She is My Angel

I am not a mom who is overly concern with the academic milestones of my little ones. Or perhaps, I am saying that because my Laetitia is too much an extrovert to sit still for 1 minute of flash cards. I respect that. Instead of flashing the cards and we would litter our floor with cards and then randomly pick up any she likes and read it out together. At least we have some kind of fun.

Laetitia is slower in her development of speech; she probably had found it unnecessary to learn to speak since we (Mr Hubby and I) can anticipate her needs pretty well even when she don't talk in her first 20 odd months.

I have always feel that learning should be fun and learning can done anytime. Thus I spend Laetitia's younger days doing what she loves; playing with neighbors, swimming, going for walks. I am a believer that children should first have their characters shaped and confidences built, rather than cramping A,B,C and 1,2,3 down their heads.

I was reinforcing good manners, abolishing prejudices and racism, when I should really be flashing those damn cards. In another words, I am determine to raise her up well dignify, if I can't have her both smart and ennoble.

Then I watched videos posted on FB by friends of their kids, some younger than her, doing some amazing feats, counting, reading, communicating, sometimes even bilingually! I admit, I began to fret. I was wondering if what I had been doing for Laetitia is right. Will she become an under-achiever because I hadn't insist that she learn to read and write?

Every "smart" parents know that the window of learning for children start to close by 3 and there I am teaching her about living la vida loca rather than maths or English or science.

But Laetitia puts my mind at ease. Sometime back, we brought her out, on our way back we past by the playground. There were 2 grannies chatting, one had her grandchild in one arm and in the other, a big dried leaf she used as a fan to cool themselves from the punishing heat. Granny lost her grip and the dried leaf slipped off her hand fell to the ground. Upon seeing this, Laetitia broke off the hold from my hand and dashed towards to the granny.

At that instant, I thought she was acting up again, probably wanting to play on the see-saw and not go home. But what happen next, melted my heart and probably Mr Hubby's too. Laetitia picked up the dried leaf and handed it back to the granny, then ran back to us. We were all so surprised by her thoughtfulness. Both grannies were delighted. They thanked her and turned to us, telling us that Laetitia is a great kid! I was filled with so much pride.

Then last week, I was watching TV with her and there was some pitiful crying scenes, she turned to me and told me, while pointing to the telly "Laetitia is sad." I told her, "This is call 'sympathy'. I am glad for you to feel it." She looked away, puzzled.

Well, at times, she still plays her tantrum-throwing monster role, she can't read yet and she counts in broken Mandarin, but she IS my shinning little angel and she will always be, academically achieving or not!

Because everyone should love his/her child for who he/she is...