern world is totally befuddling to me.
Some people make excuses like, “Oh, I am not the best person to care for my baby” and I say “Bull Fucking Shit!!” God gave you the ability to give birth, you’re given the ability to care for the baby. The best, you’re the best. And by handing your baby to another person (it could be your mother, in-law, sister, or neighbor, it doesn’t matter) you’re denying your baby the best that he or she can have. You.
Some people say, “Oh, I am so busy with my work and we come home very late after that and have no time to be with the baby”. Another bullshit!!! You MAKE time if you’re busy. You can make time to play golf, you can make time to take care of your own child, for crissakes!!
Some people say “I give up. I don’t think I can handle it anymore”. Then why have a kid? And if you had the kid by accident, take responsibility. This is what you have done, do something about it. We’re not talking about a broken pencil or a glass of spilt milk, you have the balls to have a baby, you have the balls to raise one up.
We all know it’s a heavy responsibility but this is what human beings are being made to do. So, I know I am going to anger some people out there, but this is MY BLOG, and I can voice my own opinion in every single way I want.
And I don’t like IRRESPONSIBLE PARENTS – SO THERE!!! Parents who can’t be man or woman enough to raise their own kids are making sad excuses and trying very hard to convince themselves that can’t do it right.
09:00 Posted in Being human , Family , Ramblings , Women | Permalink | Comments (3) | Email this
23/10/2005
World in a pox
Well, Jared’s chicken pox seems to be tapering off, thank goodness! I am the one who forgot his vaccination, not him, so, put the chicken pox oozies on me!!
Erm, actually, I don’t really want to have those blisters on me either and that is why I have just gotten myself VACCINATED today. Under normal circumstance, one would have to suggest bullet mashed in brain cells to get me to the doctor so that the fella can jab me and give me a limp arm for the rest of the day. I know, a jab is nothing compared to child birth, right? if I can go through childbirth without pain relief, I can get a jab, right?
Wrong.
With childbirth, you can’t wait to go through it because if you don’t, you’re going to be in contraction forever! So, you’re hurrying yourself into the labor room and pray that the whole thing is going to be as painless and quick as possible. With a jab, you have a choice, don’t you? Nothing (well, hopefully) will happen to you if you don’t go for the jab. Being an optimistic person, I believe that I do enough good deeds for the gods to love me. Therefore, I hope and pray that the viruses will spare me, cancer will spare me, HIV, HBA, HAA viruses will all spare me, don’t like me and LEAVE ME ALONE!!!
But the truth is that viruses, bacterias and deadly diseases spares no one! When my brother got the pox, me and my sister didn’t get it…maybe it’s cause we didn’t go around kissing and hugging him all that much – he got it in his TEENS, see? The lack of proximity and physical contact could be a factor to be taken into account, eh? So, I took that into account and thought, hey, maybe luck had NOTHING to do with me not getting the pox earlier when my brother had it.
And then my maid, Yanti, has been telling me horror stories about having blisters in her ears, on her tongue, on her privates, in her hair, on her toes, every single where!! And then I called my sister and my sister said she got herself vaccinated earlier, so, she’s safe. And I went…what in the world am I waiting for?? If I haven’t had the pox before this, chances of me getting the pox is about 99.9%? and did I want to get it at the ripe ole age of 32? Nope.
So, I dragged myself to the doctor and got the jab. Yippee!!
18:38 Posted in Family | Permalink | Comments (3) | Email this
22/10/2005
Looking for quick laughs??
When you think you have absolutely nothing to do, loads of time to waste and want to giggle over something nonsensical, try visiting www.stupidvideos.com. Yeah, I typed right, it is STUPID VIDEOS dot COM.
My husband is the King of nonsensical stuff, especially adept in looking for stupid things to download and look at online. Whenever I switch on my computer, I am working, whenever he switches on MY computer, he’s downloading something. Says he doesn’t want to download stuff on HIS laptop because there might be viruses or worms or whatever…and my computer?? Duh….men are such sensitive creatures, aren’t they?
Anyway, he found this website called www.stupidvideos.com where you can watch thousands upon thousands of home videos and commercials that makes absolutely no sense at all but they are all quite funny! Have to say that my son, Joshua, enjoyed it a whole lot sharing the same joke with his dad. Jared wasn’t too sure what all that laughing was all about but we were all crowded infront of my computer watching video after video.
The videos did cheer the poor sickly Jared up a bit.
So, if you have absolutely nothing to do, hop on over for a quick lookie.
07:11 Posted in Being human , Family , Leisure , Ramblings , Web | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email this
21/10/2005
Jared Poxed
I know it’s nothing serious, not like the bird flu or the dreaded dengue fever or anything like that still…chicken pox for a kid Jared’s age is bad enough. I feel responsible for it. For all those times that I thought I did everything within my power to protect my kids from sicknesses and illnesses, diseases and physical problems, here I am….sitting here with head in my hand, shaking my head…. ‘How can you not check?’
Almost every other kid these days have gotten the chicken pox vaccination. Yet another proof that the first child always get the best from their parents, Joshua is vaccinated. And poor second-child Jared is forgotten.
Sad, isn’t it? I forgot, I forgot, I forgot.
Oh, I meant to so many time.
I remember taking him to the doctor one time because Joshua had an eczema outbreak and I took Jared along to get vaccinated, but the doctor told me that Jared had a stomach virus too, so, it’s probably wiser to get the vaccination AFTER he recovers from the tummy trouble.
And then I forgot about it. In fact, I am not even sure if I forgot about it.
Now, Jared is covered with blistered spots, but he’s not really sick or anything. In fact, he’s not even bothered with it at all. He has 4 cousins and brother traipsing all around the house with and I don’t think he even FEELS uncomfortable.
And yet another thing…I called my mom on the phone to ask her if I ever got the chicken pox. Unsure of it, she said that perhaps I HAD the measles but not the chicken pox. So, I am exposed as it is and I might get it. I am hoping against hope that I am naturally immune to the virus. My brother had it and I was exposed. Nothing. My sister got it, still nothing. My nephew got it, nothing. So, I am hoping now that Jared gets it, it will still be the same story….NOTHING.
08:20 Posted in Family | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
16/10/2005
Kindly murder
This happened some time ago….but have you ever watch an intended pet murder and wonder if it’s the same thing with human beings? Well, ok, it’s not murder. It’s an act of kindness that leads us, human beings, higher intellects to decide to end the life of a lesser being in a humane and painless manner.
This happened in November 2002 (It was recorded in my diary) and the name of the pet is ‘Blacky’. Blacky the dog because he is…well, black. I guess no one in the family (in-law) knew of a better name and left it to the kids to give the pet a name. so, he’s blacky. Blacky is large, massively threatening Labrador + Alsatian. Last I heard, his great-grandfather is of a dangerous breed that killed an old woman here in Malaysia before. Forgive me, I cannot remember the name of the breed.
That morning, in November 2002, I woke up, brushed my teeth and came downstairs expecting char-siew-pow for breakfast. Instead, I met two men in the dining room. They were talking in hush-hush fashion with my father-in-law…the way a private investigator would talk on TV. I came down, stopped mid-step and he lifted his chin and said, “Ask your husband to wake up”.
“What? Why?”
“To dig a hole”
A hole???? As they were pointing outside, I guessed it has something to do with either the lawn or the dog. But I don’t think my father in law was going to dig a hole in the lawn, instead, I decided it was about the dog. They were going to dig a hole for the dog because the two menacing bastards were here to kill the dog that has been scaring off thieves for the last few years. And trust me, Blacky is not fierce, he’s old. But if one did not now him, his ONE SINGLE BARK will make your balls shrivel up in fright. It’s loud.
He never knew he was going to die. He was still biting and trying to eat stone in the garden. The men summoned him up and they both held him with their weight, one man holding the needle. Without warning, they injected the large massive dog with potent chemicals to render him tired. The dog slumped forward onto his chin. I swear it looked as if he was trying to hold his eyelids up!! From the on, he was all meat, skin and tender muscles. The men got off of him and he didn’t even try to move but his eyes were watching. He watched as the men got to their bags, lifted another tube of SOMETHING. Filled their syringe with something and then came over to him.
At this point in time, he was pretty lifeless but he was still alive and watching. They came over, stroked his head comfortingly and then gave him a chin-rub. Touching. It seems as though the moment the second time the needle penetrated his body, he knew what was going to happen. I remember him looking at the ‘perpetrators’, and then looking down at the needle. He leaned his head forward, closed his eyes…and never opened it again.
It was almost like he KNEW.
The reason for putting Blacky down is a humane one. He’s about a hundred and one years old…in dog years, rotting from his butt to his ears, sick every other day, and has worms crawling in and out of his bodily crevices freely and without command. No matter how many times we asked the vet to come over and take a look at him, they would shake their turboned heads at the dog and issue us a sympathetic look that says, ‘Good fucking luck!’.
Blacky was dying of old age. And yet, no matter how humane the act was, it still makes me cringe. We’re murderers. We willingly asked someone to come end the life of a dog. Or me, I did nothing to stop the perpetrators from injecting the vile potion into the veins of that haggard.
But come to think of it. Blacky is probably much happier now. No more worm-filled intestines. No more rotting ears. No more tasteless dog food. No more life on a lease in the park. No more fun-filled but overactive children.
Life is probably better for Blacky on the other side.
21:16 Posted in Being human , Blog , Family , Ramblings | Permalink | Comments (7) | Email this
24/09/2005
Transformer in our midst
I don’t read the papers much and one of the biggest reasons why I don’t (apart from not having the time) is that I don’t like reading scary stories and reports about how someone’s son just got killed on the road because of some careless driver, about how a house was broken into in the middle of the night leaving the people dead, and runaway trucks….nuh-uh…I don’t like to read those stuff. Give me a romance book, anytime.
I like happy things, and things starts making me unhappy, I either go into denial or run away from them. But I can’t run away from the world that I was born into…well, not in a way that is morally, religiously or legally correct, that is.
I feel so forlorn about the world and guilty that my kids are born into this terribly wrong human race. Maybe if they were born bees or cockroaches, they stand a chance of living the complete lifespan without being…you know, UNLUCKY. Fact is, there are a lot of crazy people out there in the world and they are faceless creatures who would do anything to others – with or without a reason. I don’t know how to keep my kids safe from these people. Yeah, NOW you’re beginning to see how paranoid I am, right? J
If you have no idea how panicky I can be…here’s a clue. If I was walking along the side of the street with the kids and I see a bunch of young men behind me, I would hasten up my steps and drag my complaining kids behind me in a hurry. If they were still very close, I would cross the street…on to the other side. If they followed me, I would ask my kids to stand where they are, I will jump out into the middle of the road, stop a car and ask them to drive me and my kids off! I swear I will but of course, this is only a hypothetical situation but I have no doubt in my mind that that is what I would do if something like that happened.
Well, there are shitty people, then there are shittier people…and then there are the good ones. While some people would cut you off on your own lane without giving you the signal and then flash you their middle finger if you glare at them, there are some who will surprise you. Like the security guard that does the rounds about my neighborhood. Sometimes I cycle to the nearby 7-11 to get my much-needed caffeine and snacks in the middle of the night after the kids have gone to visit Ultraman in Lala-land…and I get scared and jittery when I do that. one time, the security guard saw me on the bicycle and followed me slowly from behind, ensuring that I got home safe. He stopped while I opened the gate, jump off the bicycle and then open the door and get in. I flashed him and appreciative smile and a nice ‘thank you!’. I would have thrown him a can of beer if I had it with me. But I didn’t, so…..
And then there’s the guy in local grocery store who is all of 16-years-old and polite and nice beyond his years. He knows what I always get when I am there and while me and my kids are strolling around the store pretending to looking for things (kids go on a shopping rampage sometimes), he would pack all the things that I normally buy into a plastic bag waiting for the EXTRA stuff that I would want to buy. Such niceness!
I guess even if this world is filled with JOKERs, there are still some BATMANs around….ok, so, ULTRAMANS. I can’t deal with this. My kids are Ultraman, Power Rangers and now, Transformer kids. Erm, admission on the way…I used to be CRAZY about Transformers. In fact, I continued to collect their stickers past my 15th birthday. I remember buying a book that contained all the details about each and every robot. I didn’t even let my brother touch that book – well, he wasn’t all that interested in Transformers anyway, so….
I just, sometimes, wish that there WERE Tranformers in our midst…someone who can really save our day…apart from the police and firemen and forensic scientists. Besides, they only respond when things go wrong…but what about BEFORE anything goes wrong?
Did I already tell you I get paranoid?
20:18 Posted in Being human , Blog , Family | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
19/09/2005
Kiddy Magician
You don’t know what ‘cute’ is until you’ve seen the way a 3-year-old performs magic. It will totally tickle you. His gigglish voice and cute sheepish smile totally gives away the whole concept of magic before he even tries to perform the trick on you. That’s Jared.
He was trying to show me how he can make two coins magically transforms into one. Oh, it’s just one of those silly little tricks you do to awe 18-month-olds and drunken men in the bar. You show them two coins, quickly slip one coin away and then show then the remaining coin.
Jared, after a short tutorial from me, tried to show his impatient and all-knowing brother the trick. Jared ‘snuck’ the coins in and out of his pocket so many times while muttering unintelligible words. Joshua was already half-screaming, ‘What is it? Where’s the trick, Jad Jad? Are you done yet?” Jared says, “Erm, uh, no. I don’t think so. Mommy, can you help me?”
I whisper the trick into his ears and he nods vehemently, like he just got a formulaic secret to solving a major health problem in the world. He tries again and sticks the coin in and out of the pocket again and then Joshua says, ‘Is that the trick?’. Jared says, ‘See? See this? Only one coin.” He opens his palm and shoves the coin into Joshua’s face.
Josh raised an eyebrow, “But I saw you put the coins in and out of your pocket! Your magic trick didn’t work, Jad”. Such sensitivity. He walks off in a huff while Jared looks for another target. Aha! He’s found one. He totters on over to the kitchen in his little gait and tugs at kakak’s (live-in housekeeper) pants. Kakak was, of course, more sensitive to the guy’s feelings and displayed surprise, awe and amazement at appropriate moments.
Someone should tell Jared that he can and should only perform in front of trees and sensitive adults. I guess that’s my job, huh?
16:10 Posted in Being human , Blog , Family | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
15/09/2005
Paparazzi flock to kindergarten concert
I’ve been an assistant teacher during my younger days…in a kindergarten near my house. It was during the hols and I had nothing to do, no pocket money. so, I worked. And I was assigned to handle the screaming and kicking kids during the school’s yearly concert.
So, I know it’s no fun to have concerts…for the teacher, at least.
And for kids…it’s all of 5 minutes of fame, endless hours of dancing and singing practices, consistent nagging and scolding from teachers during rehearsals and getting dressed in corny clown costumes and having lipstick and blusher on your face.
Kids’ concerts are…especially kindergarten ones…in my personal opinion, are for the parents of those kids who are performing. Those ‘aw….’ moments that lasts all but a few seconds when the show begins.