How to become a nagy parent? That’s a piece of cake. Just be overly-concern and overly protective of your child; and there you have it. You are a certified nagy parent.

I am guilty of that some times, especially when it comes to situation where one mistake could cause a scar of a lifetime.

“stay away from the hot water…if it touches you, your skin could drop off…”

“stay away from the stove when Mommy and Papa is cooking…the fire will burn you like the way you saw the paper burnt…”

“watch your fingers….your toes….when opening the door…”

“keep your hands away from the sliding door of the lift….”

Almost half a year ago, Binbin’s 2nd right toe-nail was literally lifted off his tiny toe, all because he was too excited to open the main door to welcome back his Ah Yee. That was a lesson he will never forget. The blood, the many weeks of caution, when at play, before his new toe-nail finally grew back. Binbin remembers, till this very day.

I have a friend, Christina, who believes that its better to let her children experience the pain than to describe it to her 2 boys. She believes that it leaves a deeper impression; but she is far from being abusive. Her heartaches but she thinks its necessary in parenting.

For example, after boiling a kettle of water, she would ask her children, “you know why I say never come near to a kettle when I am boiling it? This is why…put a finger on the kettle now….”

Being curious kids, they do, and do they remember ‘never to get near the kettle again’? You bet!

Keatkeat has reached the age where experience speaks louder than words. He has been warned over a thousand times to keep his hands off the sliding door of the lift. Kicking the habit seems to be really hard for him, till yesterday.

Yup! His left hand, four fingers were stuck in the small gap between the retracting door and the lift frame. The lift door was still dragging his fingers deeper into the frame when we realised Keatkeat was crying. Allan try to pull the door in the opposite direction while I try to pull out the hand of the screaming Keatkeat.

My heart was pounding like crazy….my mind was running wild….scary thoughts were flying in my brain….

Thank God, all was well. All 4 fingers are out, blue-black, no broken bones. Do you think he kicked his bad habit of putting his hands on the door now, 100% yes!