Category Archives: Parenting

To all the friends I bored before

4 Replies

In the years of B.C. (Before Children), there was one thing I found more mind-numbing than watching paint dry. No, it was not work – a soul-destroying endeavour but never mind-numbing. Neither was it shopping with my wife for things to clutter the house – the choices always boggled the mind so much that it never had a chance to get numb.

Guess who's talking and what he's talking about
Guess who’s talking and what he’s talking about

No, the thing that never failed to bore me witless, that always lulled me into a comatose state, was listening to people talk about their little kids during social gatherings. It was as if the very act of becoming parents had somehow transformed these once-interesting friends and colleagues into a homogeneous species – one whose conversation skills were confined to talking about their precious offsprings. Continue reading →

Indelible Melodies

2 Replies

My elder six year-old son, L, is growing like a weed. These days, I’m frequently gob-smacked by how tall and big he is. Not only that, but L is genuinely developing into a small man.

Jack, how do you put your own kids to sleep?
Jack, how do you put your own kids to sleep?

He picks up dead bugs around the house, while calming his hysterical mother who always somehow finds a table to climb onto when these creepy crawlies are about. He helps me rake leaves in the backyard and never fails to demand fair compensation for services rendered. He is capable of holding a serious conversation with me about any number of topics (especially ones involving small ninja figurines), but mature beyond his age not to embarrass me when I can’t answer his probing questions or match his counter-arguments.

The transformation naturally leads me to reminisce about the days when he was small enough for me to cradle and babyish enough for me to cuddle. Unfortunately, it also brings back memories of some of worst times of parenthood, when L struggled with sleeping. You see, for the first two or so years of his life, L would wake up at least 6-8 times a night, unable to settle himself back to nap, and completely drive my wife and I to the very brink of insanity. It didn’t help that L had an eczema problem which made him scratch furiously on most nights and scream from fatigue on most days.

Continue reading →

It took a long time …

7 Replies

I just returned from a week-long family holiday in Bali, Indonesia. The number of highlights from

Lost track of time running on Bali sand

Lost track of time running on Bali sand

the trip easily matched the number of mosquito bites that I sustained (that is to say, abundant). One of the highlights that you won’t read in any Lonely Planet guides is the beach run that I did on the very first morning on the island, from north (Seminyak) to south (Kuta) and back.

It started out unremarkably, perhaps even stressfully, as I had to negotiate the busy main street leading up to the beach, side-stepping pot-holes and dodging motor-bikes while trying to get used to the stifling heat (even at 6.30am).

Then I hit the beach and everything changed. Continue reading →

Daddy’s blog – hacked!

3 Replies

Hi everyone, my name is L. I am The Jogging Dad’s 6 year-old elder son. He left this thing called WordPress/Joggingdad.com logged on (he’s becoming a little forgetful at his age) because he’s attending to my little 4 year-old brother who is chucking a hissy fit. My brother always chucks a hissy fit when jigsaw puzzles don’t look like a Picasso, if you know what I mean!

That's not me but that's exactly what I'm doing on daddy's blog!

That’s not me but that’s exactly what I’m doing on daddy’s blog!

Anyhow, I thought I take this opportunity, while he’s not looking, to write some gibberish on this blog thing that my daddy spends an unhealthy amount of time on.

I rarely hear him talk about his work except that he stares at these numbers on computer screens everyday. He tells me that when these numbers go up, he sells some things, when they are go down, he buys some things. I usually roll my eyes and switch off at that point, and I think he does too. I also rarely hear him talk about his hobbies except that he runs around the park every now and then, comes home all sweaty without a shirt on, and then stares into the distance while sitting in the backyard guzzling down a Coke. However, I do see him quite often typing away on his laptop or scribbling away on his little notebook. I’m thinking that that has something to do with this blog thing that I’m currently mucking about with. Continue reading →

My 4 year-old son as Big Jack

5 Replies

You want me on that iPad, you need me on that iPad!

Despite the proliferation of these flash-in-the-pan phenomenons called the internet, youtube, Kindl and IOIOIO, I, the utter luddite, still watch TV quite often. So I was doing exactly that the other night, enjoying the film A Few Good Men for the upteempth time, and captivated once again by the great scene at the end when Daniel Kaffee (Tom Cruise) was cross-examining Colonel Nathan Jessup (Jack Nicholson).

It then occurred to me that that Jack Nicholson character could easily have been my 4 year-old son, C, particularly when I catch him doing something he’s not suppose to do. For example: Continue reading →