Life & Times of Mumsy

These days, my life is, quite literally, an open book.

With Web 2.0 tools so easily available, I'm spoilt for choice. My preferred channels continue to be blogs, Facebook (FB) and most recently, Twitter. It's fun to read the responses I get when I update my status either via FB or Twitter. Besides, you can tell quite a bit about people from the comments they make.

And because I like to express my feelings through writing, my personal favourite is still blogging because this allows me to delve into details. Twitter acts more like a headline or teaser so it's useful when I just want to post random thoughts without elaborating.

I know some people are uncomfortable about dishing out personal details about their lives in such a public sphere. To them, it's akin to washing dirty linen in public. But I do have some "rules" which I've put in place and I'm careful to reveal only certain bits and pieces of my life.

In other words, I practise self-censorship.

One of my main reasons for penning my thoughts is that I'm using this as a platform to express myself. I'm also using this as a way to document my own experiences for my girls so that when they're older, they can read for themselves what I've been going through.

Over the last few months, I've witnessed many situations in which parents and children suffer a breakdown in communication and this is usually caused by differences in thinking, i.e. the "generation gap". I know it's only going to be a matter of time that I'll fall prey to this natural phenomena when my children will start to drift away and resent my presence.

No matter how open I am, no matter how close our relationships are, I am sure they will start to retreat into their private worlds once they "come of age". I'm constantly reminded of this by reports in the media and also when I hear my own students talking about strained relations with their parents.

Perhaps this is why I'm trying to keep myself abreast with trends and new communication tools. I don't want to be outdated and lose touch with what's current.

Am I trying too hard? I have no answer to this. All I know is that I *refuse* to be a mother who's unreasonable and won't try to communicate with her kids in a manner which they're comfortable with. At the same time, I don't wish to spoil them rotten.

*Sigh*

I wish parenthood came with an instructional manual and a money back guarantee too.