Thursday, February 11, 2010

2010 Just Ain't Smooth So Far

Goodness gracious ! I missed the entire months of January AND February without a single post!

Now, that's BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD. Considering the fact that I love to write and dabble with words.

But the awful truth is that time's not on my side and since the beginning of 2010, my role as a mum has taken a drastic turn for the worse. Especially since Xian's now in primary 2 and her workload's increased tremendously.

Each day, I rush back after office to check her (atrocious) work. The minute I'm back, I dump my bag in the hall and rummage through Xian's school bag to make doubly sure that she's completed her homework. She has the tendency to "forget" and there were several instances of her missing out pages and I only realised it when her work gets returned!

Sometimes, I only have my dinner at about 9.30pm - after Xian goes to bed. Threats don't seem to work and I've had to wield the cane or feather duster and hit the poor chair or table before the sloth decides to inch away from the radius of my reach.

What a life.

The realisation hit me hard: Xian needs helps with her work - I think she's overwhelmed with activities and school's moving at too fast a pace for her. The main problem is that she's weak in English and doesn't like to write. She doesn't read as much as I'd like her to, and that weak literacy level has upped the stakes for her.

Yeah, what an irony since her mum's an English major and language teacher with a voracious appetite for books.

I guess what they say is true - it's tough to teach your own kids. That's the whole problem. I get extremely frustrated and whatever oodles of patience I have for my own students magically vapourises the moment I check through Xian's work and spot glaring errors.

My greatest challenge in 2010 will definitely be tackling Xian's issues with school work. And it sure doesn't help that she's steadily becoming more defiant. She's only going to be 8 this year, but that's not stopping her from picking up negative traits and behaviour from the people around her.

*SIGH*. Parenthood is tough. And that's the understatement of the year.

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