When the West Meet the East

Few years back, when my son was almost 3 years old, I brought him to play with one of my friend's children which happen to be from the West ( ah moh ). We had picnic together near a beach. Out of sudden, one of her daughter ( only 2 years old ) climb very high in one of the equipment in the playground. And I almost shouted to warn her to be careful ( as you know, Asian's parents used to be very scare when their children do something that we consider dangerous ). Just before I almost shouted, my friend pat my back and talked to me softly, " Hey, don't create and influence her to be scared, just act naturally".

Well, at this point, I was so curious and asked myself, "Don't she felt nervous and afraid of her falling down from high?" Then, she walked slowly approaching her daughter and asked, " Hey Emelia, how are you up there? It must be great. Why don't you come down and have your sandwich first and continue later?" I stunned there as for the first time, I could see a different way of approaching a child especially at danger time, we should not instill fear factor to them. My son even said, " Wow, that's very high !" ( I managed to snap a photo behind my son )

From that incident that, I realized that we can always refer some of the Western way or approach of parenting and it benefits a lot to our children. For instance, bed time story, a hug and kiss before sleep ( my parents never did this to me before , pai seh ), and teaching them how to express feeling ( saying "I LOVE YOU") in a proper way are some of the methods we can cultivate. In fact, I learnt a lot of good parenting skills from this friend. Thank you JULIA......

( From Left ) Michael, Emelia and Zhe Tse