Making the decision to stop work and be a stay-at-home-mom was not a hard thing to do. It definitely had its roots. My mom was also a full-time homemaker. She chose not to pursue of what could be a promising career - a corp commander and an honor student back in high school (while working part-time as radio deejay to support her studies) and a student body president graduating top of her class in college. She put it all aside and instead concentrated on us growing up. She truly gave us one of the greatest gifts - the gift of her time.
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In Shanghai office, after an overnight flight |
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In Yangzhou, still managed a smile after 2 days of no sleep. |
So I am sure you’ll know what I mean when I say I am a lot happier now. I am certain the girls feel that too, which is very important. I believe having quality time with the kids without your mind wandering to work is one of the biggest challenges. Now that work is out of the equation, we can truly take our time and genuinely enjoy the play at hand. Our hours and imagination stretch, bringing characters to life beyond “they lived happily ever after”. Our play is no longer interrupted by constant clock-checking and you-have-5-more-minutes-to-go warnings. On the flip side however, the bad news for Ava is - mommy also has unlimited time to enforce time-outs!
One time, Ava kept on bugging me to watch cartoons again. I normally let her watch for a maximum of 30 minutes, just enough to get my sanity back. The usual all-knowing parenting spiel would be (which of course I have inherited) “there is time for everything and now is the time to eat, or sleep, etc... After you have finished eating your vegetables (slide in delayed gratification too!) then you can watch”. Depending on which side of the bed she woke up from, my reprimands were sometimes met with bouts of crying and squealing, worthy of a “terrific” two. Since we have pretty much established who the boss is (I have all the time now remember?), she figured the cows are never coming home.
So as I was watching her eat, an inspiration suddenly lit. There is indeed a time for everything. If you look at life in its entirety, 3-5 years of being with our children at their tender and formative years is nothing when you live a life of, God-willing, 80 fruitful years. And when you do in fact live that long, I’m pretty sure reliving those 3-5 years back will bring so much pleasure and contentment. Yes, I am happy I made the time. Work? That can definitely wait. My girls? I don’t think so.
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My thirsty cyclist. |
Who couldn't resist staying at home with an adorable face like this! |
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