Me and mama discussed this several times and we are very very glad with how yy turns out as a child. We're not too sure how much he will remain the same but we do hope that he won't change too radically.
You see, yy's 5 years old this year and while I'm sure every parent would feel that their child is the best, to us, yy's really a very sensible child and we feel very blessed having him as our son, especially when we don't get a chance to see him everyday. Actually we only see him during weekends and holidays and most of the time, he's being brought up by pohpoh.
We understand from pohpoh that he's usually well-behaved but at times, he'll act the little tyrant. However, strangely, whenever yy's with us, he's usually at his best behaviour, especially with me (as I'm told) around. We think that it's good that one parent is an authoritative figure because all of us are worried of raising a spoilt brat. So papa's volunteered to be the "bad/stern" figure. But having said so, let me put on record that I am also his playmate. Normally, I'll be the one monkeying around, discussing movies/Transformers and teasing him. He'll always look for me (even at the Euro Fun Fair) but when it comes to bedtime, he'll always want to be with the missus :)
I've never raised my hand at yy (although I do admit smacking lightly his bottoms when he was a toddler at around 18 months but that was only once or twice!) but I do raise my voice when the occasion demands it. Whenever I raise my voice (usually in anger or in a fierce tone), yy's very much afraid. I don't enjoy making him afraid (I very much prefer him to be a happy go lucky child) and most of the time I am faking it but to yy, it's very real. So far, it was the right thing to do because yy's very well behaved and would not throw tantrums unlike some kids we see.
He's also very serious in his studies because I've indicated to him that he must study well. All of us could see that he took me very seriously. For example, every week, he has a spelling test and last month, he had difficulty distinguishing spelling "stamp" and "stump". Needless to say he didn't do very well. But I knew that he wanted my approval very much because just last week, I was very surprised to see him reciting to me the 2 words during one of my daily calls to him. I have not really thought about these 2 words but to my precious little yy, they meant a lot to him because he didn't want to disappoint me. I was touched and knew that whatever I said to him would meant a great deal.
In a way this is good because it means that yy's receptive to us guiding him when he's growing up, especially with us acting as a bulwark against bad and negative influences. But I also told myself and the missus that we must constantly remind ourselves to be aware that yy seeks our approval a lot and we must not put undue pressure to him.
Like what I told the missus last night, it's about balance. As parents, we need to bring him up well but yet need to give him the room to grow so that he can be the individual with the values we cherish but also be the person he was meant to be. I've seen in my short 2 years of work as a TP lecturer that some of my students were here in poly studying a course they disliked but they had to because their parents wanted them to do so. Needless to say, they usually ended up doing badly and I think it affected their morale and confidence. As a parent, I believe that their parents meant well but yet... I sympathise with these students. It's very difficult to do well in a course that one does not have interest in and I speak from experience...
Anyway, I digress. I'm writing this down because we want our beloved and precious yy to know that we love our one and only yy a lot and to let him know (when he eventually grows up and can read this blog) that we truly love him dearly. We want him to know that whatever we are doing, we want him to grow up as a good, loving and responsible adult with values we all cherish but at the same time grow up to be a person he's meant to be. Yangyang, papa and mama love you very very much!!!
The Botanic Gardens is a really beautiful park but unfortunately the weather though not too sunny was a bit too humid due to the lack of moving air or wind.
