The Ironies of Life

We don't always end up doing what we planned to do. Agree?

Sometimes, we even end up doing things we thought we wouldn't choose to do all our lives!

OK. I am talking about myself.

When I was pregnant with my first child, I told a colleague that I would not stop working.

My verdict was that I wanted my children to "see" me working.
To "see" me as a financial contributor.
So they would value money.
So they would know and understand that money comes from hard work.
Or, so they would be eager to earn money for themselves.
So this and so that...

On the contrary, this particular colleague was me telling that her future hubby preferred her to be a stay-at-home mom. Her hubby thought it was better for the children if they grow up under their mother's care.

Fast forward... a year after our conversation...

I QUIT MY JOB.

My hubby was assigned a 4-week business trip to Europe and he asked if I wanted to join him. At first, I was reluctant but then I was terrified of the fact that I would have to take care of my baby on my own after work. There was no way I could do that. So I quit. Without a plan.

Had a wonderful time in Europe, tried looking for a job online but the internet wouldn't connect to my Macbook!! (~~Was it a sign that I should just forget about getting a job?~~)

When we returned, my nanny asked me if I could temporarily take care of my son until I get a job.
Reason: she was exhausted taking care of my son, her newborn grandson and her daughter during confinement. (Her daughter delivered a few days before our trip. I left my son under her care)

When I told my husband, his reply was: So you be a stay-at-home mom, ok?

At that time, I was too confused to even give a reply.

My son was a handful. He kept me very busy and I couldn't find time to look for a job and...

LO AND BEHOLD!

I became a stay-at-home mom. 😱

OFFICIALLY.

Meanwhile,

that colleague got married, went on to do her Masters after giving birth to her first child and returned to the workforce right after completing her Masters.

When I look back and recall our conversation that day, I thought to myself: What an irony!

Nevertheless, we are both leading happy lives now.

Comments

Stress Free Mode

Now, as I typed on my laptop, my 5 year-old daughter sits in front of me, doing her own work. She is doing something on her own. Something that no one tells her to do. It is 100% at her own will. She is copying from a storybook. It is a Malay storybook she borrowed from school. And she is trying to read as she copies. She is smiling as she tries to read the words and although she still struggles with many of the words, she is smiling while she tries. Once in a while, she would ask me how to pronounce a certain syllable. And now, she is singing out the words she copies. _________________________________________________ This scene, right in front of me, is the result of an important lesson I learnt a year ago. I learnt that, for effective learning to take place, the learner should be in a "stress free mode". And for them to be in that mode, it most probably has to be something they find interesting or rather, something they w...

Eating in Seoul

Food, food and more food!!! As I promised, here is Part Two of our trip to Seoul, and it's all about FOOD! 1. This is one of the first Korean food we ate. We were at Guro-dong, Guro-gu, Seoul, looking for the car rental company. It was lunch time so we had lunch at a random restaurant here. We had fried and boiled dumplings, with vegetables and meat fillings. I couldn't remember the price though. We also had two bowls of noodles, one was quiet interesting for us because we didn't expect to find sliced rice cakes in the soup instead of the long and thin shaped noodles that we were familiar with! I did not take any pictures of the noodles but you could refer to the menu in the picture below. We ordered a bowl of noodles (second row, first from the left) and a set of noodles + meat patty (last row, second from left). 2. This is our lunch at the National Museum of Korea at Yongsan-gu. My son ordered shrimp fried rice (no picture available) ...

Mongo Plant vs Garlic Plant

A few years ago my son was into growing plants and asked if he could grow some flowers. We did not have any flower seeds at home and I suggested that he plant some mongo seeds instead. The other reason I told him to grow mongo seeds is that they grow very fast and kids are not very patient at waiting for results. So everyday, as we leave the house for school (he was attending kindergarten then) he would look at the plants and say, "Mommy! They are growing!" A few days after we planted the mongo seeds, I suggested that we plant some garlic. This time, unlike the mongo seeds that showed some growth immediately on the following day, the garlics showed none. Two days after we planted the garlics, we went on a short vacation and when we returned, he saw some changes to the garlic plant and shouted, "Mommy, look! The garlics are growing!" Two weeks after that, we found time to do some detailed observations on the plants. We compared the roots and ...

Being Mom

Search This Blog