All About Your Child

What is a home without children?
Quiet.
~Henny Youngman

Children are one third of our population
and all of our future.
~Select Panel for the Promotion of Child Health, 1981

Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see.
~John W. Whitehead, The Stealing of America, 1983

Parenting is like Fishing.
Wrong bait, and you will reel up a rotten boot.
Correct bait, and you will  have salmon sahimi!
~ Angeline Foong

Oh Moomykin, please do not strangle me! I am EXTREMELY sorry I took so long to answer your question. My Oh My! *faint* It was March 2009, when Moomykin asked after my ‘Keeping It Simple’ post, “So, how have you explained the monthly visit to your boys? That I’d like to know, coz it’s such a girl thing.”

My boys knew about menstruation when they were 2-3 years old, the time when I brought them home from the care of my MIL for good. I became a full time stay at home mom.

Many of you might have noticed that my style of parenting is rather unusual. The things I do could be hard for some parents to down their throat. Least to say the older folks. They often say I had crossed the boundary into the forbidden city.

Do you bathe WITH your children, irregardless of their gender? I do. That’s the extremity of my parenting. Appearing naked infront of my children is totally unacceptable to my traditional-thinking in-laws.

Ok, back to Moomykin’s question. Because I wanted to be ‘accessible’ to my young boys (then), I kept my toilet door open even though I am enjoying my ‘bombing’ session.

There was this time, Keatkeat (3 years old then) came in and saw my ‘bread spread with strawberry jam‘, exclaimed, “Mommy, you got blood! Pain Pain? Sayang Sayang.” (**Sayang means ‘heartpain/caress’ over here.)

Me: “Keatkeat good boy. Mommy not pain. Sometimes Mommy will have blood. Then Mommy need to wear pampam, just like you. If not, my shorts will be dirty.”

That reply was good enough for a 3 year old Keatkeat.

As months/years passed, the questions changed along the way. But I am lumping them all up over here. Cannot really remember which question was asked at what age. *giggle*

Keatkeat: “Why you have blood every month?”

Me: “Because I am a big girl. A big girl will have blood every month. Does a girl looks like a boy? And a boy looks like a girl?”

Keatkeat: “No.”

Me: “Outside, they look different. Inside they are different too. That is how our body are.”

Keatkeat: “When I got blood, its painful. Why when you got blood it is not painful?”

Me: “When you pass urine, is it painful?”

Keatkeat: “No.”

Me: “Same for Mommy. When the blood comes out from below, it feels like passing urine. So it is not painful.”

Keatkeat: “So sometimes you pass urine and sometimes you pass blood?”

Me: *laugh* “Yes baby, yes…..”

That was the last time he asked about menstruation. But it is a topic we talk about naturally every now and then, especially when they want me to bathe together with them.

And when I said, “Sorry Babies, today I cannot, because…” before I could finish my sentence….

They filled in the blanks, “You got blood down there today. You don’t want us to step on the blood. We know.”

Me: “Yup! You two are sooooooo Smart!” *wink*

The seemingly hardest question is the easiest
when you can think like a child.
~ Angeline Foong

Oh Moomykin, I hope this answered your question. If you have more, I’d love to answer them again. Ok Ok, I promise, this time its going to be SPEEDY reply. *giggle*

You’ll forgive me, won’t ya? *wink*

When I was One, I had just began.
When I was Two, I was nearly new.
When I was Three, I was hardly ME.
When I was Four, I was not much more.
When I was Five, I was just alive.
When I am Six, I’m as clever as clever.
So I think I’ll be six now for ever and ever.
~ A. A. Milne

***This poem is dedicated to my 6 year old Keatkeat

I once bought my kids a set of batteries for Christmas
with a note on it saying,
“Toys Not Included”.
~ Bernard Manning

Today is the last meet-up between Keatkeat’s teachers and us. For some reason, his Chinese teacher chooses to go for her lunch instead of meeting up with us. Maybe there was not much to add on from the previous ‘negative‘ comments from her.

As for Keatkeat’s English teacher….

“Cheng Keat needs much encouragement, in all aspect. He is always in his little own world. Has problem paying attention during lesson time. Attention span is short and would choose to stand up in the middle of the lesson. He needs constant encouragement in order for him to complete his work. Gets distracted too easily and is often more interested in his friends’ work than his.

However, he is a very well-mannered boy, who look out for his friends often. Will initiate to help his friends who are in need. He is creative and always suggesting ideas. I consider him an active boy, who loves to move around, grabbing whatever that is long and start beating around as if they were drum sticks. You may want to consider enrolling him for drum classes or sports.

Yet, it is essential that he needs to put in a lot of ‘heart-work’ academically or he will have a hard time catching up when he goes to Primary School.”

Am I worried?
Not much.

I am so used to hear such comments. I know my child’s ability. Yes, I am prepared that he would fall behind during Primary School, whereby there will be even lesser one-to-one attention. But remember what happened to him when he was under Allan’s teaching? (Read here…)

Do I want history to repeat itself?
No.

I choose to go with Keatkeat’s learning speed. He learns AND remembers better when he is not under pressure.
Tried.
Tested.
Proven.

So what if he comes home with grades like 50/100?

To me, so long as he’s spirit for learning is not crashed, I am fine with it.

So long as he does not feel inferior, (IF) when he compares himself to his peers (which he had NEVER done it till this day), I am fine.

When inferiority complex kicks in, *giggle* the fighting spirit in him will do the work. Till then, I will just do what he can ‘handle‘.

A Child Learns Best when Pressure is Off His Chest.
~ Angeline Foong