Deepavali - Pasir Ris
in nomine patri, et filii, et spiritui sancto amen
one thing i learnt is that kids remember what you tell them! so don't anyhow promise them anything ....
i was driving back home after dinner at the in-laws last night when i asked elise and eliza
me: hey, tomorrow's deepavali and its a holiday ... you guys wanna go out?
elise & eliza: yeah!
me: how about pasir ris park tomorrow morning? we can go cycling there?
elise 7 eliza: YEAH!
so that was it... except i was doing some work late into the nite that i hit the sack at 3am...
in what i felt was a nap instead of sleep, elise and eliza suddenly jumped on me and said "daddy, pasir ris park!" and i was like "OH NO!....can we not go? daddy's tired" and you know the answer right? elise & eliza: "NOOOOOO!... WE WANT TO GO PASIR RIS PARK!"
mama mia santa lucia ....
so i dragged meself up from bed and looked the clock .... and it was freaking 8.30am! so we changed and grabbed the bicycle and loaded it up onto the car and headed towards Pasir Ris Park.
we rode/walked towards the playground and elise and eliza started running towards the slides. after climbing and and sliding around, there was this other kid - around eliza's age - that had shovels; pails and rakes with him and he started digging on the sand at the playground and immediately elise and eliza started joining him.
the mother of the boy was quite nice when she said to me to let elise and eliza join in ... hey, you never know man... some parents are bloody ngeow ok?! so elise and eliza promptly too a shovel and rake and started topping a pail with sand and then pouring it out.... before long, more kids joined in and there were kids with trucks and lorries that were quickly filled with sand....
i was observing that they were filling and pouring the sand out ... and i was like "isn't this madness and a waste of time?" ... then it struck me that that though i thought it was silly, there was a geniuine sense of joy pervading EVERY kid that was playing at that playground.... and what hit me most was the simplicity and contentment that each and every kid felt.... that the world was such a beautiful place to them.... they with sand all over themselves and their toys and their parents watching over them intently....
hhmmm... must be what God is doing watching over the PARENTS...watching over their kids.... time sort of just stood still and life at that point was at its majestic best! amen
we hung around till 12+ and then we went to a foodcourt at White Sands to have lunch.... and there the wife and i observed this scene:
at the next table was a family of 4 and the father had just finished his lunch and simply stood up and told the wife to hurry up ... the wife stood up and their daughter did so as well and they started making their way towards the exit..... all this when the son was still eating, guess he must be a slow eater or really enjoyed his mee pok and it was just surreal to see the parents just walking off and leaving the son behind to quickly swallow his food and gulped down his drink ... and then run after his parents and sister!
the wife and i looked at each other and then shook our heads as we thought about the same thing .... can't they just wait for the boy?! ... is it so hard to just be there for him to finish?! jia lat man!
so anyway, we finished lunch and walked around what is a mini mall that's White Sands and then we headed home
then i promised to fixed up the computer so that there is wireless internet access for elise and eliza and yeah! i did it ... not before asking elise and eliza to "stop!", "don't touch this!"; "don't touch that" .... sigh ... maybe i better read bishop fulton sheen's book on children again.
bishop sheen said one way of parenting is instead of saying "no" all the time, we should instead ask the child whether he/she should be doing what he/she is doing......as this will encourage and train the child to make choices and decisions.... instead of us enforcing our will on them by saying "no" to them all the time.... we as parents often underestimate the power of reasoning and thinking skills in a child ..... and asking good and prompting questions will help the child understand his/her action more.
a child that makes understands the choice on what to do is more likely to remember it than one that is told to do it by the parent ... that is the gist of bishop sheen's teaching.
got the wireless up and elise and eliza left me and mommy with some peace as they started their fun with the gang from Sesame Street; Dora the Explorer and Bob the Builder!
and that passes another day with my loved ones.
in nomine patri, et filii, et spiritui sancto amen
one thing i learnt is that kids remember what you tell them! so don't anyhow promise them anything ....
i was driving back home after dinner at the in-laws last night when i asked elise and eliza
me: hey, tomorrow's deepavali and its a holiday ... you guys wanna go out?
elise & eliza: yeah!
me: how about pasir ris park tomorrow morning? we can go cycling there?
elise 7 eliza: YEAH!
so that was it... except i was doing some work late into the nite that i hit the sack at 3am...
in what i felt was a nap instead of sleep, elise and eliza suddenly jumped on me and said "daddy, pasir ris park!" and i was like "OH NO!....can we not go? daddy's tired" and you know the answer right? elise & eliza: "NOOOOOO!... WE WANT TO GO PASIR RIS PARK!"
mama mia santa lucia ....
so i dragged meself up from bed and looked the clock .... and it was freaking 8.30am! so we changed and grabbed the bicycle and loaded it up onto the car and headed towards Pasir Ris Park.
we rode/walked towards the playground and elise and eliza started running towards the slides. after climbing and and sliding around, there was this other kid - around eliza's age - that had shovels; pails and rakes with him and he started digging on the sand at the playground and immediately elise and eliza started joining him.
the mother of the boy was quite nice when she said to me to let elise and eliza join in ... hey, you never know man... some parents are bloody ngeow ok?! so elise and eliza promptly too a shovel and rake and started topping a pail with sand and then pouring it out.... before long, more kids joined in and there were kids with trucks and lorries that were quickly filled with sand....
i was observing that they were filling and pouring the sand out ... and i was like "isn't this madness and a waste of time?" ... then it struck me that that though i thought it was silly, there was a geniuine sense of joy pervading EVERY kid that was playing at that playground.... and what hit me most was the simplicity and contentment that each and every kid felt.... that the world was such a beautiful place to them.... they with sand all over themselves and their toys and their parents watching over them intently....
hhmmm... must be what God is doing watching over the PARENTS...watching over their kids.... time sort of just stood still and life at that point was at its majestic best! amen
we hung around till 12+ and then we went to a foodcourt at White Sands to have lunch.... and there the wife and i observed this scene:
at the next table was a family of 4 and the father had just finished his lunch and simply stood up and told the wife to hurry up ... the wife stood up and their daughter did so as well and they started making their way towards the exit..... all this when the son was still eating, guess he must be a slow eater or really enjoyed his mee pok and it was just surreal to see the parents just walking off and leaving the son behind to quickly swallow his food and gulped down his drink ... and then run after his parents and sister!
the wife and i looked at each other and then shook our heads as we thought about the same thing .... can't they just wait for the boy?! ... is it so hard to just be there for him to finish?! jia lat man!
so anyway, we finished lunch and walked around what is a mini mall that's White Sands and then we headed home
then i promised to fixed up the computer so that there is wireless internet access for elise and eliza and yeah! i did it ... not before asking elise and eliza to "stop!", "don't touch this!"; "don't touch that" .... sigh ... maybe i better read bishop fulton sheen's book on children again.
bishop sheen said one way of parenting is instead of saying "no" all the time, we should instead ask the child whether he/she should be doing what he/she is doing......as this will encourage and train the child to make choices and decisions.... instead of us enforcing our will on them by saying "no" to them all the time.... we as parents often underestimate the power of reasoning and thinking skills in a child ..... and asking good and prompting questions will help the child understand his/her action more.
a child that makes understands the choice on what to do is more likely to remember it than one that is told to do it by the parent ... that is the gist of bishop sheen's teaching.
got the wireless up and elise and eliza left me and mommy with some peace as they started their fun with the gang from Sesame Street; Dora the Explorer and Bob the Builder!
and that passes another day with my loved ones.
in nomine patri, et filii, et spiritui sancto amen
posted by ernie | 11:34 PM
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