I look at the adult world this way – those who succeed in life are those who dare to take the lead and make decisions. Those who hover around and cannot decide, continue hovering around, without making much progress.

And those who DO make decisions, do MAKE MISTAKES. But they MAKE decisions. And they know what they want in life.

Being decisive is also not being impulsive. The difference is that the former encompasses careful consideration while the latter does not.

Our children are growing all the time. Gradually, life challenges require them to make more and more decisions as they grow. I would like to think that most adults do pretty fine, but sadly some actually never grow up, still depending on their aged parents to help make decisions.

One major reason is due to the “well-intentioned parents” syndrome, where parents like us subconsciously shield our children from making decisions in every aspects of their lives, denying them the opportunity to sharpen themselves.

My encouragement to all parents is this, forget about the consequences of wrong decisions. Let our children make wrong decisions while they are young, so that they won’t grow up frozen, not knowing how to be decisive when it matters.

And so we have watched the movie, CARS 2, a Disney-Pixar production.  

What’s my thoughts?
1. It is not as innocent as the original CARS movie – the movie was laden with the themes of spies, gangsterism, “killing” other cars, sinister motives etc

2. The sub-theme seems like an afterthought
- In the first movie, there was a strong theme centering around how a selfish and boastful car was transformed into a humble, selfless and well-loved car.
- In this sequel, the sub-theme about accepting “accepting your friend as they were” didn’t fit too well into the story

3. The number of new characters seems overwhelmingly large
- is this a ploy to get kids hooked into buying all the characters?

At the end of the day, I can safely say most children under the age of 6 wouldn’t understand what the story was about. The only thing that kept them going was probably the idea of how many of the new toys they could buy!

There is something good about cartoon movie sequels…… the old toys enjoy a revival!

My son absolutely adored the characters (and toys) from the Disney Pixar movie CARS when I first introduced the movie to him about 3 years ago. Needless to say, within a short time we built up a rather huge collection of the characters (above photo probably makes up only a quarter of that collection). He would play with the toys almost everyday.

Alas, and naturally as time passed, new toys and distractions in the form of Beyblades and iPad took over. These car toys were then stored …and forgotten…until the launch of CARS 2!

We then excitedly watched the trailers on Youtube and naturally again, the pleas to get the new characters began. In a few hours time, we will be heading to watch the GALA premiere in Singapore. I can imagine the pleas will become louder and louder after that!

In front of my son, I frowned upon such desires to get all these toys. But privately, I can’t wait to get my hands on the whole new collection!

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My son is turning six in 2 months. And the world’s worry has already started to weigh on him….sigh.

This began when my wife gently told him about an ex-colleague’s death, and that she needed to go to the wake. From that moment onwards, he would repeatedly say he did not want to go to heaven. Sometimes in the car, he would turn all quiet, and then burst into tears. My wife tried may ways to explain to him gently, but none seemed to comfort him.

Thankfully we found a very good resource in a bible-based book called “Someone I Love Died” by Christine Harder Tangvald. It mentioned that once a child grasps the concept of death, it becomes one of their greatest fear in life. How true!

The book then helped break down the fears and answer questions a typical child may ask in a gentle and comforting way. From the experience, we as parents also learnt not to “run away” with “fuzzy-wuzzy” answers that children in this new generation could easily see through.

I wouldn’t say we have found a quick-fix solution, but my son is happier these days, having found out about things like “our soul gets to heaven faster than when we clap our hands”. Of course he still feels sad when he realised that we parents are likely to leave him first. But we rejoice that there will be reconciliation in heaven!

My family does our bedtime prayer almost every night.

One night recently,  as my wife, my son and I lay on our bed, I suggested, “Let’s pray this way tonight – I’ll pray for Jadon, Jadon prays for Mama, and Mama prays for Papa.” “

“No, I want to pray for you”, my son said. (There are certain things where he prefers me, and others where he prefers the mother)

So I said, “Fine, so you’ll pray for me, I pray for Mama, and Mama prays for you.”

“No. I’ll pray for you and you’ll pray for me,” clearly indicating his preference for me this time.

“What about Mama?” I asked.(Mama had been silent all this time, probably wondering if all the effort spent in cooking healthy, nutritious yet yummy food for him was worth the while)

And my son replied, “Erm…we need one more person then.”

There was only three of us in the family.

I recently did this montage for the family of my wife’s good friend. In focus are their 2 kids, Joshua and Jonas, who are regular playmates with our son Jadon.

Shamelessly,  I have slipped in quite a few pictures of our son Jadon in there as well

2 things I need your help on:
1) Do give me your honest feedback on how I could improve the montage. I do take my “creative work” very seriously.
2) I am looking to do more of these montages. For the first 3 person to respond to me, I’ll create your very own montage for free!

Awaiting your responses!

My wife and I usually pray with our son before he goes to bed. It was a habit we started when he was about 3 years old. (He is now 4 going on 5)

Those days, we simply prayed while he lie on his bed and closed his eyes. As he grew older, he started praying in bits and pieces on his own. He also requested that we pray for this issue and that.   One funny request I recall was to pray that he won’t grow up! (Of course footywife and I never said “AMEN” to that!)

Of late, we just need to start the prayer off with, “Dear Lord…”, and he would continue the rest of the prayers from there.

Few nights ago at bedtime, as per routine, I said, “Let’s pray.”

Guess what? He said matter-of-factly, “No need. I told GOD GOD {sic} last night that whatever I have prayed before, He would remember and I do not need to ever pray them again.”

Now I have dealt with “Blanket Approvals” in the corporate world before, but this is my first spiritual enlightenment about BLANKET PRAYERS!

I suppose most of us are familiar with Orange Julius.

But to my son, if I tell him, “Remember the Orange Julius story”, it means he needs to try out something new.

The story began like this:

My son loves sweet drinks, as all kids would. One day after church, he asked if he could have his beloved Iced Lemon Tea (in a can). Recalling that he has been having quite a few of these canned drinks in the last two days, my wife and I resisted.

But we offered him a healthier and tastier alternative, Orange Julius. Now until then, he has not tried Orange Julius and he did not show any desire to do so, craving only for his canned drink.

We cajoled him by telling him what a great juice it was, and he would definitely prefer it to the canned Iced Lemon Tea once he had tasted it. But he was adamant that he still wanted his Iced Lemon Tea, and not Orange Julius which he had not tried before.

We also continued cajoling and the negotiation went back and forth until we gave him the ultimatum ,”Orange Julius or nothing!”

He had no choice and relented. Needless to say, he enjoyed that very first sip of Orange Julius, and the second sip and the third…and the whole drink

So when he finished we told him, “See! What a great waste if you had not tried this! Always give things a try, if you don’t like them eventually, at least you have tried and know you don’t like them.”

So now whenever he shows any signs of reluctance in trying new things/drinks, we’ll remind him, “Remember the Orange Julius story?”

Its Easter time! Bakeries are selling piping Hot Cross Buns again..yummy!

In the midst of chewing your sweet spiced, raisin-filled bun, have you ever thought about the origins of your tantalising HOT CROSS BUN?

According to Answers.com, the origin of the hot cross bun was that a monk from St Albans Abbey in England made the first hot cross bun in 1361. The cross was originally just cut in, not piped on. The spices represent the frankincense & myrrh. The fruit represents the fruit of the Holy Spirit. The monk then began a tradition of giving Hot Cross Buns to the poor of St Albans on Good Friday.

In years that followed, many customs, traditions, superstitions, and claims of healing and protection from evil were associated with the buns. In the 16th century, Roman Catholicism was banned in England, but the popularity of Hot Cross buns continued. Queen Elizabeth I then passed a law banning Hot Cross Buns except during festivals such as Easter, Christmas and funerals.