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Image link = Large Scale Play Set Balancing Scale
Parenting is a delicate Balancing Act. First of all, you have to balance between family and work. Then there are all other sorts of balancing acts you have to do. You have to balance between...
- holding on and letting go
- balancing your time between work and play
- scheduling your children's time between work and play
- being firm and being indulgent (as in discipline vs love)
These are some of the big balancing act a parent has to do. Then there are the little parenting balancing acts like:
- how much junk food to allow vs vegetables and fruits
- how much sleep should a child get vs waking hours
- allowing freedom of expression vs rudeness and talking back
- spreading time out between your kids so that each gets enough individual attention
- allowing more freedom to go out vs I'm your mum thats why!
- time for yourself vs time for your children
Sometimes, it can get rather tiring. Since the kids final exams are approaching, I am currently trying to tip the scale to more work and less play. However, recently, I received this remark....
"Mummy, I'm going to get 100% for you." (Horror of horrors! Surely I have not made her think that getting 100 is all that important in my effort to balance the work play scales? My reply: Get 100 for yourself not for me! Its the effort that counts not the marks)
"Mummy, I'm going to finish all my homework and do workbooks and do them very fast. Please remind me. I want to do this so that I have time to continue typing my novel." (The girl is 'working' on her Chinese novel in all seriousness and all she wants is time to sit and type out her story. So she wants to rush through all her work just so she can continue typing her story. The boy on the other hand wants to rush through his work so that he can play pc games.)
While mummy here is getting a serious headache on how to balance the work play scales. That is my current parenting balancing act. Which act are you balancing now?
