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Month: March 2017

Being Present. Being with My Loved Ones. 

Being Present. Being with My Loved Ones. 

Whenever we speak of spending time with our families, we tend to think of our children (for those of us with kiddos), we neglect to think of our parents and our grand parents. 

In the past, whenever I attended a wake of a friend’s parent or grandparent, I’d tell myself that I needed to spend more time with mine. But, I got caught up with the tidal wave of mundane matters that I forgot about this promise. And to me, it’s because they would always be there. It’s UNTHINKABLE that one day, they would not be there anymore. 

Until.. one day, my 93 year old grandmother had a stroke. The sprightly, independent, sociable lady was reduced to a mere shell of her former self overnight. From a fiercely independent being, cooking and cleaning (yes! Still! At the age of 93!), doing her morning qi gong classes with the neighbours, to one who needs help for the daily bare necessities. Not only that, the stroke affected her memory, so she is living in the present and even in the past, her memory indicator swings wildly like a pendulum. There are gaps in her memory. And this makes her fearful, suspicious, paranoid of everything and everyone. 

It’s a difficult time for everyone, including herself. She’s frustrated, embarrassed and eventually suicidal. 

It’s also extremely heartbreaking for my father. She’s been both his mother and father since he lost his father at the young age of 3 (my uncle was only 18 months old). She was the capable and unfatiguable mother who had been the permanent pillar in his life. So he makes it his duty to be always by her side, taking in her tirades and scoldings. 

I regret. I regret taking her for granted, always believing that she’ll always be up and about. Facing the possibility of another stroke which will further incapitate her mentally and physically, I suddenly realize that time is short. There’s an hourglass, somewhere, with sand streaming through the tube and time is running out. 

Is work really more important than someone who has taken care of me all my life? Is it worth spending time dealing with bad tempered, unreasonable clients who don’t care 2 hoots about who I am? Heck. Some of them don’t even remember my name! 

It’s time to take stock of my life and priorities. I don’t want to live with regrets that I haven’t done enough. And I guess it also comes with age (damn! Getting old arh!) that I don’t exactly care too much about what others (refers to people whom I don’t see more than once a year) think about me anymore. 

Enough said. Off to see my loved ones! ❤️ You too!! 

Sentosa KidZ Flea 2017 Part 1

Sentosa KidZ Flea 2017 Part 1

I came across the Sentosa KidZ Flea 2 years back when I was doing research on flea market for children. However, we were always unavailable during the dates.  This year, I made up my mind to participate in it! I checked with 宝贝 if she would be interested, well, of course she was! Ever since she was introduced to the concept of money when she started Primary 1, she’s now more aware of it. We currently measure prices in equivalence to her pocket money per day.

 

Sentosa KidZ Flea is an award winning event organised by Sentosa annually and it takes place during the March holidays. It is open to children (age 7-12 years old) for them to sell their handicraft, pre-loved items, new items or even to set up game stalls. It promotes the entrepreneurial spirit in a fun way! They even gave a briefing session to the children to guide them on what to do and also to warn us parents that it’s the “real world” out there. Anything, and everything could happen. So it’s up to us, parents, to decide how much we wanted to step in.

Credit to www.sentosakidzflea.com

And so, I signed up for a store for 1 day (we decided not to be too ambitious on our first try) for the girls to try their hands at being mini bosses. After their briefing, the 2 老板娘s eagerly set down to conceptualise their stall and what to sell (with some inputs from their creative and helpful parents, us lah!).

And so, they brainstormed at a cafeteria.

They wrote down a list of possible names for their stall. They debated on whether to sell handmade bracelets and necklaces, pre loved toys or their paintings. In the end, they decided that they would sell cute stationery (think smiggle style) and pretty hair accessories. I overheard them saying, “if we can’t sell everything, then we can bring them home and use! yay!!” Duh….  (Priorities, Kids!!) Well, I couldn’t really fault them for their logic. Because if they liked the products enough to want to own them, then so would others..?? So they picked the products (that they liked… they squealed in excitement over the product pictures), debated over the pricing (based on the sale price at their school bookshops and Popular) and finalised the actual quantities they wanted to order.

Most importantly, they decided on who the bosses were. They have already recruited their little siblings to be their sales people and have worked out the wages.

They came up with their logistics list…

 

And…. their booth design! After lots of discussion, they finalised their uniforms on that day – Pink top (yes, that includes 小小宝贝) and leggings (they compromised on this and allowed 小小宝贝 to wear jeans).

What’s next? Wait for their goods to arrive, take stock and pack them nicely.

SO… If you are looking for activities during the March holidays…..

Do come down to Sentosa, Palawan Beach area on next Thursday 16 March 2-7pm. Come and patronise our booth! The girls (and boy) will be selling cute stationery and hair accessories at very affordable prices. And part of the proceeds will be donated to Charity! Look out for our little bosses dressed in pink tops and leggings (or jeans)!

Be there or BE SQUARE!

Cheers!

 

 

 

 

Earning Pocket Money

Earning Pocket Money

It all started one day when 宝贝 lamented that she’s taking forever to save up for something she wanted. Holding her head between her hands, she was poring over her daily accounts book to see where she could squeeze out more money.

“Well, if you can’t do away with the necessities and save more money, then you will have to make more money. Do you want to make money?”

“YESSSS!”

“Ok. I need someone to distribute flyers. Do you want to do it?”

“You mean stand on the square and give out paper to the passerbys?”

“Yep. I will pay $2 per hour. So, do you want to do it?”

She nodded eagerly. She probably didn’t realise that it’s harder than it seemed. Having done road shows, exhibitions, flag donations, school building donations and even kart kiosks, I know how difficult it was, even for an adult.

“But I want you to do it with me! And Di Di too!”

“Ok fine! I will distribute flyers right beside you!” Walk the talk right?! No sweat. I have thick skin anyway. Di Di aka 小小宝贝 also agreed. Not knowing what he was in for.

So I grabbed some flyers for the tuition centre (Check out Master Class for English tuition for P5-JC2. No point wasting a chance to advertise! Don’t worry, I’m not the one teaching. We have fully qualified MOE teachers hailing from top schools holding the fort.). And we decided to give out flyers outside Parkway Centre, after her dance class.

The BIG Day arrived. Armed with a small stack of flyers, we stood around the basement, among other flyer distributors.

“You only gave me 5 flyers!” She flapped her sheets at me.

“I will give you more when you have used them up. Let’s just do it for 15 minutes first. How much would you  have earned by then?”

Frowning in deep thought, “50 cents? Does Didi get that too?”

“Of course!” Meanwhile, Didi was loitering near the ice cream shop display, ignoring us.

“Hokay! Let’s start!”

I did a few demonstrations and received many rejections, as usual. When I finally succeeded in giving out my first flyer, I smiled triumphantly at 宝贝. She was standing behind me, holding her flyers, looking at me doubtfully.

“There will always be rejections. It’s just part of it. It’s ok. Just persist!” Giving her the YOU-CAN-DO-IT sign.

She spent the next 5 minutes drawing circles on the ground with her shoe.

“Eh, hurry up leh!”

“I’m thinking of how to do it!”

“Ok, let me demonstrate again!”

Then the slew of excuses came. “It’s drizzling! I don’t want to stand in the rain!” “That’s my friend! I don’t want to give this to her!” “They don’t want to take it!”

She finally worked up her courage and walked boldly towards a parent, but one foot away, she suddenly turned around and strode back.

“What happened?!”

“I’m too shy! And why is Di di not doing it! He’s just looking at the ice creams!”

Ok fine! I called 小小宝贝over. “Eh! Are you here to distribute flyers or look at ice creams? Do you want to buy things?” He nodded eagerly. “Do you have money?” He shook his head. “So how?”

The little one said, “I must give out flyers to the uncles and aunties.”

“Ok Good! Tell you what, for every flyer you give out I give you 10 cents! Ok???”

“Yay!” Sigh… Expensive wages..

He looked at me wondering what to do next. Sigh. He was oogling at ice creams when I was doing my demonstrations. So, I gave out a few flyers to show him what to do. I pointed him to the parents sitting around the cafes and Macdonalds.

Without a word, he trotted up to a parent who was messaging on his phone, stood beside him and stared at him with his big round eyes, carrying his cute Eeyore bag and handed out a flyer to him. And… the scumbag waved him away!! Couldn’t he see that a little 4 year old was mustering up his courage to do that?!

Surprisingly, he wasn’t daunted. He walked up to another parent and handed the flyer to him. (Somehow he preferred to give out to Daddies). The daddy smiled and took it from him and patted his head.

He turned to me and gave me the brightest smile ever and hopped in glee. Then he went on to give out another one. The daddy walked past him (he was too small) and didn’t see him, then suddenly realised that the little kid was trying to give him something. He turned back and took the flyer from 小小宝贝.

Meanwhile, 宝贝 also tried to give out her flyers after watching her brother do it. Only to be waved away as though she was a pesky fly. (These parents will get their just desserts!!! Will it kill just to take a piece of paper from a child?!)

Then the hub’s call came. OK. Time to leave.

And so, 小小宝贝 made 20 cents.

Everyone agreed to do it again the next week. 宝贝decided that she would give out at least 1 flyer the next time. 小小宝贝 was looking forward to it as he had first tasted the joy of making money!

Some friends widened their eyes and exclaimed, “Waa! Zun Bo!?” Well, it’s a way to teach them the value of money, that it’s not easy to make money and to only spend the hard-earned money on things that they need. It’s also a way to build up courage and approach people. I find that our children are too soft and too dependent on us, parents, to do everything for them. We need to let them do things on their own, do the tough things, albeit in a safe environment. And definitely, facing up to rejections. It’s not easy to take rejections, but I always believe that, with every rejection, we will just emerge stronger and build thicker skins!

Taking the first step is always the hardest. But once, the step is taken, the rest will follow. For 宝贝, if her 4 year old brother can do it, there shouldn’t be a reason why she can’t do it as well.

So if you happen to be around Parkway Parade on Saturday morning, do come over and say hi to us and give some words of encouragement to the 宝贝s!

If you want your children receive free flyer distribution lesson, you are welcome too! But you pay them their wages ok!!