Exploring Our Children’s Potentials

As I got my hair cut, an interesting article on ‘blogging’ in Her World magazine caught my attention.

It talks about how blogs let you trash talk your ex-boyfriends. How you can complain about the world in general, your work and life.

And as I was reading it, I thought to myself, this article only talks about how people can share their negative thoughts through their blogs. And is that really the main reason why most people people blog?

Personally, I hope this site and its content can somewhat positively affect all who visit and read my posts.

Life’s full of ups and downs, but that’s what makes our life, our everyday things, … beautiful.

Life’s good.

Some Words of Wisdom I’d like share this week:

‘Teach your children right from wrong, and when they are grown they will still do right.’
Proverbs 22:6

In other words:

‘Bring up a child by teaching him the way he should go,
and when he is old he will not turn away from it.’

…

A friend of mine’s been working in China for the past 3 years or so, and when we met up last month we talked about how children generally are behaving in China.

He said that so far the Chinese kids he’s noticed are very spoiled. They’re generally allowed to do ‘anything ‘ that they wish. Even disrespectful or negative behaviours are tolerated by the adults.

Like, when a kid is impolite towards an adult (eg. snatching food from a stranger’s plate without saying anything), the kid’s behaviour would normally be excused and the adults will say something like, ‘Ah, they’re just kids. They don’t understand what’s proper and what’s not as yet. When they grow up, they’ll learn.’

To me, that’s a big worry. And I’m not sure if this parenting approach is due to China’s only-one-child-is-allowed-per-family policy.

*sigh*

I’m frankly concerned about how the future generation will be like years from today, especially if that’s how they’re being brought up there. I sure hope not all the kids are like that.

One thing I can say, kids are much smarter than we think. They can understand what we teach them though they’re still very young. They observe, absorb, copy and learn from their surroundings real fast.

And, I strongly believe that it is our calling and responsibility as parents to teach our kids what is right, while we still can.

Lately Anya’s into going up and down the steps. And she now prefers to do it all by herself. Without holding on to me or anything else. And usually after she does it (read: without falling down), she’d give herself a big smile and a clap! Hehe…

…

Wilson and I try to always encourage her to try new things, to not be afraid of challenges, to always be grateful and appreciative of other people. Stuff like that.
We’d cheer her on before she goes down that step and we’d pick her up when she falls without  panicking away (such a reaction tends to instill fear in a child, making her less interested  in checking out something new again in the future).

Anyway. I’m glad so far Anya gives herself some forms of appreciation after she accomplishes something.

It keeps her going.

I was looking at some of our old photos when I came across these ones. A photo of Anya standing at our old flat’s main gate, looking out to our next door neighbours, often smiling and waving at them.

That was 8 months ago. She’s only 11 months old.

Apparently, Anya still does it today.

I guess it’s interesting for little ones to observe the ‘outside world’, to feel the gentle breeze, to see our neighbour’s kids walking pass our place on their way to school, etc.

It’s a simple way of ‘connecting’ with the outside world too, I guess

Someone asked me the other day about whether or not I’ll put Anya in a child care centre, since she’s already 19 months old anyway.

On this matter, Wilson and I both agree that once children start going to school or child care centre, you can never filter all external influences any longer.

While there are positive influences from teachers and friends whom they spend hours and hours with nearly everyday of the week, realistically, there will sure be lots of not-so-good ones too.

So to us, while you still can educate and discipline the kid yourself, teaching what you believe and value as righteous, you should take on the challenge and privilege of bringing your kids yourself.

Kids will normally start their Nursery classes when they’re around 3 – 4 years old. So, really, we ONLY have those first 3 precious years of a kid’s life to teach the kid yourself. Fully.

We can’t keep our kids constantly with us forever. There will be a day when she will walk out of the house and mingle with the outside world all on their own, for hours and hours at a time too. AND if you ask me, I would like to have already taught my kid all the important lessons and values that she needs to know by then.

This of course doesn’t mean that before a kid is 3 years old, she has no social life.

We take Anya out so very frequently. She’s out and about with us and our friends (and their kids too) since she’s a month old. And when we’re at home, I also make sure she continues to learn new things too (stuff like language and motoric skills, etc)

Well anyway, this is one of the reasons why I never look down on my role as a fulltime mom. I feel it’s such a privilege to have been entrusted with a life. A soul. And, not only to care and nurture physically, but also spiritually, emotionally, psychologically, socially, morally, and … you name the rest.

And while I still have the time, while I still can, I want to do it with all my heart.

Motherhood. An honour. A privilege. A joy.

Little kids tend to only think of themselves. To them, everyone evolves around their world.

When Anya sees a friend, she’d say, ‘Sini…’ (Indo for ‘Come here’), instead of going to her friend herself.

(Oh btw, she does the same thing to the moon, the bike, the taxi and the cars she sees on the street. Hehe).

Anyway, so far I notice how she’s quite a giver. 90% of the time she’d be happy to share her snacks / meals with others (not sure how long she’d stay this way though!)

So far we always encourage her to share what she has with other people AND be joyful about it.

And I think this is something even us adults need to learn too,  considering the increasingly self-centred world that we all live in.