Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Taking care of my son

Two weeks ago, my wife had to go overseas to attend a workshop, and I was left to take care of my son for 6 days.

While I have taken care of him in the past without my wife around, it was only for a few hours each time. So a period of 6 days was a first. Somehow, we both managed to pull through.

It was a tiring 6 days. But it was fun too. We watched "Monsters University" and "Despicable Me 2" together, played in the swimming pool twice, and went to attend his enrichment class together. We had fast food, local food, even instant noodles by me. We went for my taiji and pushing hands class together, where he would keep himself occupied with his toys and drawing/writing on pieces of paper that I would bring along. We also went to walk around the shopping malls together (okay, this was part of the movie deal...) and explore the Lorong Halus wetlands.

It was great bonding time for father and son. It also taught me to appreciate what my wife does, day in and day out. Between juggling the household chores (yes, someone needs to wash the clothes and keep the house clean, and that's me while my wife wasn't around) and making sure that we are all fed, much of the remaining time was sucked up watching over my son. Yes, he can play on his own, but you never know when he is going to grow bored or need something. So trying to get anything done can be challenging; the only real time that I could use to get some work done was the 3 hours each weekday morning when he was in school.

Being a stay-home mom is a big sacrifice, a tiring job. Still, people do it, even without a salary, because of love. My salute to stay-home moms, and the biggest salute to my wife!

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