It all started when my child blurted out one day "It's not fair!" when she didn't get her way. I ignored the statement and took it as one of her pertulant outbursts when things don't go her way. Until the "not fair" outbursts became more frequent and over the smallest stuff that I began to sit up and take note.

So one day when she uttered the infamous words again, I decided to give her a piece of my mind. I told her in a firm but calm tone, "Baby, you're right. Life really isn't fair, that is why you have food to eat, clothes to wear, and papa and mama to love you, when there are little children in other poor countries who don't have all these." It seemed to work as the frequency of her "not fair" outbursts have magically reduced. In fact, I hardly hear it lately.

Many people make resolutions for the New Year. For me, I prefer to do reflection of the existing year. Previously I have made many resolutions and always fall short of it, so for a change I decided that reflection is more suitable in my case.

This year has been an exciting year for me in regards to parenting. I have implemented some positive things and also made mistake in some areas. As I reflect back, here are a list of hits and misses, and I leave it for you to decide what is suitable for your parenting style.

Starting a New Hobby together with your Child

Exam is near once again. Many parents are busy helping their children to prepare for exam.  Some are stress out and some are taking it easy, all depends on the expectation of the parents and children. For children who score below the school average, many parents are trying their very best to improve their grades. For those who are at the median, parents strive to do better. And there are the high-achievers, whose parents will count every mark so that their children can improve or maintain their school position.

Clocking my 10,000th post here...

Buds_chubs is our new addition to the family, thus making ours a 3-children-family. Not easy by measure of everything honestly but i love the challenge. They say, with great powers come great responsibilities. Being a stay-home-parent is a huuuuge responsibility and the ultimate power i have is... time. I choose to use the powers (of time + management) to fulfilling use whenever i can, or else time is just whiled away with me accomplishing nothing for the day.

I have chosen to become a stay-at-home-mother (SAHM) since DD came into my life. And I have not regretted a single day of it.

Sure there were some days I had wished I were working instead of staying home to look after DD 24/7, especially in the first year after her birth as she was a needy and fussy baby who needed to be breastfed every 2 hours. Some babies could just sleep or play through with dirty diapers. Not my little princess. She would cry at the top of her lungs if her diaper got wet with urine or dirty with poo. This meant she could wake several times in the nights and insufficient sleep for her daddy and mummy.

In my line of work, it is often that I encounter children who fall sick. Some more often than others. It is also once too often I come across parents who have insisted that their children be allowed to attend school even when they were sick. This is an area that really needs to be looked into. Why HFMD and SARS became an epidemic here is because some people do not realize that to prevent an epidemic... to keep the nation clean and healthy, is a social responsibility.

Today's children have money. They get ang pow money, birthday money, or save their pocket money. DS1's money box is very heavy.

The problem is not the possession of money, but the management of money.

Having money is not the same as knowing how to manage money. If my child decides to starve in order to buy phone card, to me, he doesn't know how to prioritise the use of his money, and that calls for a serious talk on money and priorities.