getting ready for baby, how i pretend to be a cool mum, side effects of motherhood, unqualified parenting tips

Finally, a website dedicated to making more babies

Tomorrow’s a big day for anyone with kids, those trying for a kid, with a bun already baking in the oven, or wouldn’t mind having a kid in the near future, pretty much everybody, actually. Unless you’re 15 and not even allowed to have sex yet, then you probably want to skip this.

It’s going to be the launch of maybebaby.sg, a portal for couples, newlyweds and new parents. Sort of like a one-stop shop for all your babymaking and babycaring needs. I know every new parent’s best friend is Google, but sometimes it sends you on a wild goose chase to sites like this one when all you want to know is whether it’s normal for your boobs to be spraying milk. (BTW, it’s totally normal, and there, I totally answered your question. You’re welcome.) So that’s why it’s good to have a proper website dedicated to providing useful information for couples planning for a baby so you don’t have to sieve through all that information. There’s someone to do it for you.

If you’re the cynical sort and you’re all “I bet there’s some agenda for this website“, then you’re absolutely right. They’re on a mission to convince people to make more babies, which is like having your mom make up a song about how cool eating vegetables is because it’s good for you and you realize that you’re thankful because you don’t end up constipated for three weeks. Except making babies is way more fun than eating vegetables, so we all win.

And what do you know, having more babies is just so happens to be my goal in life, so you can say that we’re a perfect match. Also, I’m sadistic enough to enjoy watching people go through baby bootcamp. Anyway, starting tomorrow, I’ll be doing a weekly blog at maybebaby and you can find me there when I’m not here.

The launch event will be held at 2pm tomorrow at Wisma Atria and if you happen to be around the area, come by and say hi. Or you can just point and laugh. I’ll be sitting in front doing what I do best, which is looking thoughtful and nodding intelligently. See you tomorrow!

lists you should paste on your fridge, Truett goes to school

School Shopping 2.0

Speaking of learning, we’re on the hunt for schools again. The last time we did it was stressful to say the least. I called up every childcare centre near my place and visited quite a few until we finally found Emmanuel Playgroup, where Tru is attending now.

It fit everything we were looking for. They took Tru in at 18 months, which is admittedly a little young to start going to school (most places start at 24 months), but the great thing is that it doesn’t feel like an institution. The classes are small and cosy. The teachers are friendly and warm and awesome with kids. Plus, they really adore the kids, which in my books, is the most important thing I’m looking for.

Tru’s loving going to school, and he comes home with stories about his raisin adventure with Aunty Shirley. It would also be the perfect place to start Kirsten, who turns 18 months next Jan.

Thing is, they’re not going to continue the playgroup next year, so we’re back to school shopping again. This time, I’m starting early because some places have a waiting list for almost an entire year. It’s not fun to be desperately knocking on doors in December.

First off, here’s what we’re looking for.

1. Something for the 18-month old

Lots of the places I called only take in kids who are at least 2. Kirsten now looks on longingly as we drop Tru off at school every morning, wondering about all the fun that goes on beyond the bright red door and colorful walkway. And how incredible would it be to finally have 3 hours ALL TO MYSELF every morning? I’m already making a list of all the things I could do, like roller blading at East Coast, spa sessions, morning movies where I’ll be the only one in the whole cinema, real shopping…

2. Teachers that care

During the orientation tour, it’s hard to tell if the teachers are just doing it as job. Most of them will at least try to look like they care. So I get Tru to have a complete meltdown halfway through the tour just to see how they react. Some look genuinely appalled, others make a hasty getaway and then we find those that remain unfazed as they whip out a raisin to calm him down while proceeding with the tour. Also, I like to drop by when a class is in session to see how they interact with the other kids.

3. Decent enough environment

Ambience counts for a lot, actually. Kids seem to have an instinct for nicely decorated places. Ideally, there should be bright colors everywhere, with a place for water play and sand play. Tru’s only criteria is a nice playground (generally, the bigger, the better). He sees a playground and he goes ballistic because it’s his happy place. Which means I will make sure I find him a very happy place, if it’s the last thing I do.

4. Reasonable distance from my place

I don’t need to find a place at my doorstep but I’d prefer not to travel halfway across town just to drop them off at school. I’ve found some really great places but they are a good 30 minute drive away and coupled with morning traffic, I’d end up spending a lot of time in the car. I could perhaps go for somewhere near the husband’s office since I do drop him off in the morning so that would probably give me more options.

5. Not too pricey

If I just had one kid, I might even consider selling a kidney to fund his education (that’s how awesome of a mom I am), but with two kids, I can’t possibly sell both my kidneys. I hear that you need at least one to survive. And if I eventually have another two kids like I plan to do, I’d have no more organs left by the time I’m 35. Not a good plan at all.

There are several other things on our list but they’re not dealbreakers. Like how it would be nice to find a Christian place so that they learn to say grace and sing Jesus loves me. But we can teach them all that at home so it’s not that big a deal.

If you have any places to recommend, I would be much obliged. Then I can also buy you a cup of coffee and we can chill out while waiting for our kids to finish school. You can also drop me an email if you’re shy.

kids inc, stuff best described as not safe for parents, unqualified parenting tips

Boys and Girls

I’m no expert on parenting, evidently. Most of my ridiculous parenting theories are a direct result of watching too much TV and other even more useless videos on the Internet. Which is why I recommend that you take what I tell you with generous lumps of salt, if you haven’t already figured that out.

But once in a while, I get enlightened by the experts who actually have impressive degrees on early childhood education and I stop to listen. Then, I pass them along so that I can sound more credible than I actually am. After all, Motherinc is a *serious* resource for parenting and it is my goal to share these wonderful nuggets of wisdom.

You can stop snorting now, I can hear you.

No, really, today is one of those serious days. We’re going to talk about boys and girls. Specifically, their different learning styles because we all know that girls are far superior to boys in terms of sheer mental abilities. We can’t help that but what we can do is figure out a way to make learning as easy and effective as possible for everybody.

Of course, I’m going to introduce the expert to you now. Remember the time I sat down for a forum with Fiona Walker, the Principal Director of Julia Gabriel, and I became very well-acquainted with the mini sandwiches? She’s kindly offered to share her thoughts on topic. So, to summarize, here’s what we’ve got.

1. Girls have better listening skills and a more sensually detailed memory.

2. Girls have an advantage in the language arts.

3. Girls are biochemically less impulsive.

4. Girls generally use more areas of the brain for verbal and emotive functioning.

5. Girls are often better able to multitask, with fewer attention span problems.

Boys, well, they are basically the opposite. Ok, if you really want the details, the male brain is better suited for symbols, abstractions, diagrams pictures and objects moving through space. Boys learn by being physically active and can ‘switch off’ if faced with too much verbal explanation.

exactly what I'm talking about

If you ask me, you’re way more likely to get through to girls by explaining stuff. With boys, you need to keep your explanations to short grunts and hand gestures. Or you can bribe them with raisins to do your bidding.

I’m probably not doing justice to the original version so I’m going to just post the whole thing here and you can read it for yourself.

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