Tag Archives: Children

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!

What a Week…..TGIF…Really?

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This week’s kinda been a bit weird! We had a break right in the middle of the week and when I went in to work yesterday, it was with the feeling that it was Monday instead of Thursday. But today’s Friday and the weekend beckons! Not that this weekend’s gonna be anything but relaxing – think exams times two….


Wednesday was Diwali when the whole world has the excuse to hog like pigs! One of my friends said you start chewing in the morning and don’t end till night and he was right. But were all feeling the effects of the excesses and yesterday was a day of eating less and giving tummies a break!

This is me till Tuesday

BB and GG’s written final exams start today. They’ve done with the orals earlier this month and will have the written papers starting today with English, then Maths on Monday and rounding off the year’s examinations with Chinese on Tuesday. Then after another 10 odd days of school, they end the Primary 2 and get ready for Primary 3. Primary 3 is supposed to be a big jump from the ‘easy’ years of Primary 1 & 2. Science gets added to the mix now. I wonder how they they will cope, especially with Hindi! Got to keep the momentum going on even during the holidays.

Once the exams are done, I plan on cleaning the whole house, throwing out accumulated stuff that somehow seem to develop tendencies to give birth to more stuff! I want to do this before my helper leaves for her leave in December. Then it’s planning and shopping time for our trip to visit family in India in mid December. We’re all so looking forward to this. Another thing I hope happens in the next two months is me getting a new job and starting in a new place in the new year!
Got a lot to accomplish in the next two months. Wish me luck folks!

Before I was a Mom

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This is also from my previous blog and here I write it’s from a yahoo group I used to be part of (no longer as I don’t have the time). Update: I found a link here and the link has some more updates on the original author

Before I was a MOM

Before I was a Mom
I made and ate hot meals.
I had unstained clothing.
I had quiet conversations on the phone.

Before I was a Mom
I slept as late as I wanted
And never worried about how late
I got into bed.
I brushed my hair and my teeth everyday.

Before I was a Mom,
I cleaned my house each day.
I never tripped over toys
or forgot words to lullabies.

Before I was a Mom,
I didn’t worry whether or not my
plants were poisonous.
I never thought about immunizations.

Before I was a Mom,
I had never been pooped on,
Spit up on,
Chewed on,
Peed on,
Or pinched by tiny fingers.

Before I was a Mom,
I had complete control of myself;
My thoughts,
My body,
And my mind.
I slept all night.

Before I was a Mom,
I never held down a screaming child
so that doctors could do tests or give shots.
I never looked into teary eyes and cried.
I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.
I never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep.

Before I was a Mom,
I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn’t
want to put it down.
I never felt my heart break into a million pieces
when I couldn’t stop the hurt.
I never knew something so small could affect my
life so much.
I never knew that I could love someone so much.
I never knew I would love being a Mom.

Before I was a Mom,
I didn’t know the feeling of having my
heart outside my body.
I didn’t know how special it could feel
to feed a hungry baby.
I didn’t know that bond between a
Mother and her child.
I didn’t know that something so small
could make me feel so important.

Before I was a Mom,
I had never gotten up in the middle of
the night every ten minutes to make
sure all was okay.
I had never known the warmth,
The joy,
The love,
The heartache,
The wonderfulment,
Or the satisfaction of being a Mom.

I didn’t know I was capable of feeling so
much before I was a Mom.

And for anyone who’s not yet heard the mom song, here it is:

Shall I??

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On Tuesday evening after dinner, we went to visit my in-laws who live a 10-15 minute walk/5 minute drive. My Father In Law (FIL) has just been diagnosed with Lung Cancer and so we wanted to go meet him.

While coming back home, somehow, the topic of discussion went to the question of citizenship. S and the kids are all Singaporeans while I still retain my Indian passport. I really don’t know why I still have not taken the final step to get my red passport (A Singapore passport is red in colour, hence the line). BB & GG had a lot of questions as to why I did not change allegiances. Actually there is no great reason except for the fact when I could first do it, I was not ready mentally, maybe for sentimental reasons and so put it off. Now my re-entry permit expires in 2017 and so have time till then to swing either way. Actually, these days, I identify myself more Singaporean than Indian as the India I grew up in is not really in existence now. I just need to get a few things clarified the next time I go to Mumbai (legal stuff) and then I can take the final step towards renouncing my citizenship.

Like I told BB & GG, I am Singaporean in my heart – I stand up when Majulah Singapura is played (the Singapore national anthem) and recite the pledge with my right hand over my heart like the millions of Singaporeans and so it’s just formalities now.

In fact, here’s a short anecdote to illustrate this. Earlier this week, I was at an international school for an event. The chief guest was an Member of Parliament and while we were waiting, the school’s PA system asked the school to stand for the national anthem. I looked around and found everyone still sitting, so I got up and asked “Shouldn’t we stand” and then everyone stood up!

GG very categorically told me that I should become a Singaporean very soon just like her, BB and Daddy as we’re one family and everyone should be the same! So yeah, in the next two years, that’s a goal to reach!

One benefit of having a Singapore passport is leaving behind all the visa hassles I’ve had to undergo since coming here. Singapore citizens can travel visa free to many countries in the world, while Indians need a visa for practically every country. So this means impromptu trips will be more of a norm, rather than what we are doing now – which is planning and getting my visas everywhere we need to go!

Reminiscences

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Yesterday, I accidently clicked on my old blog which I used to host on Blogger. So I started reading my old entries. I started blogging way back in 2007 and was a very sporadic blogger, blogging a total of 62 blog posts over a two year period. Compare this with this blog now and I’ve sure come a long way.

In March 2007 when BB & GG were about 3.5 years old, I wrote the following post, and when I re-read it yesterday, I realised that 4.5 years later, it still held true..

Girls and Boys

Being the mom to a girl/boy pair of twins has certainly given me loads of food for thought. It’s quite fascinating to see how girls and boys behave under certain situations – given that the external environment is the same for them both. This brings to my mind the “Nature versus Nurture” theory that I learned in Psychology class way back in college. The gist of that theory is that “What determines a human being’s behaviour patterns? Is it his internal genetic make-up or is it the external factors which make a person what he/she is and how they behave?”

With the Pilot and Princess, I have always tried to be fair – I never made any distinctions between the two, especially in terms of gender specific toys and games. But surprisingly the age-old gender distinctions are very clear in our home. The Princess loves playing with her dolls and Barbie collections and the Pilot is vehicle mad. But there are some blurred spaces – the Princess likes to play with blocks and the Pilot with their little laptop (guess that is because it is a Ferrari model and all the games are car based).

But it is in temperaments that I am most surprised about. Contrary to perception that girls are made of ‘sugar and spice and all that is nice’, the Princess is the more assertive and dominating twin. The Pilot on the other hand easily gives in to his sister, but he is learning to be more assertive now. The Princess can shriek, rant and throw tantrums with the best of them and she is not afraid of anyone and anything. If we try to punish her, she probably will come back to me and I am really dreading her teens! The Pilot is more sensitive and a look from me is enough to make him back down.

It was fun to read old posts. I will trawl my old Blogger blog and put in posts that I feel are good to put here. There are some interesting posts about when BB & GG were little as well as other snippets!