Category Archives: Parenting

IT Generation Kids

Being shown my daughter’s test paper result for Computer subject, I am reminded much of an IT-driven generations we are.

Do you know that Primary 1 students are expected to know – storage media such as hard disk and pen drive or input device such as light pen or video cards?

Imagine, expecting 6-year-olds to know what the output is when you press “Shift” key and “?/” key!

Back in the nineties, I had to join a private computer class because there was none offered in school. Unlike now which is part of their syllabus.

Not that I am complaining as this is the technology that they will have be comfortable with from now on.

It’s just a little scary sometimes that we are giving these small kids lessons to be familiar with a technology that we know is not only helpful and educational but also addictive, distracting and potentially a health-hazard.

Polishing Talents

An elderly lady once told me that she will not allow her grandchild to participate in any non-academic based activities.

No singing, story telling or dancing. Her reason, such activities are waste of time and energy. An unnecessary foray into situations that could involve child safety risks.

On the other hand, I specifically asked teachers of my kids to consider them for any activities, even those that they might not appear to be good in initially.

What they need is opportunity – to discover and polish their talents and abilities, natural or trained.

What they get is self confidence – something they gained through these experiences.

A proven case for my eldest daughter, so far. She did rather poorly in the first few stage performances in her first year of school. But she improved through continuous opportunities which eventually led to the crowning glory of her Kindergarten year – chosen to give the graduation speech.

She has talents like most kids. But more importantly, she was given plenty and a variety of opportunities to find and refine them.

He Who Kept Me Sane

Left at home with only one child to mind, it was easy to be the “perfect” mother.

My child was smiled at more. She got tickled and chased around the room to her delight. She drenched herself, made huge puddles on the floor and received no rebuke. She was indulged in orgies of nonsense chatter.

It thrilled her to no end to feel that her mother has all the time in the world for her. I want to be this kind of mother all the time.

But dividing my attention to 3 demanding kids is strenuous – physically, mentally and emotionally. It’s a huge feat trying to explain coherently to an inquisitive 6 years old while trying to get a squirmy 4 year old to sit properly when an impatient 1 year old made it known to everyone that she wants to be fed NOW!

Going crazy is easy – had it not been for one person in our lives.

My children are lucky to have a father who is involved in their everyday lives. I am lucky that he can take them off my hand once in a while to let me enjoy hobbies like photography. While not exactly postcard printing quality, they are satisfying as a light “escape”.

Then I can happily go back to dividing myself to 3 demanding kids without going crazy.

*Picture : Mahua river, Tambunan

Over Competitive Parents

When I took a break from my hectic daily routine that beats workout on treadmill or such things, I read an amusing message by a friend in Facebook.

Now that exam is over and exam papers are returned – it is now time for parents to start comparing their children’s marks.

For this particular friend, not enough with being asked in school, some parents even called her at home – and worse, called her child on the phone to ask for her marks!

Talk about being over-competitive!

While hers was an extreme case, another friend in another school was told that they could not bring home their kids’ exam papers. This was supposedly to prevent students or their parents from changing their answers on a marked paper and request for re-marking – they must have had cases of over-competitive/protective parents before!

The best are schools which return their exam papers with ONLY grades, no marks.

So over-competitive parents have to be satisfied with a ohh-your-kid-got-an-A1-too kind of comparison sessions – while mentally speculating if it was an A1 with 99 or 98 or 97 or 95 marks!

Evil Television

A fellow stay at home mother recently shared with me a typical parental concern : child who is not interested in schoolwork.

Her reasons were also typical : TV and electronic games.

But if she could not control this distracting and addictive activities NOW – what hope does she have when her child is older and more independent a.k.a rebellious.

How is she going to tell her child to switch the TV off or stop that game and pick up a book or do schoolwork – after letting him have free access all these while.

Imagine, the said child is ONLY 7 years old right now!

Other will say, it’s different raising boys and girls. But surely if they had been trained right from the start that TV or electronic games is a privilege, they will get used to it – as mine have.

But easy availability of entertainment tools is one thing.

The worst is the way some parents let their kids be exposed to all kinds of shows and expect them NOT pick up anything. Yes, it is good sometimes to let them know the realities of life.

But what kind of “truth” is, say, a 6 years old who (in jest) points a finger on his father’s forehead and demand for money threatening “Or I will kill you!” – learning, exactly?

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