Sunday, May 9, 2010

Good Mothers Don't Do Such Thing?

I was watching Oprah today, tribute on mother's day, how this mother named Brenda left her 2 year-old daughter at the back seat of her MPV for 8  hours and eventually killed her as she suffered from heat stroke, her skin was peeling and her mouth had produced white foam.  How could a mother forget her own child?  Does that make her a bad mother?  Are we the best judge to say that she is incapable of taking good care of her kids?  Apparently not, turned out she is such a loving and a caring mom who was just unlucky that this mishap could happen to her.

Brenda a career woman who leads such a hectic life, on top of her demanding job, she goes home to attend to her 2 small kids, cooks and cleans the house.  That day, there was a slight change to her routine.  Usually it was the husband's job to send the kids to the sitter, however, on that tragic day he had a dental appointment that morning so the duty was shifted to Brenda.  The child was still asleep when she picked her up and put her into the backseat of her car.  As it was way too early to send the child to the sitter, she decided to get some stuff as  she normally did, she reached her workplace, began unloading her stuff and as she held a very demanding job she had totally forgotten the baby who was still asleep, left in the car.  She felt something was amiss but couldn't put what into it until it was almost 4 pm when everybody was about to go home when a friend suddenly came running to her saying that she has left her baby in a car.  She knew then it was too late.  She was traumatized by the whole incident, all the time blaming herself and it didn't help either when society started pointing to her and call her a bad mother.  She then lead a solitary life for a year before she finally agreed to be interviewed by Oprah on what had actually happened on that day.  In her interview with Oprah, what caught my attention was when she said 'good mothers don't do such thing'.

This incident could happen to anybody, am guilty of that too.  Mondays are usually my busiest day,  I usually get home at 5.30 pm after my orchestra practices.  There was this one Monday early this year, I had to attend to so many things, can't remember what they were.  I remember that day being unfocus as my mind wondered to too many things that required my attention.  At that period, Hilman has to undergo a few sessions of therapy on a daily basis.  As the centre closed at 6.30 pm, I rushed to get home to pick up Hilman and my mother.  Parking in that area was horrendous, after making a few rounds I told my mom to get down first.  I think after almost 15 minutes, I found a spot which was about 100 metres away from the centre.  I quickly went down, ran to the centre to secure my son a place when my mother asked me where Hilman is.  I could feel my blood draining as I have totally forgotten about Hilman left on the backseat of my car.  I ran back to the car and I could see him sweating and crying at the top of his lungs. I quickly grabbed him into my arms, showering him with kisses and whispering sweet nothings to his ear.  I was so thankful that he was alright.  But I felt really bad.  I was a bad mother who have failed to protect and to care for my kid.  And when I got back to the centre, I could see people shaking their heads, 'tsk'ing me and went 'how could she forget her own baby?'.  The feeling was awful as I could not defend myself as I was truly guilty.

So when I was watching Oprah this afternoon, I could relate to Brenda, and I believe I am not alone, I bet there are other mothers out there too who have experience quite similar situation too, like forgetting to pick up their kids from school, tuition or the child suddenly went out of our sight.  I am not justifying myself, what I did was definitely wrong and intolerable but actually there are many factors contribute a mother to such act.

Being a mother is one tough job, as she has to oversee to almost everything, people expect a mother not to lack in her job, there is no room for mistake, though many of us try to achieve to be the perfect mother, at the end of the day there is no such thing as a perfect mother.

So to all mothers out there, I advise you, maybe to slow down a little, take time to breathe and we can only achieve certain things at a certain time, we make mistakes, the most important thing is to pick up the pieces and learn from the mistakes we made.  After all we are all human, we are bound to make mistakes.

Happy Mother's Day!!!!

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

People Change

I was looking at my ex-high school friends photos and I was thinking to myself how I will never fit into the party.  I felt sad (no, not sad, I'm not sure what I'm feeling) but there's this tight knot feeling in my stomach that I cannot actually express what the feeling is.  Am I making any sense here?

You know it is the kind of feeling you get when you remember how close you were with these people, how you laughed, fought, cried, shared your secrets and how so much in common you had with these people, how you used to have so much to talk about and suddenly now you feel that there is a distance in your relationship with them, how these people once you called your good friends are now in a different league than you are.

Now that I am more matured than I used to be, I feel that when some people say they have never changed doesn't really mean good news to me,  because I cringe now when I see my thirty year old friends talk or dress like they are still eighteen, how they still talk about fashion and still get excited about men, how the still go partying at night whereas I mull over mundane things like what to cook for dinner, how to be a good mother/wife or how to raise obedient children. Maybe I have changed so much and I am now no longer a fun person to hang out with.

Just a couple months back, I had the opportunity to bump into another of one my closest high school friends through facebook and how ecstatic I was when we decided to meet over a cuppa.  Here I was jumping to the idea of finally meeting my good old friend but the meeting felt so strange as it turned out that we didn't have nothing much to talk about. We had some awkward moments as we did not have an expanded conversation, the silence was uncomfortable that I just couldn't wait to finish off my coffee and bid my farewell.  I am not sure what has happened to us, but she sounded bitter, she has all the not-so-nice thing to say about other people, the country, the law, the kids school, the husband basically about everything and the injustice that is happening around the world and that just killed my mood. In other words, I cannot utter a single thing without her having some negative remarks to make, in less than half an hour she somehow has managed to change the happy-go-lucky me into a pessimistic, unhappy and ungrateful being.  From that moment onwards, we no longer chat in facebook and I try my best not to cross her path.  It is funny come to think of it how I used to enjoy her company, a person I used to run to when I have anything to share.

Whatever it  is those mentioned above are just a few of them as I am still blessed with wonderful friends around me.  I am ME when I am with them and I like the ME in me when I am in their company.  Darn!  Pardon me, if I still don't make any sense here as this is the ME that I am referring about.  Get me?

Ahak ahak.  Have a good day.

Saturday, April 24, 2010

The Prize Giving Ceremony

It is nice to be acknowledged by the school leavers, though only a handful them came to meet and greet me, it was a wonderful feeling....to be remembered!!!

So today was the prize-giving ceremony known as MPPH in my school (Majlis Penghargaan dan Penyampaian Hadiah).  Seeing the ex-Form 5s who came with such dazzling outfits, stilletos clad to their feet, immaculate make up, designer handbag, up-to-date electronic gadgets,  put my image in my humble baju kurung and the usual eyeliner and lipstick me with shabby looking shoes and handbag to shame.  Oh my! How they  have grown to beautiful, matured looking ladies and pursuing courses that I have never known existed, made me swell with pride.  Last year's Form 5s have made us proud and I do miss them  mostly  my orchestra members.

The ceremony went well I would say, my orchestra girls played really well and many commented they were good and I am relieved and looking at my principal's face who was wide smiling and gave us a thumb's up made me proud, all the hard work really paid off.  I am happy to announce that I have such pleasant girls in my club, though they often get shelling from us the teacher advisors, they never keep grudges and they are helpful to one another.  There is lots of work to be in orchestra but they are not whiners and I am content.

Thank you girls for a wonderful performance.  We have one more major event to think of the Inter-School String Orchestra Competition on the 17th of July...please make us proud of you again!!!

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Long Overdue Post -Months of Birthdays

Aaaahhhh.....choooo!!! Fuh my blog is dusty indeed, cobwebs galore...

The month March and April are months of birthdays in this family.  It kicked off with Dhaniyah's 4th birthday on the 5th of March, my second brother's birthday on 14th of March, Hilman's 18th of March, my nephew and niece on 21st of March, my mom on the 22nd, mine 4th of April, my sis-in-law, Juliana on the 10th of April, my son Nabil 13th of April, my dad on 14th of  April and my eldest sis-in-law's birthday on the 28th of April.  So basically memang kenyang makan kek jelah.


This year Hilman's birthday fell on school holiday, we took the opportunity to celebrate his birthday in Melaka.  Hubby managed to get good rate for a villa there and we had a blast.  We had a lot of fun. As the villa came with a swimming pool, the kids had a good time, jumping in and out of the pool as in which and when they wish.  The party was supposed to be by the pool side but since the weather was hot, we changed the venue to be indoor.  On the way to Melaka, we bought KFC and we brought some kuih and a birthday cake which I ordered from Kak Yani the Kitchen Guardian.  Since my good friend is also living in Melaka, we invited her to come and join in the celebration.  The whole family came, they brought along their swimming suits, the children didn't waste much time, changed into their swimming attire and within minutes all the children are in the pool accompanied by the fathers, while mothers watching by the sidelines. Shouts and laughter could be heard and it was a wonderful sight.  Thank you Ila for making up the crowd.

                                          The children having a whale time

                                           Happy Birthday Hilman.

The next day we went to the Animal Safari, we love going here as the place is clean and we love watching the shows.
                                            

                                               During the bird show

                                         
                                                              The elephant ride

                                          The boat ride to the monkey island
                                       



                                Aina and Nabil volunteered for the elephant show


That same night we went to Cowboy town, the kids loved the parade but no photos were taken because we had our hands full carrying Hilman and Dhaniyah who were afraid of the fireworks.

The next day, we went to the Extreme Park, the kids tried the go-kart while we tried doing the archery.

             They almost gave us heart attack when they went 'vroom vroom'. They were fast.
My first time doing archery, I did pretty well, I scored 22 points over 100 not badlah at least my arrows ada jugak yang kena the board apa...


We truly enjoyed our stay in the A'Famosa villa and I highly recommend it to other big families like us, we took the 3 bedded room and each room came with a one queen size bed and a single bed, so it was spacious and comfortable.

On the 13th of April was Nabil's 8th birthday, we didn't do anything much but he brought cupcakes to school to be shared with his classmates.



My son the die-hard Liverpool fan.  Photo courtesy of Kitchen Guardian, the person who made my son the happiest boy on his birthday.

He was happy with the cuppies and he declared himself the most popular boy in his school that day as many of his friends admiring the cakes and commented how tasty it tasted too.

Well, above are some interesting events that have been happening and worth sharing for the past one month.  Other interesting stuffs were the kids sports day, my birthday, mom's, dad's birthday but no photos accompanying so malaslah nak report.


Cheerio! More later, perhaps?!!! ahak ahak.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Alamak! How should I React to This?

You know when people commented "Waaa..you have 3 girls ah? Pening ah nanti."  I didn't actually comprehend what they are trying to say.  To me nurturing children is one tough and challenging task and I do not think having different genders children would make much of a difference.

And I always hate it those people who read about social ills in the newspaper or listen to the immoral acts of todays teenagers and went 'Nasib baik aku takde anak perempuan'.  What is that supposed to mean? What are you trying to say here? That all the things happening are all women's fault because it is visible to us and it is ok for men to have such bad behaviour because the parents tak payah tanggung malu sebab orang tak nampak if the child ter'pregnant'.

  What I want to stress here is please do not make such gender bias kind of comment, it is the man who is supposed to protect us the woman who apparently by nature dijadikan sebagai kaum yang lemah and not to take advantage of us.  We are born with 9 nafsu and 1 akal whereas the men have 1 nafsu and  9 akal and kalau ikut maths pun 9 is such a big number and logically is able to kawal the 1 nafsu tu betul tak? I think it is just  simple maths. Budak darjah 1 pun boleh identify that 9 is a lot lot more than 1.

So basically what I want to say here is that because we are so used to hear such comment, I believe it makes the men to become less and less responsible because society is condemning only the girls and not the boys.  How is that fair? What we should say is, we all should take care of our kids and make sure this thing does not happen to us and not put all the blame only to one gender- the girls.

Alright actually what I want to write is not about the issue above but how my 10 year old daughter has been getting attention from the other species and I am not sure how I should I deal with it.  You know when our kids were young we beamed when people praised them but now that she has slightly grown up and starts to develop some curves, I no longer appreciate the praise that she gets from the male species, grown men.  The other day, when we were in pasar malam I told her to get the 'keropok lekor' while I buy the veggies at the next stall. The guy manning the stall started to strike a conversation with her, making jokes and whatnot and I got worried and that was not the first time it happened, there was one time that a guy selling burgers was busy asking her name and phone number, luckily she was smart enough not to 'layan' these people.  These people could be harmless but it sure got me worried.  Am I overreact?  It is difficult now to get her to help buying things because she will bring this kind of distraction and I definitely do not welcome it.

Not only that, the other day, I happened to read her messages in her inbox.  I wasn't snooping it's just that she told me to help with her FV.  This boy confessed his love to my girl 'Aina please love me'.  I got the shocked of my life, I asked her and she went 'I hate it Ibu, please delete the message.'  The next day he wrote 'why are you not responding to me, is it because you love someone else?' and she went 'Issh Ibu gila ke apa budak ni?' She told me to delete the message but not until I replied to the message 'I am still young to think about love, can we be friends instead?' just because I was told he is such nice and a polite boy by her friends.  He's not bad-looking too as he comes from a mix parentage, the mom is a 'minah salleh' ok, actually he's a hunk.

So yesterday when she was in the car with me, I asked about the boys in her school and she went 'semua kawan jelah Ibu and I'm not sure kenapa that boy tulis macam tu because I have never talked to him, he was my classmates last year tapi tak pernah cakap pun but the girls adalah usik cakap S is in love with me.'  And I asked 'Dia pandai tak?' and she went "pandailah jugak, he is in the second class, I'm in third class' and I went 'he is good looking and clever, oklah tu Aina' and she went 'Apalah Ibu ni, Aina taknaklah, mengarutlah Ibu'.  Ahh...what a relief! to hear her answered like that as I am not sure how am I supposed to react to that if she too develops the same feeling for that boy?

Oh Aina you still my baby, my little girl tau, don't think about boys yet until you are 25 ok?

Monday, March 8, 2010

Being Sick Is Awful

Is it age or is it the virus?  The kids are sick, my 3 younger ones are down with fever last Wednesday, the worst is Dhaniyah, her once chubby cheeks have now shrunken, she has lost her appetite, she doesn't take her milk as often and she cried during her birthday celebration as she was actually unfit to attend school, Dhaniyah is still unwell and she's not attending school today,  Khairina is recuperating, fever gone but she has a slight cough, Hilman is still coughing but he has shown slight improvement.

I had fever too on Saturday and it was awful, is it age factor, the weather or the virus? The fever made my whole body ached, my head spinning and my feet felt like pins and needles everytime I had to put my feet on the ground. I have slight temperature today, I still feel dizzy and it sucks, the normal fever which usually takes 2 days to recover now it drags to 3 days, I want to blame the latter but I guess age is playing a factor too and the lack of exercise I believe is the main factor making my whole body so weak and fragile.  It's a sign to start exercising and should consider to use the Wii Fit that is still sitting in the box, oh don't get me wrong, it is being put to good use, unfortunately not from me but by Nuraina who does her cheerleading routine using the Wii Fit and she has been losing quite a number of calories based on the record shown on the Wii Fit.

Ok, I feel quite dizzy now and would like to take a nap while Hilman is asleep, so take good care of yourself, try to stay indoor as much as you can because the weather is super-hot nowadays and talking about which  Hilman is developing this heat rash all over his body and it is difficult as he is asthmatic he can't be in air-conditioned room for too long, he is allergic to sweat so what should I do? 'Fening, fening'.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

My Dhaniyah

This 5th of March, marks my Dhaniyah her 4th birthday. Dhaniyah a very entertaining girl, she has many stories to share, has a wide laugh and kuat merajuk at times.  Dhaniyah is well-liked in school by her teachers and friends and she is the tallest in her class.

To my Dhaniyah, happy birthday dear
Ibu, Abah, Kakak Aina, Abang Nabil, Kakak Nina and Hilman love you so so very much.