I ask myself what I did learn from the one-month work as child minder and cook?
The first answer is gratefulness that as a family we resisted big screen colour TV and wireless 24 hour TV programming. As my children were growing up, we moved from one rental property to the next. Without proper TV antenna, even a 20-inch colour TV screen was no fun to watch. When my children fell in love with the cartoon channel, it was my husband who veto having to pay $80 a month of subscription fee to Astro the cable network.
After I stopped working full time, my children were privileged to grow up with lots of children's books borrowed from public library. Imagine, if a mother gives 0-7 years of full time care to each child she bears, it usually equals to a career suicide if she has more than 2 children and if there is a gap between children. Yet I have seen friends who worked full time until the last child turned 7 before quitting their job to drive the car pools. Invariably they have tough time working against the habits of half grown children formed under other carers.
Of course those who worked that extra ten or more years would have accumulated much money in Employee Provident Fund. Perhaps they have invested in a well rounded share portfolio or own one rental property.
Going back to the topic at hand, I have achieved only two things:
1. The girl's table manners improved
2. Should the boy implement my suggestions, he would be able to overcome a range of social ineptness.
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