When you become a mother you have to become a child again because….

• How do you teach a child to be confident when you have been struggling with self image issues all your life?
• How do you teach a child to be happy with herself when you are happy with your own body image?
• How do you teach a child to eat healthily when you can’t help yourself from reaching out for that piece of fried chicken?
• How do you teach a child to be brave when you are scared of a lot of things yourself?
• How do you teach a child patience when you are always in a hurry?
• How? How? How?

The list is endless and the answer for me as a mom, is to relearn and teach myself all those things all over again, so that I can teach them to my child. Apart from self esteem and confidence, the same goes for teaching anything else.  You have to learn again in order to teach. In order to become a good teacher, you have to first become a student all over again.

I’ve got to learn to slow down. Everyday I rush my children from one activity to another. Its not that they have a lot of activities. Its just homework and music lessons and following us around in doing errands but this does take up a lot of time. So I rush them.

“Hurry up! Eat Faster! Wear your shoes faster! Do your homework quickly!. Hurry up and do your work! Don’t waste time! Do you know that you still have lots of work you haven’t done yet. Hurry up!” etc. I even rush them to sleep. “No! Its time to sleep. Not time to play!” Brush your teeth quickly, then change into your pyjamas quickly and jumb to bed NOW! Its late!” and I interrupt them in mid sentence or I try to finish their sentences for them because I have no patience to listen to them beating around the bush to tell me something.

They do tend to beat around the bush. “Mummy, are you listening to me? Mummy, I am not sure ok. I tell you this but I am not sure. I am not sure ok? Today at school teacher said……… Mummy! I am not sure ok but I think teacher said………” and I would stand there impatiently, my head thinking about the 101 things on my to do list and what we need to do next and how this beating around the bush is delaying us in our tight daily schedule. Its absolutely crazy.

So this post is to remind myself to slow down. Slow down and hug the kids more, listen to them patiently and spend more time playing with them. Love them more and constantly show and remind them about how much they are loved.

Foreign maids in Malaysia to get day off: minister  (AFP). I am sure you have read this news. What do you think of it?

It was reported that “Indonesian maids often work long hours, seven days a week, for a wage as low as 120 dollars a month..” I wonder where they got that figure from. I pay my maid RM570 a month (it is much more than that if you include agency fees). I have not heard of anyone paying as low as 120 before. Or perhaps they meant US dollars. Hmm…

Anyway, I tend to agree with this view. What about you? What do you think? I think that allowing maids to go out on their own on days off means trouble. Oh, I think there should be a limit to the number of hours they have to work each day and checks by authorities are a good thing. In fact, it would be a good thing to allow them to have a day off if the circumstances and situation were suitable.

However, sad to say, I do not thing the situation here is positive towards allowing maids days off on their own. There are too many negative influences. The maids are often very young, naive and easily influenced. There are too many illegal foreign workers too. Just look at the coffee shops and hawker stalls. Do you really think that all of the foreign workers there have permits? All it takes is a “Why don’t you join us. Its lucrative.” and your good maid turns into a runaway. And then there are the available foreign men workers. One thing leads to another and soon you will have unwanted phone calls and even house calls. We do not wish to limit the maids freedom but don’t forget that they are here to work for a year or two to make better lives back home for themselves and their loved ones. Negative influences are bad for them too. A wrong turn, running away and losing their permits, unwanted pregnancies etc are all bad for them. How do you curtail all these?

At the present moment, my maid is very free. She has lots of time off during the days and she goes out with us to the cinemas, out to eateries, everywhere. That raises my cost of living. Now, with a compulsory day off, which I prefer not to give so I will have to compensate, that raises the cost of having a maid even further. Couple that with loss of monies when you get the wrong maid (my sister lost thousands recently because she had to return an unsuitable maid) and I would say employers are at the losing end.

Apart from giving maids better working conditions and checking on employers, I would say that one very important thing that needs to be done is checking on the agencies.

The World Health Organization has declared a global H1N1 flu pandemic. I think it is very important for each and everyone of us to do our part to educate ourselves and our loved ones about swine flu and what they should do to prevent it.

The flu can spread so easily. We should not be too relaxed and think that it will not happen to us just because it has not hit our shores in large numbers. It can spread exponentially very quickly.

Yesterday, my daughter came back from school where the teachers had been talking to them about swine flu. I don’t think she understood much about what the teachers were talking about. However, I am glad that the teachers are educating them and being careful. Her partner in class vomitted and the teacher only found out about it later. The teacher’s response was “Why didn’t you tell me about it earlier?” and then she immediately rang the parents to take him home.

The teachers are being extra careful because the school holidays are just over and some of the children had been travelling overseas with their parents during the school holidays. I think it is a good thing that the teachers are being careful.

We as parents must also do our part to educate ourselves as well as our children. We should talk to them about what to do to prevent the flu without frightening them. I have found some resources about how to talk to your child about swine flu. You can check them out if you have young children at home.

As for you, I find these two links to articles on H1N1 Flu (Swine Flu) useful:

1. H1N1 Flu (Swine Flu) and You
2. Pandemic Flu

Yesterday my wish came true. I wished for company and I got it. And it was all because of dad.

Dad has stroke related dementia and most of the time he is in a daze, he is sleepy, talks to himself and makes hand gestures to himself. However, he has been taking a medication called Aricept that causes him to have what we call “awakenings” where he would be back to his jolly old self for a day or two after which it would make him so tired he would sleep for 24 hours non-stop and not even get up for meals. A day or two before the “awakenings” he would also suffer from imsomnia where he would be unable to sleep for more than 24 hours. Dad would get this “awakenings” about fortnightly.

Finally after many months of this, the doctor decided to stop the Aricept because of these ups and downs. Imsomnia, followed by “awakening” followed by marathon sleep. Dad stopped taking Aricept about a month ago. The doctor said that it would take about 2 weeks before the medicine was truly out of his system.

On Sunday, dad had his first “awakening” after stopping the medication. He rang me at 7.30am. He would usually call us up to chat when he is in this state. At other times, he forgets how to use the phone. I teased him and said “Dad, you called me to wish me Happy Birthday is it?” That caused dad to called big sis up to make plans for her to bring him to my house yesterday for my birthday. I was worried because big sis is often busy and I was worried about the inconvenience it would cause her. Dad is staying with big brother and she has to drive quite a distance to pick him up and send him to my place. But she did it despite her busy schedule.

Dad knew that I love to eat durians so he got big sis to drive him to buy some durians for me. He remembered that hubby doesn’t eat much durian so I don’t often get to eat it so he said it would be a nice birthday gift. He even gave me an angpow. How sweet of him. Big sis was too tired to drive him back so she arranged for second sis to come over as well so she could send him home to elder brothers place.

So, in the end, we had a little “party”. Hubby said its ok not to wait for him to cut the cake that we had bought the evening before. So the kids could enjoy it with kong kong and their aunties.

I got the best gift yesterday. I got dad back for a day and my two sisters gave me the best gift too, the gift of their time. And hubby gave me the best gift, the gift of understanding, since he said I should go on and celebrate without him and he only requested for a piece of cake in the evening. He also gave me the electronic dictionary that I had requested for. Hehe. I am quite excited about it because it is quite a powerful dictionary and I think it would be a great tool to help me teach the kids. What a nice birthday.

After two whole weeks of sleeping in, we’re back to our school routine again. Back to the routine of waking up early, supervising homework etc. Yaaaaawwwn! I wish the back to routine could have waited another day, well, just until my birthday is over. Hehe. Today everyone goes to work leaving me all by my lonesome self to …………… party! Yes, I can party and do whatever I want because I have all the ME time I want. A time of peaceful solitude all to myself that I always crave for. So what am I complaining about? But it would be nice if everyone was at home with me. Oh, we women are so fickle at times. I complain about me time all the time but now that I have me time, I want company.

Anyway Dad said he wanted to come over today. He said he will get big sis to fetch him. That was yesterday when he was alert. I wonder how he will be today. Perhaps he will return to his sleepy self and have forgotten about it. Poor Dad.

Yesterday, we went to the cake shop and I got a black forest over the counter and asked the girl to write “Happy Birthday Mummy” on the cake and requested for the candles myself. I used to complain about buying my own birthday cakes but I am used to it now. Haha. We kept the cake in the fridge. We’ll eat it tonight after everyone comes home from school and work.

Then we’ll pretend to open up the present which we went to buy together during the weekend. Haha. No surprise at all. I know what the present is and I bought the cake myself. Hubby got me the electronic dictionary that I requested for. Its actually for the kids. I am happy because it has quite a lot of features which will help me help the kids. They can learn to use it too. Yeah! The kids helped me to wrap up the present. Even if we know whats in it, we still MUST have the tradition of singing songs and opening presents after cutting the cake or the kids won’t think its a birthday.

They’re both complaining. “Your birthday’s no fun, mummy. We want to go to Megakidz or Kidsports or whatever. And your birthday won’t start till late evening. Why must we wait so long!” To them, birthdays only start when you sing the song, cut the cake and open presents.

My dear hubby wanted to take leave to keep me company on my birthday but I told him not to waste his leave because we still need it later on for other purposes like collecting report card, piano exams, accompanying me to the doctor etc. It seems like his leave is always used up for family errands. Poor man but I don’t think he minds really, thats why he is a dear husband to me and a beloved father to the kids who adore him.

Well, I should finish my long winded post here because the boy is grumbling. He can’t wait to go to school  you see. He misses all his friends so. So I’ve got to go and get him ready now. The girl’s in school by now. She wasn’t as enthusiastic as him because she hates Monday since its assembly day. And big school just isn’t quite the same like kindy days where its mostly fun.

Now that they’re back to school, hopefully I can have more time to update my blogs. I’ve just been so busy during the school holidays.

Have you ever been lost in a Car Park? Well, I have….. many times. Sometimes I can’t even remember which floor I park my car in, not to mention where. I’ve even been trapped in a car park (till I found help) because I didn’t have enough money on me to pay for the Car Park fees. Terrible huh?

Now, there is a new novel way to help you remember where you parked your car. I’ve seen a few people do it before. After they park their car and alight from their vehicle, they take a picture of the car park location and number using the digital cameras that comes with their hand phones. How novel and how clever. I haven’t tried it before but now I know how not to get lost in a car park. Just take a picture. A picture really speaks a 1000 words.

I haven’t tried it because quite often I try to park at the same spot or around the same familiar spot for the malls that I frequent then I don’t even have to think. However, that can only be done if its not packed or a peak period.

I’ve turned into a true blue housewife. I’ve started watching Hong Kong Drama Serials online. Help! Hahaha.

If you don’t see much of me online these days, it could be because I’m stuck watching those addictive Hong Kong Drama Series Online. I’ve never watched those very much before especially when the kids were young because I didn’t have the time. I don’t even subscribe to Astro so my TV watching hours are very very limited. The kids too. We don’t watch TV very much but we do have special allocated TV evenings where we would sit down together to watch a VCD Cartoon Movie. Thats the extent of my TV hours.

But now that I’ve discovered Mysoju. I’m stuck. Their tagline says “Feed your drama addiction ……” Its a good tagline because the list of dramas seem endless. There are Korean Dramas, Japanese Dramas, Taiwanese Dramas but I like Hong Kong Dramas best.

The dramas are nicely broken down into short parts that you can watch online via streaming rather than downloading. So you’ve got to have a good internet connection otherwise,  you will feel frustrated. What you can do is, open the dramas in different windows, then allow them to download fully before watching, otherwise they will keep breaking up and you will lose your patience.

The dramas or episodes are listed in a well organised manner like The Gem of Life here, for example.

Do check it out if you like dramas. It has a really good list. I like it because I can watch the Asian Drama Series in short parts but the best thing is its free!

You know, this is not a sponsored post but sometimes I think I’ve written too many paid posts till my style of writing has changed somewhat. Oops! Anyway, I just think that a good thing ought to be shared.

Did you watch the Britain’s Got Talent Finals 2009? What did you think of the results? For me, I think every one of the finalists are talented and its hard to pick a winner. Its hard to pick because there are just so many variables.

For one, the ages of the contestants are so different. And then there are group acts and solo acts, songs and dances and musicians. How do you pick? Perhaps they should categorize them and have a winner for each category. It’ll be easier then.

If you missed it, you can still catch Britain’s Got Talent 2009 here.

You can customise just about anything these days. Photo Albums, Calendars, Coffee Cups, T-shirts etc. Do you know that you can even customise your credit card by dictating your own terms and putting your own image on it? You can do it, with the all-new Alliance Bank You:nique Picture Card Service. Its Malaysia’s first and only credit card that allows you to design your own card. Not only that, you get to customize the features that you want too!

I created a few custom designs from the Alliance Bank Custom Credit Card site. You can choose from landscaped pictures, pictures of animals or abstract art. Its up to you. You can even upload your favourite vacation pictures or pictures of your kids, your beloved pet or your own favourite portrait.

Designing your own card is just the icing on the cake. What is most unique of all is you can customise the features that are important to you in a credit card whether its rebates, rates or rewards. For example you can choose to get a monthly cash rebate of up to 2% on all retail purchases or if you prefer, you can reduce your finance cost by by half from 18% to 9% throughout the tenure of your card if you consistently make a make minimum payment every month.

Or if you’re the type which like to accumulate points and redeem gifts for yourself or your loved ones, you may opt for 2X rewards for all local and overseas retail purchases (excluding petrol and government agencies) not only during promotional periods but throughout the lifetime of your card.
You are eligible to apply for this custom credit card if you are above 21 and earn a minimum income of RM18,000 p.a. Supplementary cards for immediate family members who are above 18 is available too.

You can upload your favourite photo online, review it immediately and submit your application online in minutes. You will then be contacted via sms once your design and application is approved. It is as simple as that.

You:nique Credit Card from Alliance Bank is currently running a “Sweet Family Moments” Photo Contest. So if you apply for the card now and upload your own “Sweet Family Moments” Photo as the image on your card, who knows you may even win yourself a Nikon COOLPIX S620 to create even more “Sweet Family Moments” photos and memories. Hurry and check it out at http://www.alliancebank.com.my/younique/ as the contest ends on 31 July 2009.

The above is the “Sweet Family Moments” photo I created with a picture of fellow mommy blogger Sasha’s Justin. What do you think? Do you think it will win the contest? Why not try to create your own? You can create a few and put it up on your blog for voting before submitting it for the contest.

Connect with You:nique Picture Card on Facebook.