Tag Archives: Children

(Still) Blogging Anonymously

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anonymous_blogger

I decided to go way back to my first posts and see how long I have been blogging. I realised I would have been blogging on WordPress for 7 years this year (my blog anniversary is sometime in August) and a couple of years before that on Blogspot. Wow! That’s a long time to be blogging, that too anonymously.

I revisited this topic again when sometime last week, I came across an opinion piece in an Indian newspaper by a famous author who was arguing about the privacy issues that a famous Bollywood couple are facing over their new baby’s photo. The baby’s photo was published across media when the doting father put it up as his Whatsapp profile picture (as most parents are wont to do so) and she argued that in this day and age of digital invasion, especially for a high-profile couple like these two, it was par on course, and not something they should take seriously. I am not going to link to the article, nor mention any names, though any Indian who reads this, may know who I am talking about. This article again raised the issue of being anonymous on social media.

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Today, with oversharing being the norm, being someone who hides behind an identity on social media, I am probably an anomaly rather than the norm. With the exception of Facebook and LinkedIn where I am present as myself, I blog under a pseudonym on all other media. I guess I am not 100% anonymous here – you guys do know that I live in Singapore and have two children who are twins and are around 13/14 years old and in secondary school. But I have still not shared more details about myself or a photograph of me and my family, which seems to be what most family and lifestyle bloggers (as I see myself) have on their About me page. Maybe someone who is diligent can find out who I am, but I’d like to think that I am not someone who is famous or infamous that people are really curious to know whom I am in real life.

I know it’s quite hard for me not to build traffic to this site because I can’t just link posts from here onto any of my other social media accounts, so conversely I am actually proud of each and every new subscriber as I know you’ve come here organically and because you like what I write. This is pure validation to someone who considers herself as a closet writer.

I also want to protect BB & GG from any adverse effects of my blogging. Technology is jumping by leaps and bounds and what is probably in the realm of science fiction today may be a something very normal 10 years down the line. I want them to start and live their lives on a clean slate and don’t want any embarrassing photos or blog posts to pop up when a future employer searches their name a few years down the line when they start work or even when they apply for admissions at their dream schools. After all, even today a sweep of your social media profile is done when you are looking at hiring new employees or even students and you don’t want something awkward coming up when your name is searched.

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So there you have why I chose to blog anonymously. I am still not sure if this was the right decision or not, but it’s something I chose to do and will continue to do so moving forward.

2017 Secondary 2 Week 7 Update

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A very blah week for the children. GG’s common tests were on almost the whole week and she has been studying quite hard for it. She even woke up at 4:30 am one day to study since she can’t stay up at night. 

BB’s common test starts from tomorrow and unlike GG, he only has 5 exams while GG had almost 8. He will sit out the Mother Tongue paper since his school does not offer Hindi. Compared to GG, he has a more lackadaisical attitude towards his studies. He’s more of a “I’ll study at the last minute”type and this really pisses me off. I foresee more showdowns with him as the year continues and especially when he sits for his O levels!

Have a wonderful Sunday!

2017 Secondary 2 Week 6 Update

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This was the usual week for the children, with school, CCA and some studies. 

GG’s school has had the Sec 3 streaming talk with them and she is not very happy with the subject choices that are offered to her stream. I need to wait until the parents talk next month before I sit with her to discuss what subjects will be best for her. I also need to speak to her form teacher about this. 

I also attended a parent support group meeting in her school where the principal was present and shared with him some of the things that GG has been telling about her class. Apparently her class is already quite notorious and some children are very disruptive in class with the end result being the whole class gets penalised. 

Next week is the parent support group meeting in BB’s school and the week after the tea session with his principal. 

Happy Sunday everyone!

Secondary 2 Week 5 Update

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This was a very short school week for BB & GG because of the Chinese New Year holidays.

GG got another achievement award in school, this time for her CCA. This was because of her CCA, Choir which took part in a competition last year plus their school’s anniversary celebrations. According to her, almost all, but not all members of the choir got the award.

Next week is the first common test for her, while for BB, it will be sometime towards the end of the month.

That’s all from us this week….

Parenting: Importance of Breakfast

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We all know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. We’ve also heard the adage “Breakfast like a king, Lunch like a common man and Dine like a pauper”. Breakfast which literally means breaking the fast between dinner and the morning is one meal which should not be missed.

 

There are reports from the Healthy Child website which say there are around 20 – 30% of teens who do not eat breakfast before going to school.

 

The first meal of the day is very important in providing energy to your teen for their activities in school. School work takes up a lot of mental energy and those who don’t fill up adequately before going to school may find their energy dwindling down before recess and a chance to eat food.

 

I am very particular that BB & GG eat something to fuel up before school and so far they’ve not disappointed me here. But somehow since school started this year, they both on different days would decide that they are full from the previous night’s dinner and so don’t want breakfast. Nothing I say would make them change their mind. It’s not because they sleep on and wake up late and so there’s time for breakfast. They are ready much earlier than S but would prefer to use their phones to eating, though on days when they do eat breakfast, they do both simultaneously.

I usually give BB & GG the analogy of a car with no fuel which can’t run for long on reserve fuel when they don’t want to eat breakfast before going to school. I also believe that without a healthy and hearty breakfast you will not be able to concentrate in class which will hamper performance in school. This is because those who miss breakfast lack the glucose which is needed for neurotransmitters to function properly in the body.

I sometimes suspect most teens (and BB & GG) skip breakfast as a way to reduce or control their weight. This tactic actually backfires on them as a study found that teens who ate breakfast daily had a lower Body Mass Index or BMI and gained less weight compared to those who skipped breakfast.

 

So this, in essence, is why breakfast is the most important meal in a day, not just for teens, but for everyone. Does your teen skip breakfast? What do you do to make him/her eat a good breakfast before school?