It must be Wonderful

http://groups.google.com/group/mothers-always

Need to have, Nice to have, Must have

Ever notice how you start off with the basic handphone for your kids because you need them to stay in touch with you. Then it becomes, ‘mum, all my friends can play music on their phones’, so then you ‘upgrade’ when the contract is up(refuse to give in sooner) so they can be on par with ‘all’ their friends.
Our ‘nice to have’ is their ‘must have’. I realize of course there’s a fair amount of exaggeration there when ‘all’ their friends and ‘everyone’ has this or that.

We are not much different (although more controlled) but perhaps for different reasons.
My mobile phone is sufficient I told myself, calls and camera feature was all I needed. Don’t waste money upgrading.
Then it began, ..the latest Nokia series with office functions and web browsing, I said no, don’t need that. – not so compact, keyboard so tiny,
Then my colleagues got it, and ‘showed’ me how wonderful it is. Suddenly I’m thinking, maybe I should take advantage(of the discounts) and upgrade my phone. Yes.. I could put Excel sheets on it, perhaps I could do away with my PDA and do all in one. We start to look for reasons and manufacture more to do the deed (! the evil laugh should sound here).

We all have diversions, routines, little hobbies but then life should be about constant movement and learning so that we continue to live, not just exist.
It’s not about dissatisfaction or keeping up with your neighbour.
Once in a while, we need it - a new ‘event’. The new tech stuff keeps us moving, that new earring gives us anticipation, new recipes keeps us interested - the novelty keeps us going. It doesn’t always have to cost money. We can’t all afford to take regular vacations.

Thank heaven for the little things we can. Because not everyone is lucky to have choices.

http://groups.google.com/group/mothers-always

My Teenager

Little by little, I watch her inch out of the circle. Their friends and their outings grow more appealing than together time with the younger siblings.
But of course if it's shopping, there's nothing like time with mom if that teenager is a girl.
What generation gap, it' s the wallet gap lah!!

You want them to be independent yet, want to protect them forever, and keep them at your side. You can only hope that the foundation's sturdy, the bridge holds.. that that communication connection you've built, will be constant despite all else. Being mom means being their always no matter what, hope she will trust with all things. She's seen more and heard more than I did at this age, is she wiser? That's hard to say, because from all that exposure, there is much information and more expression to discern and sort.

Fortunately and unfortunately, we mothers of the young generation today are a different breed from our own mothers, because of our evolved lives, we are somehow still 'younger at heart', involved in both the complex webs of our own lives and children's. Events and interests overlap in many areas so much so that non-interaction is quite impossible; constrained only by the time we are at work and they in school. We help them with maths, they teach us Xbox.

Study is always tough work..but she is strong and manages to push herself along.
She can be protective of her brothers but she is still capable of getting into a cat and dog fight with the youngest fellow.

I'm not in a hurry for her to 'grow up' yet but it seems like girls just do that faster anyhow.

http://groups.google.com/group/mothers-always