Category Archives: parenting

Life with a grade schooler: on purse and spectacles

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You told me how in your 生活 (livelihood) class you learned about allowances/小遣い. You’ve been wanting to have your wallet since then, as if having a wallet is a prerequisite to having an allowance. I gave you a wallet a couple of years back, but you were still too young to appreciate the value of keeping a wallet hence even after a “massive search”, it’s nowhere to be found now. (That was a Cath Kidston by the way. Since Cath in Japan has gone bankrupt in April owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, that would have made that purse very special indeed.)

But since I wanted to also get you started on managing your own money and saving, we bought you a new purse today.

To jumpstart your “money management”, I put inside your wallet a 1000 yen bill and a few coins and, later when I got it as a change, a 500-yen coin. You were so happy with the 1000yen gift you kept thanking me again and again for it, using the different Japanese words and expressions in saying thank you. I appreciate that you have a thankful heart.

So from now you’ll be managing your train fares, vending machine purchases, and snacks purchases with a 700 yen weekly allowance. I suggested ways for you to save (say, take the walk up the hill instead of using the elevator to save 52yen plus get some exercise) so that you can buy something you like. With permission from me. This prompted a sassy question:

Till when will I be asking your permission on what to buy? Till I get old?

Oh dear. That will be another day’s lesson.

And! Today, we also had your eyes checked because you’ve been squinting around for weeks now. Doctor confirmed you need some lens. Those beautiful eyes would have to be behind a frame from now.

life with a grade schooler: the pen case

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This evening, for the nth time, you cleaned your pencil case. And I got curious why you were very determined in making it clean whereas last year, there seemed to have been a competition in your class on who’s got the dirtiest pen case.

And then you dropped the bombshell. Apparently all your classmates have new pencil cases. Instead of asking me for a new one though, you cleaned your old one.

I didn’t buy you a new one in this school year because your pen case was still not broken. Just dirty. I didn’t tell you this. Baut baby, you just gave me yet another reason to be proud of you.

life with a grade schooler: homework blues

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We had a row this evening. It was actually a culmination of an argument that started Saturday evening.

Saturday night. You did your homework with much gusto (no prodding from me at all). You finished all in no time. But as you looked at your reading card, you realised you forgot what needed to be read. And so you asked me to send a message to your teacher to ask her about the reading assignment. At 10pm on a Saturday. Of course I said no. Then you let go of it.

Sunday evening came and you prepared your bag for tomorrow’s class. And then panicky, you asked me to message your teacher to ask her what story needs to be read. And you asked me in a raised voice at that (on hindsight though, I think your voice was raised because you were panicking). The absurdity of the request and the raised voice pushed a wrong button in me and you definitely heard some strong scolding from me. Of course you were crying.

But after a few minutes of crying, you suddenly calmed down, said “I have a good idea”, and went to look for something. For a couple of minutes I just watched you look around for something. Intrigued, I finally asked. Unicorn memo book. You were looking for your unicorn memo book. And at almost the same instant you answered me, you found what you were looking for.

That definitely got me head scratching. Wiping a new wave of tears (you stopped crying while you were looking around), you said, “it’s not good now. But only now. So that next time I won’t forget, I’ll write it down. I’ll take notes so that I don’t forget what the homework is”.

And my jaw just dropped. I was already on the verge of getting worried how to calm you down. But what actually happened was that even as you were crying, you were already thinking of a solution on how to avoid the same problem next time. Wow baby, wow.

covid lockdown diaries: a walk in the neighbourhood

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We haven’t been anywhere other than the grocery, the schoolyard, your after-school daycare, the nearby park, for the last two months. The weather was nice, the sky ever so blue, and there weren’t people around so we decided to explore our neighbourhood and sightsee houses.

You kept on pointing which house would you like to have and kept on urging that we move out of the condo and have a stand-alone house. You said you want a garden. And I said I didn’t choose a stand alone house because I can’t take care of a garden.

Some silence. Then you said, something smells bad. I countered it’s the anti-insect bracelet that you’re wearing. Then you shouted before running off: answer is, Yui’s fart!!!!

We may be on lockdown but it has never been a boring two months.