Parenting Progress

The best thing you can do for your child is to show your love and affection. But there are also many other ways you can help your preschooler grow and learn:

1. Offer your child healthy foods. Keep lots of fruits, vegetables, and healthy snacks in the house. Me & her Baba have been feeding her with healthy food since birth. From breastmilk to homemade pureed food, delayed exposure to MSG & junk food & fastfood. We also monitor & cut down & limit her intake on chocolate, ice-cream, sweets and all the processed food. We explain to her the good & bad side of having too much of these food.

2.Make time for your child to be active. Limit TV viewing to no more than 1 or 2 hours a day. Arissa is only exposed to TV some 2 years back.. We have been blessed by having a maid that doesn't switch on the TV when me & hubby are working. But she is used to listening to the radio. And so far, all of the maids that we had & have like to play and talk with kids. But thesedays, Arissa gets to watch the telly while my MIL reads the Quran (while waiting for maghrib prayers). It's hard for my MIL to control with tv show Arissa can watch. Thus, we always explain to her why certain tv shows are not good for kids viewing.

3 . Read and talk to your child. This helps children learn language and opens them up to new ideas. Both of us have been talking to her since she was 1 day old. And even the previous maids too likes to to talk to her since she was 1 day old. Imagine hearing her saying " A slip of the tongue" !

4 . Help your child get enough rest. Between the ages of 2 and 5, children need about 11 to 13 hours of sleep each day. So far so good . In fact her bedtime since starting pre-school is 9.30 pm every nite..And nap during the day too for at least 1 hour.Some days are 2 or 3 hours.

5. Give your child a chance to meet and play with other children. Preschool or play groups can be a great way for children to learn to interact. Her 1st playgroup was at Gymboree when she was 2 years old. And this year at Musikhaus. And now at the current pre-school. So far, her interaction with other kids has been good.

6. Teach skills, such as how to get dressed or use the toilet. Watch for signs that your child is ready, and try to move ahead at his or her pace. We are doing these . In fact she is better than her cousins who still depend on maid for shower and eating and dressing.. But then again, can't blame the cousins as it's the parents' fault too who depend too much on the maids..

7. Set limits that help your child feel safe and secure but that also allow the child to explore. Mostly it's hubby who is more relax on these.Me on the other side is the type that worry too much .. So, I'm thankful that hubby is guiding her on these and me learning to from him..

Above is from WebMd . I was busy reading about newborn when all of a sudden it crossed my mind to look up for info on pre-schooler. I guess it's not easy being a parent to two kids . Meaning, we always need to update our parenting knowledge all for the kids benefits.

Yasmin Ahmad

Yeah! Count me in..



I am one of those people who look forward to Petronas advertisements ie during raya,merdeka,CNY, Deepavali . Actually I look forward to Yasmin Ahmad advertisement. Why? Because of her, Petronas advertisement was in a different league than others.



And I'm gonna miss seeing it this year as Petronas had given another advertising agency ( yeah not Leo Burnett KL ) for next advertisement job. I read this from the local newspaper..

Talk about Yasmin Ahmad's creative touch on advertisements, I was in tear the other day while driving back from work. One of our local english radio was playing a eulogy scene from one of Yasmin's advertisement. I don't think I wanna blame it on my pregnancy hormones for making me so touchy.

And today, I managed to find it on youtube on this eulogy scene. It was done for S'pore Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) . The speech was so simple and touching. Even the scene was done superbly in a simple manner. Nothing extravagant.

The late widow of David Lee talked about her late husband's imperfections like snoring in bed.. Of course it was funny and had all the guests laughing. But it was those last few sentences that caught everyone with a deep sense of sadness and truth about what married couple's relationship should be actually.

When our partner or spouse are alive, these imperfections or bad habits are just annoying to us which make us complaining about it everyday . But it is these imperfections that we will miss most when our spouse is no longer alive and living & breathing next to us.

These imperfections is what complete two individuals as soulmates.

Which is why my hubby don't understand sometimes of me not so annoyed or taken aback with his imperfections. Of course there are some of his imperfections that I dislikes. But there are a few that is not worth to be annoyed so much..

And even now , I know that these imperfections is something I'm gonna miss when he is no longer with me..



U can view the advertisement at these http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nw0s4C0g5SM&NR=1
http://www.facebook.com/beautifullyim
http://www.thinkfamily.sg/
http://www.mcys.gov.sg/
http://yasminthefilmmaker.blogspot.com/

Phoneless Maid = Problems Free Employer

I know there are people outthere who allow their maids to have handphones. Even some of my neighbours do this.

Personally, I detest and object this idea. Why? Because allowing them to have handphone means exposing us the employers to more maid problems. Everyone wants a less problematic maids.
So why do we need to open up more doors to these?

I know that some of us allow them to give phones so that they can call us whenever there is an emergency at home. Yeah, imagine we can't be contacted when one of our children is sick or something bad happen to them. Or that the house is on fire.

But we can always provide the house phone as another medium of communication. In fact, we can tell the maid to call the neighbours next door if there is an emergency. Of if there is no neighbours next door, our maid can always go to the other neighbours who live in the same lane.
I don't think most of us doesn't know our neighbours at all.. Unless u don't mix at all.. That i can't help.

And some said, just give the maid prepaid phones. Let them use their own money to pay for the calls. Of course , this is good for our wallet. Or, the maid will stop using their handphones once they run out of prepaid ( as they need to ask us the employee to help them buy the prepaids)

Well, hello! The maids will never run out of prepaids. They can always get help from your mom's maid, your SIL's & BIL's maid, or your neighbours' maid. Thus, how to stop them..

And do u think u can keep track of the phone bills and calls? Not when the maids are using prepaids. But if they are using the house fixed phone lines, it is so much easier to keep track of it.. We can easier tell that the house fixed phone line have been abused when all off a sudden this month's telephone bill is higher than last month. Both of u & hubby are working during the day. So it can't be u and hubby who made all the extra phone calls. Thus, who else but the maid?

But how to reason it out to our maid that they can't have handphone. Even when the handphone is paid by them?

U can start by reminding them, that their main motives of coming here to our country is to earn an income or money. And if since money is not easy to earn back home in their homeland, why do they want to spend it unnecessarily on handphones and phone calls.. Tell them that u as the concerned & kind hearted employees would let them make the calls using the house phones or use our own handphones. Tell them, u are giving them free phone calls. Any employees would be happy to hear this free phone calls. They need only to inform u when they want to make the calls.

And yes, use I-Talk as it is cheap . Both either using the house fixed line or via handphones.

But what if, some of u out there say that my maid is one good maid? Well, have u ever heard of how some else's maid who have been working here for the past 10 years and whose personality is so down to earth, humble, hard working and now had run away with another person , taking along with her her employer's jewelery and money?

I know not all maids are evil and yes that some of them have good & honest personality. But people can always changed. Even we too.. So , until their characters changed from good to evil, we as the employers might as well prepared ourselves by not exposing ourselves to more problems that we can already handle.

To give or not to give handphone to your maid.

The choice is yours.