motherhood, stuff best described as not safe for parents, unqualified parenting tips

Fly me to the moon

April 2, 2012

Remember when you were a kid and you felt like you could be anything you wanted? Growing up, I wanted to be a zookeeper, a Disneyland mascot, an emperor, a writer and a judge at different points of my life.

My dad used to tell me that I could do anything I dreamed of doing, and it didn’t matter what I did because if I was passionate about it, the money would follow. Well, one time he did tell me to be an investment banker or a lawyer because those guys earned truckloads of money. I guess it was his way of giving me viable career options after he heard about my mascot gig. But for the most part, he told me to follow my heart, wherever that took me.

Even though I probably wouldn’t have done half the things on my list given the chance, it was nice to know that I *could* have done it.

Now as a parent, I understand how tough it is to offer that kind of unconditional support, especially when we think that we know best for our kids. Our idea of success is very much tied to how much they earn or how famous they get, but mostly the money part. As far as I can help it, I don’t want them to have to spend the better part of their working life struggling to make ends meet. Or stuck in a job they thought was cool at 14, but didn’t turn out quite so cool at 34. To balance the whole heart-following with valuable practical advice without sounding like the kind of annoying pessimistic parent who’s too jaded to believe in dreams.

Just last week, Tru informed me that he was going to be an astronaut when he grew up.

At first, in my head, I was all like “Isn’t that so 1990? Do kids still dream of going to the moon these days? Now they want to wear jeans and invent Facebook and be a billionaire at 25. And astronaut? I mean, Tom Hanks seemed like he was having a pretty rough time in Apollo 13.”

But then his eyes lit up and he followed it up by telling me about how he was going to fly a spaceship to the moon and do a somersault when he got there. Which does sound pretty cool when he put it that way.

So instead of telling him about how dangerous astronaut-ing is, or how tough it was to get into the NASA program, or how he was going to miss his wife and kids (if he has them), or how there’s never even been one Singaporean astronaut probably because of all of the above reasons, I gave him a hi-5 and told him that it would be awesome. And also to bring back a moon-rock as a souvenir.

Did I say it just to make my kid happy? Well, yes and no. On some level, I think anything they’re passionate about deserves my support, even when I don’t necessarily agree. And if he eventually becomes an astronaut, or the guy who designs the spaceship, or the guy who pumps fuel into the spaceship, I think I’d still be awfully proud.

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lists you should paste on your fridge, stuff best described as not safe for parents, unqualified parenting tips

World’s Deadliest Creatures

March 29, 2012

Ok so the kids are sweet and filled with sparkly rainbow confetti kind of awesome but if I’m honest with myself, there are times where I just want to gag them and stuff them in my closet for 20 minutes.

You’d think that in the grand scheme of things, like compared to a grizzly bear attack or a shark bite, dealing with a toddler’s tantrum is um, child’s play.

But then you realize that unlike having a cobra death-match where your end is swift and decisive, dealing with a baby requires you to listen to that annoying sing-song nasally whine that can go on and on and on and on and on some more until the thought of ripping off your own arm and feeding it to wolves is monumentally less painful.

With that in mind, I present to you my list of the world’s deadliest creatures.

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stuff best described as not safe for parents

Monkey Alert

March 27, 2012

How did this happen?

I’ve always known Truett to be an adrenaline junkie but all this time, he’s been a safe one (if there’s such a thing). He climbs stuff and jumps from stuff like a typical boy but he takes calculated risks and has always exercised restraint in how high he goes. And he always checks to make sure I’m there as his safety net just in case.

During our recent trip to Hong Kong, we spent some time at this playground near Citygate Outlet Mall. It’s mostly like the playgrounds we have here except taller and scarier. Like this rocket structure that was really huge – all the kids up on that thing were at least in Primary School.

When Tru saw it from afar, he sprinted to it and started climbing. And when the husband followed behind he was like “Daddy you go down, I can do it by myself. No, no, stand further back, you don’t come so near.”

He was up on the monkey bars, sitting on top of places that weren’t meant to be sat on and ok, somebody please tell me he’s too small to be scaling the structures spiderman-style. I was lurking around below yelling at him to be careful but he just looked down at me nonchalantly and said “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine I won’t fall.”

I figured I’d have to deal with this when he turns 7 or 8, but the little guy is barely even 4 and he’s doing all the things that big boys do. I guess 4 is the new 7 now.

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