Category: Family

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Friendly Rival & Competition: Parents Fighting for the Kids’ Affection

Ever since we had Anna, I’ve had a jealous heart towards my wife. You see, Anna always preferred (naturally, I suppose) her mommy over daddy… especially at night. Soojin used to console me by saying that it’s natural this way and after all, she did spend most time with Anna since I had to go work.

Well, times do change after all… enter…

…number 2! 😀 JJ was then born… and he naturally started to grow more affectionate towards me more than Soojin! Naturally, Soojin began to get jealous! Hee… and I told her … the same story she told me!

It’s quite funny actually…. it’s not that we love our kids any less or more than each other… but when you feel that your kids love the other parent, it just feels… sad. Today was such a day again… JJ woke up while sleeping and as I went to console him, he called out for daddy. Ah… what a joyful kid, eh?! Got his act straight! LOL… Anyhow, my wife heard JJ calling for me. After I put him back to sleep and as we finished watching “The Road Home” (a very touching and an awesome movie by the way!), JJ woke up again. As I got myself up, Soojin insisted on putting him to sleep… When I went to take a look, JJ was dangling around her hand (the ring finger) and calling out mommy. And Soojin just ate that stuff up! 🙂 And Anna soon joined in and then curled up next to her with her hands together as a pillow.

What does this all add up to? Just two very happy and joyful parents.

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Anna The Slave Driver

You get to see quite lots of odd and funny moments when you raise kids.
Today was such a day.  I was playing with Anna and JJ when Anna hurt her feet on the tile.  She came to me (pseudo) crying for comfort and for me to blow her feet!

Well, I was being creative when I also shook her feet around the ankle to help her forget the pain.  However, much to my surprise, as I “flapped” her ankle and blew at the toes, she suddenly said…

“Appa, faster!  Faster!!”

I just died laughing!!  She said it in such a fashion as of befitting a slave driver!  I can only feel sympathy for her future significant other! 

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The Difficulty of Parenthood

Well, my boy picked up some kind of virus that seems to have become something similar to croup.  He’s been just coughing up a storm and he hasn’t been able to fall asleep well… let alone stay asleep.  🙁 Cool moist air is what makes that inflamed throat cools down…

He’s finally asleep ’cause I got the windows to open… it will be a bit chilly tonight but we will have to live with it.

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Family “Picnic” Day at the Bay Area Park

Well, after about a month of busy work, I was getting some break and so decided to take off work early at 3:30 pm.  Anna was very antsy and wanted to get out so we decided to make it a day out at the park.

It was a perfect weather for it too.  The kids played for about an hour at the local Bay Area Park playground and then I went to pick up a pizza and ate at the park.  Then we strolled down to the pond area where the ducks and the swans and everything inbetween stayed.  JJ took particular interest to them.  It was a good time.  Something we all needed, for sure.

Perhaps we will do this weekly.  🙂

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Happy Second Birthday, JJ!

My little boy is now 2 years old!  😮

How time flies… he is quite a character if you haven’t met him already… but he sure is everywhere!  And he also has the personality of the younger sibling, acting all cute and being very affectionate!  🙂  It makes disciplining a bit more difficult because he acts so cute! 

I’m just thankful that God has given us such a son!  Happy birthday JJ!  Mommy and daddy love you very much!  Now, sleep! 

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The Goal for my Kids

With so many parents going just about bonkers in how to raise their cihldren, teaching them piano and violin at the age of 4, finding ways to sign up all kinds of things to learn and all, I feel like … I haven’t left Korea! 😮

The mania is catching up here as more and more parents are focusing on education and jobs and future. I find it hard to raise my kids to be… well, kids. Sending the kids to the best montessori and seeing if he/she learns faster than other kids, or develops skills faster… we, the parents, have become monsters.

In the light of this, but even well before this, I wanted my kids to grow up being kids, enjoying their youth, and not having to worry about if they can pass pre-algebra. I’m not against education. I just don’t want to get carried away like all the other parents who think that montessori is a life-changing decision for their kids.

All I want my kids to learn before they attend school is to know and learn just one thing: that their parents love them dearly. More than skills and education, I feel that today’s children grow up without the much needed basic essentials like being confident of themselves, and knowing who they are. I believe that most of this comes from the parents. I pray that Soojin and my love will be so evident that Anna and JJ will not even question whether they feel loved or not. I believe that when a child is so sure of his/her parents’ love for him/her, the child will begin life with the firm foundation. One’s self-confidence and direction, after all, comes from love. This in no way means that we will spoil them either as I can’t tolerate such selfish actions. Discipline, I believe, is also an action out of love when done responsibly.
If my kids want to learn piano and ballet, that’s one thing. I do want to push new things at them so they can experience new things of life, but I in no way ever will SHOVE it down to their throat. I will have thanked God for allowing me to be their source of confidence in their such malleable lives.

I pray that that is not asking too much: for them to grow up learning in their hearts that we love them. More than knowledge, recognition, fame, wealth, and materials, I want my kids to grow up enjoying life God has given them and live them for God to the fullest.