Inspired by Kids..

You know it takes a lot of 'EVERYTHING' to live with kids..
if I have to count the 'Everything', i think i can blog for ages..

Well.. while it is, i can think of the following:

1. Patience. It is priceless

When En keeps demanding for a spoilt CD to be played, or when Xuan keeps crawling to the dustbin, it takes one tonnes of patience not to shout at them, and to keep taking Xuan away from the dustbin everytime he is near it.

2. Humor. It is the Armour to protect your Sanity.

Imagine having to put up with the following bizarre scene after returning from work one evening.

En: Eat hand, Papa Eat hand.
Papa: I don't want to eat hand. No.. no.*shrinking away from En's hand*
En: Papa, eat hand, eat hand! *thrusting his hand towards Papa's mouth*
papa: dun want, dun want to eat hand..
En: *stamping his feet and tearing, erupting into a tantrum* EAT HAND, Papa EAT HAND!
And so it went on for 15 minutes or so.

And there i was on the opposite sofa, rolling with laughter and unable to comprehend where En got his masochistic tendency from. There is just no other way of responding to such bizarre situations.

3. Self Sacrifice. To achieve a reasonable compromise.

It is a struggle to live your old life as it is without a compromise.
Something's got to give in the previous hectic life to cope with the kids' endless demands.

After a while, we just don't really feel it anymore.
And it makes us cherish what we can have or still hang on to.

4. Generosity. To be able to accommodate and overcome the huge doses of guilt.

We always feel guilty about something with the kids.
About not spending enough time.
Not stimulating them enough.
Not reading enough stories with them.
Not being more tolerant or more patience towards their antics.

The list goes on.. everyday, there is something to feel guilty about.
In order to live with the guilt, we need to be generous enough with ourselves to be able to forgive ourselves.

5. Ultimate Love.

It takes a lot of love to be able to withstand the kids' antics and still find joy in them.
It requires great love to be able to resolve whatever angry feelings that arise in us because of the kids, and to overcome them and love them as much as before, without any scars to the relationship.

And with 2 kids, it takes a lot of love to be able to love them equally. really equally, and without a tinge of comparison between the 2 of them. I am still trying to master that, and eventually I believe I will do it.

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And now that I have kids, I am very inspired to make every festivity an occasion for them.
Something that they will recall years down the road.
Something that is meaningful and nostalgic for them.

With the upcoming Chinese New Year, I am really inspired to do various stuff to make the occasion as joyous and festive as it can be.

hence, it is true that when one has kids, they make you try to be a better person, or simply aspire to be better for them. And every event is an opportunity to plant a seed in their memories, something that they will keep with them all their lives.

thus is the strange dynamics as a family.
And I am only made more aware of that now that I am a parent myself.