We have a no-gadgets rule when we are around the children at home.  I can totally understand the agony a drug addict goes through when he goes cold turkey.  Thank goodness it’s not for the whole day. Initially, when the children demanded my attention, I would be thinking,” Aiya… Hurry up! Go and sleep! So that I can get back to my cyber life on the phone!” Bad Mommy here!

The good news is, it only takes a few days of conditioning before I was weaned off that attitude.  They grow up so very quickly.  My little 宝贝口水妹 will be attending primary school next year and my 小小宝贝 has already turned two! Where has all the time gone!? 小小宝贝 giggles and rolls around when I tickle him.  It’s still a novel sensation for him. 宝贝口水妹 pushes me away and glares at me, “Mama! I don’t like it!” She used to giggle and roll around when she was a tot. Sigh…!

So now, I treat every experience like it’s the last, because they outgrow it so very fast!! One day, he will stop caressing my face and pepper with it with kisses.  He would probably say,”Ewww…! That’s so sissy!” Or something like that. Soon they will be too big for me to cuddle and hug, they will probably tower over me in a few years.  Not a difficult feat, considering my dwarven size…

When I came across this poem, it felt so apt! It’s not fantastic in grammar and neither does it look very “chim”, but I’m sure all the parents can appreciate it. So, taking the words from Robin Williams’ Dead Poets Society – Carpe Diem!

The Last Time

From the moment you hold your baby in your arms,

You will never be the same.

You might long for the person you were before,

When you had freedom and time,

And nothing in particular to worry about.

You will know tiredness like you never knew before,

And days will run into days that are exactly the same,

Full of feedings and burping,

Nappy changes and crying,

Whining and fighting,

Naps or a lack of naps,

It might seem like a never-ending cycle.

But don’t forget,

There is a last time for everything.

There will come a time when you will feed

your baby for the very last time.

They will fall asleep on you after a long day

And it will be the last time you ever hold your sleeping child.

One day you will carry them on your hip then set them down,

And never pick them up that way again.

You will scrub their hair in the bath one night

And from that day on they will want to bathe alone.

They will hold your hand to cross the road,

Then never reach for it again.

They will creep into your room at midnight for cuddles,

And it will be the last night you ever wake to this.

One afternoon you will sing “the wheels on the bus”

and do all the actions,

Then never sing them that song again.

They will kiss you goodbye at the school gate,

The next day they will ask to walk to the gate alone.

You will read a final bedtime story and wipe your last dirty face.

They will run to you with arms raised for the very last time.

The thing is, you won’t even know it’s the last time

Until there are no more times.

And even then,

It will take you a while to realise.

So while you are living in thee times,

remember there are only so many of them

and when they are gone,

you will yearn for just one more day of them.

For one last time.

~ Anonymous