To quote Ed Polish and Darren Wotz "The first 40 years of parenthood are always the hardest". Oh God... that long for the tree to start to bear fruit?? We should have raised a pair of kitties.. at least they don't stump you with the depth of their response:
Q: "Arissa, please share your teddy bear/dollhouse/kitchen set with Adik"
A: "Caaaaannnnooooot. See this one tajam (sharp), wait she hurt herself!"
..or annoy you with endless "WHY"s when you're trying to concentrate on her movie choice. In fact, our telly set is perpetually tuned to her channels/movies. So much so, we have to ask her permission to watch ours.
Hafidz: "Sha, Daddy wants to watch Daddy's movie ok? This one cerita hantu (ghost story)"
Fearsome Four: "Eh, cannot cannot. I tengah tengok (am watching) Charlie and Lola. Five minutes k?"
And we know 4-year olds have no concept of time, so 5-minutes means when the credits roll for Charlie and Lola- 1 for Arissa, 0 for the Dunce Daddy.
..But speaking of hard, I suppose hardiness is one of the characteristics one will eventually develop as a Parent of a young child. Especially when the kid(s) get to a stage where they learn to manipulate your soft spots and disciplining them becomes even more traumatic for the Parent(s) than the Child. Which is exactly what happened to Hafidz and I.
Did I mention she has become the pickiest eater in the history of modern Singapore? Of late, sometimes just rice and plain clear soup- no chicken, no fish, god-forbid fragments of vegetables should be sighted- will be allowed past her esophagus. We have tried reasoning, cajoling, bribing, persuading, sometimes even laying a good 'ole smack on the bottom but nothing works.
Then on Sunday past, I reached my limit and banished her to a newly-designated 'Naughty Chair' for secretly spitting her food underneath my wing chair (apparently a frequent occurrence at Mum's too- all that spitting out). We also left her behind with the Helper when we took our after-dinner stroll to the Pasar Malam nearby. When I got home, our Helper said she sobbed herself to sleep and promised "Tomorrow I will be a good girl, bibik".
But when tomorrow rang around, Mum reported to me that Fearsome Four only ate 4 spoonful of macaroni and chicken soup, one of her favourite dishes. I called out to her:
Me: Hana, you promised to be a good girl today right?
F4: Yes Mummy
Me: Did you eat a lot today?
F4: (hesitating) ..No..
Me: Why not?
F4: Beeeeecause Nenek masak tak sedap (because I don't like Nenek's cooking)
Seriously!!!! Its worse then governing a country.
