TEENAGER
My daughter will officially become a teenager on August 19. With the blink of an eye, 12 years has gone by.
We were first introduced inside a lift in SJMC as she was being pushed in a trolley from the Operation room to the Nursery at another level. She looked at me with tired open eyes – a sign of recognition as I introduced myself. She was a skinny little infant. All wrinkles and bones but bore a striking resemblance to her daddy when he was a child. Within months, with all the baby formulae and feedings, she piled on the baby fats. Not the prettiest of baby and was constantly mistaken for a baby boy. Then she took her first step before turning 1, by-passing the crawling stage. She would greet us when we came home in the evening – all excited, griping the grille door with her hands and jumping up and down though yet unable to talk. Education at home started early with all the illustrated cards, story books and bedtime stories followed by drawing and music class, swimming lessons and everything that her mother can think of.
Age 3-6 to the kindergarten days were the cute years. Then the Filipina maid ran away and daycare commenced. There were adaptation pains and lots of tears fitting into various daycare centers. Soon after, primary schooling started. These were long 12 hour days. Days of happy reunion at the bottom of the stairs after school each evening when she was in Primary 1. Night became homework time for both the parents and the child. Though she had a talent for drawing, she was extremely lazy when it came to coloring and there were lots of coloring work to be done by the father.
There were occasional resentments from her for being the only child. I reminded her that raising her alone is already a handful and a 24-7 job. I could not imagine if we have to cope with 2 brats in the house.
Puberty set in during Primary 5 and she sprouted out in all directions. She grew from size 4 to size 7 within a matter of months. All of sudden we have this grown child in the house who is always asking what is for dinner to night? And now in another couple of weeks, she is going to turn into a TEENAGER with raging hormones.
The subject of parenting is never taught in school or in the University. There is no standard text book to refer to. So this calls for some urgent research in the internet. Articles with a title like “How to deal with your teenager for IDIOTS” might help. Or maybe something like “Parenting 101” or even “The appropriate punishments for Teenager”. Whatever it is I need to come up with a new Operation Manual.
31 July 2009
We were first introduced inside a lift in SJMC as she was being pushed in a trolley from the Operation room to the Nursery at another level. She looked at me with tired open eyes – a sign of recognition as I introduced myself. She was a skinny little infant. All wrinkles and bones but bore a striking resemblance to her daddy when he was a child. Within months, with all the baby formulae and feedings, she piled on the baby fats. Not the prettiest of baby and was constantly mistaken for a baby boy. Then she took her first step before turning 1, by-passing the crawling stage. She would greet us when we came home in the evening – all excited, griping the grille door with her hands and jumping up and down though yet unable to talk. Education at home started early with all the illustrated cards, story books and bedtime stories followed by drawing and music class, swimming lessons and everything that her mother can think of.
Age 3-6 to the kindergarten days were the cute years. Then the Filipina maid ran away and daycare commenced. There were adaptation pains and lots of tears fitting into various daycare centers. Soon after, primary schooling started. These were long 12 hour days. Days of happy reunion at the bottom of the stairs after school each evening when she was in Primary 1. Night became homework time for both the parents and the child. Though she had a talent for drawing, she was extremely lazy when it came to coloring and there were lots of coloring work to be done by the father.
There were occasional resentments from her for being the only child. I reminded her that raising her alone is already a handful and a 24-7 job. I could not imagine if we have to cope with 2 brats in the house.
Puberty set in during Primary 5 and she sprouted out in all directions. She grew from size 4 to size 7 within a matter of months. All of sudden we have this grown child in the house who is always asking what is for dinner to night? And now in another couple of weeks, she is going to turn into a TEENAGER with raging hormones.
The subject of parenting is never taught in school or in the University. There is no standard text book to refer to. So this calls for some urgent research in the internet. Articles with a title like “How to deal with your teenager for IDIOTS” might help. Or maybe something like “Parenting 101” or even “The appropriate punishments for Teenager”. Whatever it is I need to come up with a new Operation Manual.
31 July 2009
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