TGIF.... now breath!

Thank God it is Friday. Thank God it will be four days break. I was so exhausted. Adding Amri’s schedule to my already chaotic one was no joke! I think I need a maid, a driver and a personal assistant. We will be out of town from tomorrow to Tuesday. And it would be a nice break from school, seribadan and everything else in between.

Adam however, decided to give me a break after the hiding in bathroom incident. He even packed his own daycare bag, which I had to do spot checks just in case it includes smuggled items (VCD power rangers, my lipstick, icecream). And to answer eiseai question, I didn’t know what actually happened to Adam’s cheek. He came back from his evening ventures with bruised cheek and said his friend bite him. He seemed unconcerned so we just let it be. If it bothers him, we’ll have to hear about it for weeks so if he decided not to kick somebody ass about it, that was fine with us. It was just a tiny bruise, nothing like Amir though.

Amri had one of his tooth extracted a few days ago. It was loose for quite some time but Amri refused to let it go because it will make him look ugly. Well….he does looks ugly now, without one front teeth but fortunately took it pretty well. Most probably because it made brushing teeth and biting easier. He did not ask for handphone anymore as at today but decided to resume his pleading to let him cycle to school. He had been doing that since his second day at school.

The thing was, we made a mistake of saying that (then) he was not that skillful with bicycle. So, he decided to work on it. He practiced everyday, before and after school and all weekends. He was so into it that soon, the neighbours kids followed suit. Even our front neighbour, whom a bit overprotective with his 8 & 9 years old boys, let his boys cycle around with Amri. One week later, both boys chucked out their training wheel. So people, please avoid my street after 5.30pm because it seemed like all TTDI kids with bicycles, big and small, were all there. One good thing was that Amri get so good. I will just shut my eyes whenever he decided to show off his stunts. Duh! That was not the way it supposed to be. Anyway. We still did not allow him to cycle to school. For two reason actually. First, Amri now had pocket money so having a bicycle will enable him cycle to nearby grocery shop after school. I do not want that. Second, he’ll have to pass in front of secondary school. The traffic was terrible. Parents were parking their cars on the pavements meant for the pedestrian and bicycles. And parents who stop the car in the middle of the road once they spot their kids, never mind if there were other cars trailing behind. Also parents who made u-turn as and when needed. Plus those who reversed their car while chatting on mobile phone. So these primary school kids will have to zig zag in between the cars while keeping their eyes open for other possible errant drivers. Talk about teaching road manners to children. Yesterday, I saw a cute silver Swift backing into a girl. The girl fell from her bicycle but not injured. The Swift driver just drove off, uncaring. Didn’t even poke her head out of the window to check. No, I don’t think Amri is that street savvy.

So, sorry Amri. I know you are good but still, you are just 6. We’ll talk about this when you turn 8, okay. In the meantime, just bear with me as your driver.

Parenting 101 - Purchase Requisition

I was kind of expecting this request though. I knew it was coming, sooner or later. But Amri did take his time. About two months. So this afternoon, on the way to his school, Amri asked me whether he could have a mobile phone.

Whatever for, I asked.
Amri : So that Ibu wouldn’t be so mad at me for ‘borrowing’ your handphone.

Mind you, when he said ‘borrow’ it meant running away with my mobile phone. Twice. First time, he quietly slip my handphone into his Qiraati bag during our mad scramble for breakfast (read: ibu was running late for everything). Coincidently, on the very same morning, one of my instructors called in sick. Since no one pick up the call (Amri and handphone were already at Qiraati class), she sent me an SMS. Somehow, Amri deleted the SMS. Needless to say, I was fuming mad. Not only I turned the house upside down looking for my mobile phone, I also didn’t have a clue that my instructor wouldn’t be turning up that evening. Of course, Amri was grounded for that week. No bicycling for the week and no cartoon.

I thought it would put a stop to it. But it happened again. One sunny afternoon a few days ago, I noticed my handphone was again missing. Spent a few minutes checking inside my car and bag then decided to call my own mobile number. Unsurprisingly, the call was answered by Amri, with teacher’s calm voice and kids screaming at the background. Went to his school, straight to his class and demanded my handphone back. Asked the kindly English teacher if she could give a few stern words to Amri on my behalf (I doubted it, she doesn’t look stern enough), shot I-am-going-to-murder-you look to Amri and left, temper flared. Wouldn’t surprise if fire and smoke came out from my nostrils. I spent the rest of the day devising many ways of diciplining Amri. However, one hour of good workout at Seribadan later douched the fire. Plus looking at Amri’s sad face after being grounded again by his father. I decided just to have a good talk with Amri.
So help me God, I am a softie.

I am still wondering whether Amri should get his own handphone or not. Frankly, I think he is too young for it. He may be in Year 1 but he is, afterall, still a six year old boy. And acts/thinks like one. Plus, didn’t handphone a banned item at school? Though more than half of his classmates bring one. But they may need it for valid reasons, like missing their transport or the parents needs to let them know that they will be a bit late. Or the car was parked properly a few kilometres away (as if). I don’t really see a reason why Amri needs one either. He lives three minutes away from school, being sent and fetched by parents and has a mom who could reach his classroom in two minutes if she wants to. There was one day when hubby was waiting patiently for Amri at the back gate while Amri was waiting at the front gate and it was already 20 minutes after the bell rang. And his class teacher called me asking why Amri was still at school compound. Meaning that, there really was no reason to worry. Teachers were always there. And they had parents contact numbers listed somewhere.


So, this mom tells his son again to give her another good reason why he needs a mobile phone (in a no-nonsense accountant tone).
He said “ Untuk call ibu lah …. nanti Amri risau kalau tak cakap dengan ibu. Kalau ayah balik lambat, nanti ibu tak happy sebab ibu takde kawan nak sembang sembang. Kalau ada handphone, bolehlah ibu sembang dengan Amri”

Good enough reason?

I’ll leave it to hubby lah.

p/s: I was pleasantly surprised to see Amri’s classroom to have only about 30 something kids (or less). On registration day, it was 42 kids.

Parenting 101 gone awry

It was 10 minutes to 1pm and I was nagging Amri and Adam to hurry up and get inside the car. Amri to school and Adam to daycare. School started at 1.05pm and Amri had the tendency to wander off all over school before he actually arrived at his classroom. So needed to go earlier to satisfy that wanderlust. However, Adam was nowhere to be seen. I yelled for him but no one turned up. Checked his room and bathroom, he wasn't there. Not in guest room either. Checked my room and heard him singing from my bathroom. The door was locked. Asked him to come out because I needed to send Amri right now. He refused. I asked why. Because he didn't want to go to daycare. Promised him an ice cream if he come out now. He said no, thank you. Threaten to leave him home alone. He said, okay....bye! It was 1.02pm and I had no choice. Locked the door and leave a word with next door maid to keep an ear out for Adam. Sent Amri to school.

I was back 5 minutes later and found a dining chair near front door and Adam inside downstairs bathroom doing his big business. Asked Adam what the chair was doing there. He said, he wanted to take the keys to open the front door (plus grill) and go cycling but he needed to take care of his big business first. And could ibu please come in and wash his bottom because he was done now. I was speechless.

After putting his short pant on, Adam continued his interrupted activity. I simply watched because I needed to know how far could he go with the complicated lock and key. Amri was 5 when he figured out how to unlock that padlock. Adam was a bit advance I guess. He managed to unlock after a few minutes while singing Alif, Ba, Ta.... Somehow I got a feeling that this was not his first time.

Having succeeded the front door, he then proceeded for the gate. Which was easy peasy. It was auto gate and the switch was right beside the door. Since he was already standing on a chair, opening the gate was never a problem. Having passed his hurdles, he put the padlock and key properly on nearby coffee table and drag the dining chair back to its place. Grab his bicycle and went off. I allowed him a few minutes before putting my foot down and told him to get back inside the house. Lucky for me, it started to drizzle and Adam hurried back inside.

I was having pretty mixed feeling. First, proud that Adam was so brave staying alone, independant with his toilet business and clever with the locks. Second, scared of what would happened if I were to take longer than 5 minutes. What if Amri's school was 15 minutes away? what if Adam didn't need to answer nature's call? What if there was a fire? Or he slipped in the bathroom, or he could fell from the chair (well..that one happened everyday).

But still, a little bit of revamping is needed here. Say...a more complicated door access system? A combination of pin number and retina scanning maybe. A guard outside the gate? A key to all bathroom perhaps. Or just locked the keys in a safebox. Orang lain simpan jewelry, kita simpan keys :)

I couldn't help but felt a bit amazed at how Adam did his strategic planning. Of all the place in the house, he hide in my bathroom. The only place without key. Once locked from inside, there was no way I could enter, unless I wanted to try the old U days trick...use a card. But that was time consuming and I was not about to sacrifice my credit card.

While I am typing this entry, Adam was playing alone happily in his room. Singing, no less. And sticking Amri's dragonball stickers on his bedroom door. I bet Amri would be fuming mad when he get back from school this evening :)

Al Fatihah to adik Anis

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It happened at Amri's school. I just couldn't imagine how terribly sad the mom after the phone call from school. It was of course, Qada & Qadar but still, I couldn't help but wish that teachers are equipped with first aid training. Not just teachers, all parents should know about it.

I didn't know Anis's parents personally but I hope they are okay. Al fatihah to her.

I did occasionally get phone calls from Amri's teacher but they were mostly to complain that Amri was missing from his class. Now I think, any phone calls from school sure to make my heart miss a beat.