I Am A Liberal Mum

I’ve been a mum for close to 4 years, and I’ve enjoyed myself tremendously in these last 4 years.

Like all girls-aspiring-to-be-great-mums, I used to have near-perfect expectations of what kind of mum I will be when I become one. I imagined myself to be one of those mums who would do everything correct – I’ll bathe and scrub my kids and they’ll smell nice all the time. I’ll feed them with well-balanced meals cooked with organic ingredients only. I’ll dress them in the finest and latest fashion. I’ll plan detailed homeschooling syllabus and make sure my kids memorize all their multiplication tables by the age of 2. And of course, no more than an hour of TV each day.

Then I became a mum. And reality sets in.

Sure, I do my best to give my kids the best. I buy pretty clothes, hair bands, hair clips and ribbons for my girls, dress them up like dolls and make sure they always look nice and cute. I cook meals for Joey and if you remember, took pains to prepare bento meals for her everyday last time so that she would eat more. I praise her all the time and encourage her when she does something nice.

But while every parenting theory would tell you that parents should restrict their kids in some areas of their lives, I have proven myself to be a very liberal mum. This is so different from what I thought I would be.

I don’t restrict Joey’s TV-watching time. Perhaps because she spends all her weekdays in school (where she lives a very disciplined lifestyle the whole day and only gets to watch TV from 530pm everyday until we pick her up), I let her watch TV to her heart’s content during the weekends. When she comes home from school everyday, she also religiously watches her Disney Channel – Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Dibo the Gift Dragon, The Imaginary Movers etc. While many experts would say that TV programs hinder the development of kids, I have witnessed how much Joey learnt from all the educational programs she watches. She picked up new words, spelling, counting and drawing skills. One of the reasons why she’s so articulate could also be because she watches many cartoons that uses simple pre-school vocabulary.

I don’t restrict the food that she eats. Of course, she’s still such a young toddler, so I don’t let her eat too much potato chips or chocolates. Those are special treats once in a while and always in moderation. But when it comes to proper meals, she eats everything that we eat when we are dining outside. Ever since she started school at the beginning of this year, I’ve stopped preparing meals for her to bring out. She usually eats rice with soup or chicken/duck rice when we dine outside. It’s perfectly fine by me, although I know there’s MSG content. Having said that though, if we are dining at home and I’m preparing her meals, I don’t add seasonings to her food so she’s eating all natural flavors only. Thankfully, Joey is not a picky eater and she eats almost everything.

I think I am a mum who pretty much let Joey do almost anything she wants. I do believe that discipline is important at this age, but some form of discipline must be in place, but I also believe that giving my kids liberty can make them responsible beings and also become more creative and spontaneous in their approach to life. I think it’s important that my kids are happy, and not feel like they can only do stuffs that parents tell them to do..

I wonder what kind of mum I will evolve into as the kids grow up. I doubt I’ll be that liberal when it comes to my daughters finding boyfriends. I might become a control freak in that area! (“You know, girls, if you are looking for a boyfriend, look for someone like your dad.”)

Many experts also say that it’s not good to indulge in your kids too much. I agree, but sometimes I can’t help it too… Just bought a new bicycle for Joey! It’s nice because it’s in SHOCKING PINK!!! wahahahahahahaha…

 

Maybe this is not called indulging because she has outgrown her old bicycle (which looks real puny next to her new one now), and she has been incessantly nagging us to buy her a new one.