What is the first thing you must do when your baby is born ?

Let me share a story with you, true story.  When my first child was born, the first sickness he got is pro-long jaundice. What? Pro-Long? Yes, due to umbilical cord infection. Normally jaundice will only occur for 5 to 10 days depends on the individual. Later, after 4 months, my son got pneumonia. Due to my staying place was in rural area, i have no choice but to send him to a specialist which is very far from my house ( long story, will share next time ) . And thank god, everything was fine, but one thing which worried my wife and I was "finance". Seeing a specialist nowadays will cause a lot, especially in Malaysia.  

After we realized about it, quickly we bought insurance with medical card. Well, i am not trying to promote any insurance company, but i would advice all young parents to consider to find a package that suit our needs. During my time, buying insurance was not a trend and not as popular as in the western country. And even worst compared to my father's time. So, after few months we bought the medical card, my son was in emergency again. This time, is like "PHEWWWWW" , we paid everything using our medical card. It really save us a lot.

Most of the time, we can't really predict what will happen to our child. But normally baby or infant are easily to get infected with all kind of virus or bacteria. That's why, it will be good if we can have a medical card for them. At least we can provide the best medical care, and most importantly , affordable. Perhaps some of you might say, " Don't worry, we can send to government hospital." "WHAT, government hospital?" Well, i think everyone knows, i don't need to comment much about it, right? So, hopefully we can always make a right choice for our beloved children. For those who are expecting, is the time to find the right package ! Good day .....

   

Showing Your Love

When i was a child, i used to be very demanding. I always wanted my father to buy me toys. I still can remember, my favourite toys was LEGO. I love playing with LEGO, even till today because i can build anything i want. It is a tool to build children's creativity. Whenever we went for shopping in supermarket, i will look for this toy. I will stand there and look at the toy till my parent come to pull me home.

For those who are from Teluk Intan, do you remember Sungei Perak? or Rakyat superstore? Oh yes, my favourite place. One of the strategy i used to ask my father to buy LEGO ( for your info, it was not a cheap at that time ), was to stand there and cry out loud and i will not move my feet even when my parents were pulling me. And my favourite LEGO was castle, with palace, horses, soldiers and so on. Guess what, my success rate was 95% !!! At that time, i know my parents love me, perhaps i am the youngest, that's why i dare to try.

As for now, i am the parents. I always ask myself, " Should I buy a lot of toys for my kids to show my love?" Can we consider loving our children by giving all the things they want? Do they really need toys to make them happy? After being parents myself for almost 6 years now, i would say that the real love does not lie on the toys. It depends on the quality time and quantity time we spend with them. The feeling of love doesn't come from toys, but come from our heart. No matter how many toys we are going to buy for them, it will not increase or improve the feeling of love. Thus, I hope that all the young parents will think carefully before investing so much money on toys.

Question: How to avoid buying too many toys for the kids? I will share with you all later. Happy parenting !!!

Why my baby always cry ?

Yes, baby always cry. In 2004, when my son was just came into this world, the very first thing i cannot TAHAN (stand ) was baby "CRYING". And of course, i really don't know what to do most of the time. Though we were very happy to have our first child, and for the first time, my wife and I became mother and father. But, very soon, we faced the biggest challenge in our life ( during that time ), the CRYING issue.

After some hand-on experiences, we finally found that, the baby do not simply cry. They cried for reasons. They are 6  reasons why my baby cry ( maybe more for other baby ):

1. Hungry
2. Urinate / Pass motion
3. Sleepy
4. Sick ( fever/ flu/ pain/ etc )
5. Boring
6. Undetected

How do i know? Good question. I really don't know but through trial and error. Nobody tell us in fact. One thing i must praise my wife, she really can differentiate the types of cry my baby performed for different reasons. Maybe this is the special skill that only woman have. Honestly, till the last day before my kid can talk, when they were crying, the only thing i will do is check the diapers......" pai seh" ( shame shame ).
However, my son is already 6 and my daughter is 5....they still like to cry. WHY? I will share with you next time.

           

My Queen is needed

Well, after i declared myself as a KING, a family can't do away without a queen. Although most of the decision is made by the father but in certain aspect, where things that a Father always ignore and can't perform, it must be handled with care. The most important things that father will always missed out is HEALTH. Not only children health but own health. I must admit that lady is more detail and more dedicated in looking after the health of everyone in the family. In fact, she did a good job.

A Queen will always perform a softer approach to the kids, perhaps to balance up. Most of the time, King will need to be firm and be strict with the kids. Thus, a Queen is strongly needed to console and give "mother care" to the children ( might be misused as pampering, be careful ) . As for me, i would like to thank my beloved wife ( ahmin ) who have been taking care of the health of everybody in my family,you really did well. I Love YOU.

If i said children are pretty well with role play, my wife and I have been practicing from the beginning. My role is a King and my wife's role is a Queen. And it have been well organised instead. Perhaps our children  inherited "role play" from us..... ^ ^

After the King and Queen were appointed, what next? In my next post, i will share about how my son became Prince and my daughter became a Princess. Thanks for reading.

Am I the King of my Family ?

Some of you might think that "KING" is a strong word that we shouldn't use to explain what a parent should behave. Why King? And how did i implement this "King" policy?

When my son was roughly 2 years old, something happened. My mother was complaining to me about some kitchen work, my son is demanding by crying out loud and my wife is requesting something from me. Everything just came simultaneously. What should i do? Previously, i always try to let go everything, trying not to get involve. I am a person who don't like to confront with people even with my immediate family. Then, I realised i need do something about it.

I told my mother, dont worry, i will talk to you after solving problems with my kid, now let us prepare for lunch. I told my wife, let me think and consider, i will tell you before sleep ( you know, normally discussion between husband and wife during bedtime is quite good, hehe ). And lastly, with a firm face, i told my son, be quiet and I will not let you have this now as now is eating time. Stop whatever you are doing and prepare for lunch. Wow....seems like suddenly everyone is listening to me and followed what i said.

 From that moment, for the first time i felt like " I am the KING".  Later, whatever problems and issued came in, i will do my best to arrange and decide everything. In fact, my words will be the final say, everyone in my family will follow. In one family, either small or big size, is very important to have only one decision maker. King's policy, perhaps some of you might think that I want to control everything, but is an important to have one person to decide everything. It will create peaceful environment and solve most of the problem. Be firm and confidence with your decision.

( my appology to my wife and mother for using you all as an example...hope you don't mind . for those who know my mother, please don' t tell her...hehe)

3 Lessons I'd Never Learnt In School

I believe that most of us has strong memories of schooling's life. In fact many happy or sad things happened during our school life. Yes, i do enjoy my schooling life, especially the moment that i can get together with my friends, Yum Cha ( our most popular activity during our time ).  Joining club or society, go to cinema together, join some camps, being bullied by big size students, giving nick name to our teachers and the list go on.....And the only thing i can't remember is.......3 lessons had learnt from school. What's that?

1. How to get marry ?
2. How to become parent ?
3. How to manage money ?

Do you agree? I think most of you will agree. If we can recall back our schooling time till our working time now, did you ever hear anyone telling you how to get marry, how to become papamama and how to manage our money? If yes, from who? From our teachers? or from our parents? I bet our daddy or mummy will not tell us how to have baby...hehehe. Perhaps this is part of Asia's culture. Even our teacher will not advice us on how to choose a perfect partner. So, who am i going to learn from?

And, is very funny ya? I am doing these 3 things in my life without proper guidance. The BIG question is, how did i do that? From a book? or from  tea corner? Well, i guess most of us just "hantam" and let the nature take it's cause, right? I will share with you all soon, on how did i manage to pass through all these stages without a book or guide. Getting marry is not a game. Becoming a parent is not "play-play". It require a BIG commitment and sacrifice.

Role Play, children's favourite !!

I still can remember when i was learning some techniques for my teaching practise, one of the best approach was "role play". Like teaching english, history and etc, this technique proved to be effective to achieve our teaching objective.

However, i really could'nt belive that my kids are practising without my guidance. For whatever things we do, the kids tend to follow. One afternoon, when i was reading newspaper ( as all the fathers like to do ), some drama is being held. My son became husband and my daughter became his wife. What they do? Could you imagine.....?

Yes, they are performing what my wife and I were doing most of the time. My son use the tone i always use to scold them. My daughter use the way my wife talk to me. WOW....is exactly the same. Cooking, tidying the house, spending time outside having dinner and so on......everything is in their mind.

MORAL: Parents always became their role model. If act something weird or do something bad, they will remember and follow. As a parent, we should always show a good example.

Follow or not follow? Run or don't run ?

Sometimes when i read some article from magazine or newspaper, it will attract my attention on children, early childhood, children behaviour and so on. The main reason is, i might get some hints to apply on what they had research or suggest. However, in many cases, i found that it was neither suitable or effective. What is the main reason? I would say that sometimes it was not even related. Maybe is because the different culture and different scene. So, as a conclusion, whether we want to follow their advice or not follow, is up to us. We can put a try if it doesn't cause any harm or danger.

One of the experiment i always did, even till today, is to ask my children not to run. Someone suggested that we should use positive word. I tried, " Please walk slowly." It might work for a while. However, i have been trying for almost 5 years now. No matter i said "walk slowly" or "don't run", they still kept on running. Funny isn't it ?

When will be our FREEDOM day?

Long time ago, i still can remember many of my friends told me this. "When your child turn to 5 or 6 years old, everything will be okay...." At first, i do believe. Because when my baby was young, still a todler, we need to take a good care for them. They can't talk, and the only thing they can do was cry. So, I kept on waiting for this moment to come. Then, my wife and i will plan our traveling journey to many places we always wanted to visit.

Well, these day has come. Guess what? Yet another challenges arise. They can talk now, not only talk, but they even know how to request for more and talk back. Whoa.....interesting. They can do many things that we are not expected.

Then, we started to realise that, we need 100% attention to raise our children to become a better person. No wonder, my mama always treat me like child after i started working. Seems like I am the "forever child who cannot grow up" in my mama's perspective. So, when can we celebrate FREEDOM ?

Are we too young to teach our young children?

This question had been in my mind for quite sometime. It is just like when i started to teach in school, i always ask myself, "Are we too young to impart our knowledge to the young ones ?" Sometimes i think that old man not always better than young man although there is a proverb saying that Old Ginger More Spicy. Is true that most of the time, experience always help us to manage the situation better. But, how do we get our experience? Through the first time we handled things? Without the first step, how can we further till 1000 steps?

That's why, when i became parent for the first time, the only thing that i kept on telling my wife and myself, we must do better than my papa and mama. That's my initial approach to become a good papa.

Welcome to my blog

Hi, this blog intents to share our sweet and sour memories on bringing our young children.