Category Archives: Life

Dilemma of a mother

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Yesterday at work I got a call from GG. She sounded quite upset and asked me this question, “Mama why don’t we both spend more time together doing things?” I was quite set out by this question and the rest of the work day deteriorated. I spoke to her after I reached home and told her that when we go on our holiday (soon, very soon), we’ll do some mom-and-daughter stuff together like shopping and leave the boys at home

This morning when I woke up and checked my Facebook news feed, I saw that an old school friend had quit her job to be a SAHM (Stay At Home Mom) since her daughter was giving the equivalent of what is the O Levels here in May 2012. She wanted to be with her and give her moral support.

Everyday, especially now that the holidays are on, both G & BB don’t want me to go to work. On Monday when I was at home nursing a cold, both of them were so happy to see me there with them the whole day that it literally broke my heart!

This is an issue I’ve been grappling with for the past year or so. On on hand I do want to be a SAHM and be there physically for my children, but on the other hand, without the intellectual stimulation that work gives me, I am worried that I will mentally atrophy. I think going to work gives me the much needed ‘me time’ I need without needing to be a mom 24/7 and getting called to settle any/all differences/fights (choose the word) at home. The income I earn is useful too, to ensure that we are able to give our children all the extras that we want.

On one hand, I do know that if my current position was as interesting as it was made out to be in the initial interviews, then maybe I would enjoy this a lot more. As it is, the project I was hired for has been moved to mid next year and so i do not have any ‘output’ to show. Also since I leave about 3 hours earlier, the impression I get is that I am not thought as part of the team and things are happening without my involvement. Aah well, the best thing for me to do is to either accept this or quit. I have about a month to think through this well and would have made my decision by the time I am back from my holiday!

In the meantime, here’s something that came on my Facebook newsfeed a couple of days back. It’s an ivillage article about being able to afford to stay at home and what you can do if that is what you want to do.

I am thankful for

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Since today America celebrates Thanksgiving and there are loads of thanksgiving themed posts on WordPress, I thought of doing something similar.

I am thankful for….

  1. My babies whom I love to death. I can literally die if it means saving their lives.
  2. A loving husband who is my true partner in life
  3. Awesome parents who have always nurtured me and raised me to be a woman who can think for herself and make her own decisions in life.
  4. Family and friends who surround me

A life which is full of love, laughter and joy.

What are you thankful about?

11.11.11

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Today is a very special day. Today is a day which comes once every 100 years or once in a person’s lifetime. Next year on 12 December, you will see this phenomenon once again.

This date can be called a palindrome date. A palindrome is something which is the same forwards and backwards. The first time I heard about this was in school where we were explained this syndrome with the word Malayalam.

In the last few years we’ve seen so many people want to get married, have babies etc. It does sound nice when you say it and probably will be something people comment on when they look at your passport, birth certificate etc. but that’s it.

Today is also my sister and brother-in-law’s marriage anniversary. They met, fell in love and got married nine years ago today and now have two beautiful daughters. I am so excited that I can’t wait for next month to come soon enough so that we are finally off on our trip to meet up with them.

What Kind of a Blogger Am I?

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I was stuck today with nothing remotely intelligent to say. Then while I was surfing the net, I came across this quiz which asks you some questions about the things you blog about and then tells you what kind of a blogger you are. So what kind am I? I am a Life Blogger. To quote…

“Your blog is the story of your life – a living diary. If it happens, you blog it. And you make it as entertaining as possible. You may be guilty of over-sharing a bit on your blog, but you can’t help it. Your life is truly an open book. Or in this case, an open blog!”

Am I really a life blogger? I do blog about things going on in my life – after all this blog was started with the intention of being something like a digital diary. Well that should give me things to post about another time.

This weekend is going to be a long one with Hari Raya Haji or what is called Bakri Id in India on Sunday, so Monday’s an extra holiday. We’ve got plans this weekend – on Saturday we go for a birthday party for the child of a friend, one whom GG & BB also know well, then on Sunday GG and BB will see their second Hindi Bollywood film in the theatre! The first non-children film was 3 Idiots and the first Tamil film was Enthiran. We’re seeing Ra One on Sunday and both BB & GG are super excited about it. I’ll review the film sometime next week.

The world tomorrow

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Somewhere in the world today, we will welcome the seventh billionth person into this world. We’ve added one billion people in the world in just about a decade! According to a United Nations estimate, there are about 2 babies being born every second and we will be adding another 3 billion babies, reaching the world population figure of 10 billion by 2100, that’s just 89 years away!

The world is seeing a huge variance in terms of population growth, first world countries do not have enough and third world countries have too much! This means that in the very near future (if it is not already happening), you will see a lot of movement of population from the less developed countries to the more developed ones. This will lead to other problems like integration, resentment from the established to the newly arriving etc.

So this is a new thing for parents to worry about – as if we have less things to worry about already. With the world’s population reaching stratospheric heights, it is inevitable that the levels of competition for literally everything will increase proportionally.  Everyone will be chasing after the same pie and it’s going to be a free for all, unless you have the resources to beat the competition. One of the best ways to succeed in life is through education and guess what, that’s going to be the one place with the fiercest competition.

Children in Singapore, which is a first world country in a third world region, are already pretty complacent, even though we’ve always had competition, not just from the region, but also from India and China, but the competition facing our children, 10-15 years down the line will mean facing people who are hungry for success not just from the above mentioned countries, but also from Africa and the rest of the world.

What does this mean to us as parents? In my opinion, this means giving our children the best we can – in terms of education, experiences, knowledge and learning and making them the best we can with the strongest values and foundations so that they can make their own way in the world that they are being dealt with as the kind of adults who will make us proud to be called their parents.

My only hope is that 10-15 years down the line, GG & BB grow up to be adults I can be proud of – articulate, helpful, intelligent, loving people who are a success in whatever they choose to do and be in life!