I was once a boy too...son

How coincidental when I read a message from a old school mate of mine, posted on her Facebook wall,something like this," Asked him to study, he said tired and sleepy, asked him to play on line games, he can play the whole night" and i guess this is the normal angst of parents the present day.

Coincidental? Yes, because just last night, Jovial asked me if he could turn on his notebook to manage his on line games stuff "don't know what stuff lah?" the i told him,"son,do you know that you can't fiddle with your note book on school days as promised?" he nodded but then again he looked kind of dejected, then i inquired why did he have to do it,he said to update certain things, i asked again, what things, he said,"papa you don't know one lah"

"okay son, i really don't know much about online games but son I was once a boy too" then I asked, how long did he need to update the stuff, he said less than 10 minutes, then I gave in and he was happy and so was I.

Seriously I used to have loads of problems with Jovial as far as online games was concerned but now I am glad that I managed to handle it amicably with him and we are okay..

To me rules must be set but then again to me it is okay to give in a little here and there. As far as I am concerned, I will do my best to take my boys out for some physical activities like swimming and basketball in the evening, at least 3 times a week and they agreed.

I must also make sure that I don't go out in the evening, unless it is utmost necessary (except weekend) just to spend times with them and I must also see to it that I read before bed times as to get them into the habit of reading too.

I reckon, parents play a important role in mirroring how we want our children to be (my personal opinion) we can't really expect our children to be active physically when ourselves are not, we can't get our children to read more, if we are just too lazy to leaf through some pages.

Now, I can't really do my running in the evening because I've given those evenings to my children to take them out for activities, so I have to wake up at 5.30 am in lieu of the evening runs but I think it shall one day be worthwhile.

P/S : Son......I was once a boy too and I understand