This is the first post in 2012. I have been thinking of some changes that I would like to make in my daily life and it’s just the right timing to document down as 2012 resolutions.
1. Buy LESS
I love shopping! But I have been trying hard to cope with so many things including toys that only yield 1-day to 3-days satisfaction. I am learning not to buy toys that my kids whined so much to buy in the departmental store but only to find them throwing them in some corner after 1 day or so. And I have learnt not to buy those things that I foresee hard to find a place to keep when I do not need them anymore or only need once a year. BUY LESS = LESS JUNK=NEATER HOME=SAVE $$$=SAVE THE EARTH.
2. Slow down
Recently Kel described me as an ant. An ant walks haphazardly, with no aim, no focus. And I think he is right. This applies very much to walking from Point A to Point B at home. Just a short route in the house, I can be picking up toys, stopping by to adjust the piano cover, clean up some mess and finally when I reach my destination, I forgot why I was there. Despite having some time-table for my kids, I find myself difficult to stick to the routine by the clock as I may be home late or dinner was later than usual. Hence, the words “quickly”, “we have no time”, “hurry up” became the most frequent words in the air. I have to change this “quickly”, or in “no time” my kids will be like me with a fast pace in life for the wrong things. For this resolution I have to learn to be more organized, and my favourite teacher is Nicole from Planning With Kids.
3. Live in the moment
Living in the moment is so important to enjoy life and enjoy my family time. I need to tweak my 2nd resolution first in order to achieve this third one. This applies to daily life in so many ways! It can mean stopping what I am doing and looking into the eyes of my little ones and listen patiently to what they are talking about. And I mean really listening, not hearing them while doing something else, eyes elsewhere. It also means watching my children’s year end concert LIVE!! Why not LIVE? Because I was using my Galaxy phone recording the entire performance and looking through the small screen on my phone the entire time! What a stupid thing to do when I should have been watching the real thing!
4. Cut down on snapping photos
We have just returned from our Sweden winter holidays. I found out that I was taking too many photographs that I have trouble filtering them. Just can’t bear to hit the “delete” button on my kids’ faces. This will probably extend much time to create a photobook with so many pictures to choose from. This resolution is in resonance with “Live in the moment” resolution too. I need to cut down taking photo and video time so that I can enjoy the moment, enjoy LIVE moment!
5. Speak good English
That’s a weird resolution. Kel is always commenting on my spoken English sentence structure. Due to bilingualism in Singapore education, I cannot speak a proper English sentence well without mixing up with some Chinese sentence structure. I am afraid I will influence my kids in the way they speak in future. Hence, I will have to relearn speaking confidently in proper correct English. This will be a tough one since I am used to the way I speak for 3 decades.
6. Love myself and others will love me
I love my family very much. I try to do many things for them. What’s the end result? I end up taken for granted and become too tired and too busy to enjoy daily life and enjoy my family. Not only that, my kids are gradually taking me for granted for some of the things I do, and respect for me is compromised too. So, for this last resolution, I will have to force myself to give up some of the housework or things that I do for my kids. I have to love myself, take care of myself, give myself more time to rest, enjoy everything around me. My kids will have to learn to do more things on their own to be more independent so that they will be grateful for the other things I have done for them. My husband will have to help out more in housework so that I will need his “massage service” less often than now due to exhaustion in doing housework.
Checklist:
1) Agree (Support Reduce, Reuse and Recycle!)
2) Agree (I found it difficult to move from bedroom to kitchen without stopping by to pack up the house a bit too)
3) Agree (Read/heard somewhere that kids learn how to be a good listener from us parents. Thus we need to model good listening skills, e.g. maintain eye contact and respond appropriately)
4) Agree (I have lesser photos as the kids grow older and become more active too)
5) Agree (I bought “From Singlish to English” for a start. It’s been useful for myself and I left it on my bedside table. Once in a while, my son will flip through it and read to himself!)
6) Agree (This way, we can go a longer distance for our family) 🙂
Hi Ashley, I should get the Singlish to English book too even though I kind of like Singlish when I talk to fellow Singaporeans. But we must first ensure our kids are speaking proper and good English first… It’s difficult but I’ll work hard on that.