Sp**do making easy money out of me

Yusof told me yesterday, that he was selected to represent his school in competitive swimming at the district level and the meet was supposed to be this morning. Excuse me...don't tell me that you don't train these kids beforehand and expect them to perform miracles?

Yusof is the most excitable child among my four....He will totally miss the crux of a matter and gets electrified with the frills and fancies....! As I suspected, after reading the memo from his teacher - he was actually short-listed for a selection process to represent his school and the swim-meet is this coming February. Still.....this really made us proud and happy for him!

When I arrived home he, as usual, was impatient and excited wanting to buy his goggles and swimming cap there and then. The only way to cool him down is to act calm and collected (in today's lingo "be a kewl dude"!). Talking about goggles - we buy about 3-4 times a year new sets of goggles for my boys.....The last outing for goggles was before Raya, I think, and they have lost them all. Of course we lost three goggles in Langkawi (one at Durian Perangin waterfall, one at Tg Rhu beach and the other at Pasir Tengkorak Beach) - sigh.....!

Made our way to Car*****r (with Khadijah and Yusof) and he had to choose the branded one, right (read here if you want to know why)? It was like RM54 - for a goggle.....? Nah.....! I would have bought it for him if he was more responsible...! Settled for a Sp**do Junior Splasher which was half the price of what he chose. Bought also two other goggles for Ib & Umar which cost RM2.90 each (the house brand).

And......I just got the news that he was selected to represent his school! He clocked the fastest amongst primary 4 and 5 aspirants...! I hope that with this selection he will become more motivated in his school work...(as a motivation booster according to Andrew Martin who wrote "How to Motivate a Child"). He used to complain a lot that Kakak (Khadijah) gets to do a lot of things and wins prizes.... He's all perky now that he wants to train at our club every morning at 630 am.....! It's his time to shine now!

My advise...be patient with your kids as they have different rate of progress. They all have different talents which are awaiting to be discovered by you...You just have to have a "trial and error" approach; let them discover themselves (in the process you'd definitely burn your wallet but worth all the single cent). No point forcing them doing what they don't like - Mom & Dad - they are just not interested......! At least that's my parenting philosphy...which you may disagree.