Learning to be the parent

There are many types of parent. There is the type who always has not enough time for their children because they are busy with their work. They are bogged down by the work and no energy for their children. There is another type who channel all their energy to groom their children to excel in any area like academic, music, sports, to name a few. They will wish their children to become a better grown-up than themselves, who themselves may once aspires to become an architect, a musician or a business man. They may have ignore that whether the kids truly enjoy it. If you are the type who do care for the kids' feeling, congratulate you.

I'm a careless father too. I leave most of the kids caring to the wife. That day, I was teaching the kids to swim. As in the past, they were afraid and refuse to submerge their head into the water. I am provoked and started my threatening to them. The kids then became more frightened and even more reluctant to attempt.For some unknown reason that suddenly struck me, I change my attitude and spoke softly and closely to them. Gradually they try it, and with more compliments from me, it induces more courage upon them. By the end, all of them are brave enough to submerge themselves into the water. I felt some sense of achievement for such a small matter.

As an Asian parent, i still adopt the philosophy of stern teaching. However, i think the fusion of east and west culture has been beneficial to the Asian. We are less lenient than the west but are more open-mined than our older generation.

At the end, I don't think many of us can claim they are real good parent. Being a parent is a learning process. I will need to remind myself, the kids are not my belongings, I am here just to share my experience with them. I can give advice to them, but they are human being who shall have their own freedom of choices. I think i still have lots of to learn and long way to go, wish me luck.