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Exhausted

Honestly, taking care of a baby is exhausting work. Little things like getting her a cup of water means having to walk to the kitchen, pour 3/4 of cold water and 1/4 of warm water, getting a spoon and then walking back to the living room to feed her - multiply these by 8-10 time a day and the multiply it for other chores - bathing her, pacifing her to sleep, going out to buy lunch/bfast, washing the cups, stelirizing them, doing the laundry, running up and down and up and down.....(a bad point of staying in a double storey house) .................. gosh! no time to even rest, watch TV, play PC, etc. I think this is like a ritual all parents have to go through.

And after all these gruelling effort, we would be so used to work/activity that we don't need rest/sleep. Have you ever wondered why your parents seemed to wake up at 6am on weekends when they could sleep in? Now I know why .. coz you get things done while the baby/children is asleep! And I also know why my parents does not go for movies.. after a while, you just lost touch with these and therefore, losing interest.

This CNY, people asked me when are we planning another one. I am afraid, very afraid to answer... ha ha...

Actually I have a point to make in this post.

See, both my parents worked. When I was young, I was sent to a babysitter. My father would pick me up about 5.30pm and then we would go home and I spent time with my parents. I recalled my childhood having a special 2 hour TV watching time with the family. We would get ready snacks, made tea, and just sit back and relax while we feast our eyes on the latest TVB drama series.

We would go to bed at about 9pm or 10pm.

But now, despite having cleaners coming over in the weekend to iron and to clean the house, Anne and I can't even have a family time. We were just too exhausted. We reached home about 7pm and after some house chores (boil water, cook rice, wash lil sen up) and then dinner, we would just hang out in the room with little sen. By then, it would already be 9.30pm. I would feel so drained of energy.

I tend to believe this is because of work in the office. Have you notice that people are working later these days compare to our fathers' time? There's just so much work piled on a person. With all these regionalization and companies investing in Malaysia, the situation is getting worst. Anne's company is embarking on a regionalization path where her Malaysia office is now the regional accounting center for ASEAN. That means, people in other country are losing their job. But it also means people in this country who has job is being asked to do MORE task.. for probably the same pay. Where are we heading?

The way I see it, while we may have a lot of jobs, therefore more opportunities, we are actually losing our quality of life. Traffic situation can only get worse when there are more people who has job and need to drive. People are always on the rush. You ever notice how impatient drivers here are. Many would just overtake when they can't stand the 'slower' driver in front. Have we ever stopped to think - what are we rushing for?

If it is for a better life, shouldn't we be spending more time with the children? Or shouldn't we have more time for ourselves? Why are we spending more time outside than with the family?

Food for thoughts eh?

Comments

  1. hmm...how come you still have not settled down into a routine? living in a big house is a tough when you don't have a maid. Don't think about it too much, just enjoy sen....

    ReplyDelete
  2. Parenting is about making sure you prepare your child to face the world eventually. What exactly does that mean? It means you need to provide a balance environment and interactions so the baby will recognize, grow and develop.

    How do you do it? Few factors are involved, like environment settings, healthy food, interactions with caregivers, and definitely discipline using authoritative method!

    There are a lot of things to write however, you can always ask Dr Kiasu Ching!

    ReplyDelete

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