As you know, I’m a SAHM. So no matter where I am, my children will be. Even when I’m bathing, they will come over every other minute and ask…..

“Mommy, are you bathing?…..Mommy, are you done?…..Mommy, are you putting shampoo on your hair?….Mommy, I don’t hear water-sound, so are you wiping yourself now….are you coming out now?”

So when I went to the hospital to visit my FIL, naturally they will go along. Everyone knows how ‘natural loud-speakers’ kids are, and being active 90% of the time, you could hardly get them to sit still for more than 5mins.

When my boys see their cousins, it’s party time! All of them would laugh and speak louder than usual. Even though every adult would go, “Shhhhh…..this is the hospital, the patients are sick, they need to rest, so you need to talk softly…” a thousand times, they would still forget this golden rule the next minute.

I’m glad that my boys obeyed the “NOT TO RUN ABOUT” commandment, but not my nieces and my little 1year old nephew.

My second sis-in-law had not brought her only daughter to see my FIL for the past 1 week since his hospitalisation, in order to prevent the need to discipline her in public.

My eldest sis-in-law’s kids, who stay with my parents-in-law, would naturally follow my MIL on every visit.

Being active is usually ‘acceptable‘ but sometimes being kids, they would say whatever that comes to mind and THAT may be ‘unacceptable’ to the ears of the patients or the patients’ families at time….

“Mommy, why the uncle got that thing stuck in his mouth?”

“Mommy, why that uncle make so much noise?”

“Mommy, why that uncle sleep like that?”

“Mommy, why that uncle poo-poo on his bed?”

“Mommy, why that uncle vomit?”

“Mommy, why that uncle’s leg got that big white thing?”

“MOMMY, that uncle not moving, IS HE DEAD??!”

and the ‘why’ questions continues….(my FIL stays in a male ward, so they saw male patients only)

Even if I wasn’t a SAHM, I believe I’ll still bring my kids along whenever I visit a family member or relative who is hospitalised. It’s vital to let them know the importance of being healthy. Actually, these few days, my elder one has started to eat slightly more vegetables, he used to eat only ONE vege per meal….

“Mommy vegetables are good for my body right? I want to be healthy, don’t want to be sick. If I am sick, I have to stay in the hospital and cannot go home….I don’t want that.”

I think there’s some kind of effect after seeing how people suffer in hospital…he doesn’t want to see himself in that state….

So are you like my 2nd sis-in-law, who prefers not to bring her kid to the hospital to prevent unnecessary noise pollution?

Or are you like my eldest sis-in-law who doesn’t have a preference if the kids went there or not?

Or are you like me, who thinks that hospital is another educational centre, where kids can learn alot from there too?