parenting

Over stimulating an infant’s brain with non-stop audios can cause permanent damage. Old-fashioned nuzzling, kissing and tickling is still a more effective way of communication.
Meanwhile, too much reliance on gadgets can affect the memory; specifically, the ability to remember dates and numbers. But then again, who wants to memorize dates and numbers?

Continue reading 'The problem with too much' →

I have always been vocal about it — I don’t expect them to spend their adult lives taking care of us. I don’t want them to. I don’t want them to take on high-paying jobs that they cannot be happy with, thinking they have to because it is their responsibility to take care of us in our old age. I want them to be able to live their lives fully and freely. That’s partly why Speedy and I work so damn hard — to be able to feather our nests comfortably so that Sam and Alex won’t have to worry about us when we’re old.

Continue reading 'An Asian perspective' →

GREENSBURG, Pa. - March 10, 2008 — A Westmoreland County woman has been sentenced to two to four years in prison for letting her 12-year-old daughter have sex at home with a 16-year-old boy. [AP report]
In the comment thread, readers aren’t very kind to the mother.
Probably unrelated trivia:
Melanie Griffith was 14 when her mother, Tippi [...]

Continue reading 'Mothers, daughters and sex' →

I never thought I’d say that. Ever. I hate the summer heat. I dislike the humidity. I dislike how the electric bill gets bloated. I dislike feeling guilty turning on the aircon in the middle of the day. But it’s been a heck of a year and I can’t wait for the schoolyear to end [...]

Continue reading 'Looking forward to the summer' →

Sam was supposed to leave at midnight tonight to go to Mindoro on a four-day optional school trip for third and fourth year students. There was an orientation for parents two weeks ago, I went, we were apprised of the risks, real and imagined, including dengue, malaria and the NPA. I signed the consent form [...]

Continue reading 'When the line between good and bad gets blurry' →

Two seemingly unrelated events took place recently and now there’s renewed interest in the life and loves of assassinated United States President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. First, photographer Bert Sterns recreated, after 46 years, a Marilyn Monroe 1962 nude photo session later known as “The Last Sitting” with actress Lindsay Lohan as his model. The Lohan [...]

Continue reading 'Bastards and kings' →

Have I ever mentioned that Speedy comes from a family of graphic artists? He has two brothers who are Fine Arts graduates and who have been working for years in big advertising companies — one in the U.S. (Hi, Sonny!) and another in Beirut (Hi, Richie!). Speedy used to dabble in drawing and painting but [...]

Continue reading 'Dog art' →

For the past week, I’ve been thinking a lot if we hadn’t been too rash in allowing Sam to get a dog. I must admit that the way Astro has attached himself to me has been both flattering and endearing. But his presence in the house has been traumatic for Pepper — and the rest [...]

Continue reading 'I love him except that he bites' →

The whole point in retiring early was to spend more time with the kids while they were growing up. It wasn’t a tough choice to make. I was never the ambitious young lawyer that most of my peers were. That retirement proved better than I ever imagined was a bonus. I had the opportunity to [...]

Continue reading 'Feeling like a Stepford wife' →

The thing about having a daughter is the tendency to get over-protective — the father, more than the mother. Cocky males who act as though they’re God’s gift to women say it’s because they don’t want sins of the father visiting on their children — you know, based on the illusion that they [...]

Continue reading 'Roots to grow and wings to fly' →