Mummy Diaries Archives - Page 5 of 19

Week in Life of a Blogger Mum – @ Kids ‘R’ Simple

It intrigues me how other mums and dads spend time with their children and run the household at the same time. Reading the many awesome blogs before me in this blog train, I have nothing but admiration for these blogger mums and dads. Being parents isn’t easy, with hardly time for ourselves, and we can still find the time to blog and even participate in this blog train! If you hear a blogger mum/dad say that blogging is his/her hobby, please please please do trust him/her. If there is no passion, no one blogger mum/dad will be able to sustain spending gruelling hours of blogging at unearthly time at the expense of sacrificing sleep and energy.

Remember the last time I blog on my Daily Routine as a FTWM 2 years ago? Now, things have changed a great deal mainly because the house chores part is taken care of. I need not fret over changing the bedsheets weekly, washing the bathrooms, washing dishes, mopping floor and washing clothes every evening and before work. However, it doesn’t mean that with a helper now, I am leaving everything to her. Some things I still insist on doing by myself, especially when these things concern the children. I still insist on waking up at 6am just to be the one to kiss them awake, make breakfast for them, ensure they finish their breakfast and see them off to school. I will wash their favourite bolsters and stuff toys by myself. I stitch up the duckie’s torn off wing, fix their toys, cook their favourite dishes. So, having a lived-in helper really is not replacing me as a mummy, but freeing up time so that I get to reserve my energy and spend the limited precious time with my children after work and on weekends.

Weekdays are days of routine and weekends are days for flexibility, relaxing and for family bonding. When it comes to blogging, I usually do it out of sight of the children. After all, blogging is the least important task in a day and it is more of an indulgence which I can only do during limited slots of me-time. I blog early in the morning when the kids go to school and before the toddler is awake. I blog during commuting. I blog while waiting for my kids to finish their art class. I blog after the kids go to sleep.
Continue reading “Week in Life of a Blogger Mum – @ Kids ‘R’ Simple”

March – what goes on in our lives

March has a one week school holiday and we did quite many things together as a family. This monthly wrap up post is really a good way for me to check on our family activities and ensuring we have sufficient family bonding time and time for play.

Taking time off from work for the kids

During the 1 week school holidays, I took 2 days off from work to bring the kids out. On the first day, I planned a visit to the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum together with the grandparents. We went to sing Karaoke later on. My kids love to sing, and half the singing session was for them to sing their favourite songs. Mind you, the songs they sang were adult ballads and fast numbers, not the kiddie songs. And seeing that we have still some time, we took a leisurely walk at Labrador Park and saw a Holland cruise ship which was exiting to the sea up close! How lucky we were! At dinner, we took a visit to where granny works in a childcare centre. The visit intrigued the kids as they seemed to be impressed that their grandma is still active in the workforce as an assistant teacher teaching little ones just like when they were young.

I am sure by now you know that we love to bring the grandparents and the kids out together. I can’t emphasize enough to the kids that their parents love their grandparents and we place great importance on family relationship and respect our own parents. Hence, as much as we can, we will invite the elders to join us.

Family

On the second day, Master 9 had a playdate. We met over breakfast at Mac Donald’s, had 2 games of bowling, went for a good lunch, and visited Art Science Museum – Future World. It was a good meet up with the mummies who are pretty much Continue reading “March – what goes on in our lives”

To give or not to give – smartphone

Steve Jobs’ invention of the iPhone is probably the number one devilish invention in this modern day in my own opinion. I love it and I hate it. But the hate factor is much higher than the love factor. I love it because it helps to move the world so much faster in terms of news outreach. It rekindles long lost friendships. It helps people to stay in touch with family and friends. It provides entertainment to young and old. It saves time for people on the go answering mails, tabulating spreadsheets and reading up news. It boosts sales, boosts blogs, and it even plays a big part in rallies for international support for humanity cases, swayed voters in presidential elections. It also replaces the need for another gadget- the camera, to pack in the bag, serves as a calculator, etc etc etc.

But with it, comes many problems that I hate to deal with and many social ills too. While it gives a chance of socializing on the go via apps, it inhibits human face to face interaction. It causes compulsive disorder Continue reading “To give or not to give – smartphone”

February – what goes on in our lives

I can’t believe it is already end of February! What did we exactly do in this month that seemed to fly by in a jiffy?

Birthday Celebrations…

February is full of celebrations with 4 birthdays including my lunar birthday too. Missy 11 is, well, 11 years old this year. She had a simple celebration together with just the 5 of us. No big parties for the first time. She made my day when she asked me to bake her favourite New York Cheesecake and we baked her cake together. We treated the kids to Stephen Chow’s The Mermaid, a comedy, in celebration of her birthday.

One on one date…

I dated Missy 11 one on one a few days after her birthday. I asked her what she would like to do on our date and she replied,”I want to go to Timezone!” We went to the archade at Plaza Singapura and had a fun-filled afternoon. I had not had such a good time playing in the entertainment centre for a good many years. It was very special to go with your own daughter and play together. I did not have to keep watch on other kids. It was easier to go out with one child and we had a good chat over MacDonald’s fries and sundae and there was no distraction. Continue reading “February – what goes on in our lives”

Don’t judge the way I raise my children

I am not in a competition on raising children.

I believe everyone has his or her own way in raising theirs, but there are so many times when I am judged at how I raised up my children that I think this ‘judgement’ deserves a blog post here.

I often received raised eyebrows when people know that I let my baby sleep in a sarong cradle. Some were surprised that I give pacifiers to my babies almost betting that I would have trouble weaning them off it. People judged when they saw that I feed my toddler on the go. Others gave disapproving look when they sighted my kids playing on tablets or smartphones. Many criticized when they see my kids’ overactive behaviour. And this will almost certainly set you off laughing: I let my children use the milk bottle for as long as they like.

You may disapprove some of the ways I deal with my children. But I believe that I am bringing them up well.

Why “no sarong rule”?

What is wrong with children sleeping in a sarong cradle? Some said that it will cause over-dependence on sleeping in one and “spoil” the baby. All my 3 children grew up sleeping in one and up till 3 years of age during nap time. They slept on the bed from 6 months old for night sleep. The sarong cradle is an amazing piece of cloth that once hung onto the sarong cradle metal frame, creates a hugging sensation to the baby who tends to sleep well in it. The rocking motion of sarong cradle is very soothing to the child, mimicking the feeling in mummy’s womb. And from my 3 times experience, my child can sleep anywhere with or without sarong cradle. I do not have problem getting them to sleep on the bed either. So why the insistence of no sarong rule?

Pacifier is better than thumb

When my children were babies and started to suck on their thumbs, my mum gave me a very good advice to use the pacifier. Continue reading “Don’t judge the way I raise my children”