Diary of a new P1 mum (part 3 of 3)

(This is written on 20th/21th Jan)

12) Sensitive kid vs "bad" teacher?  Opinionated child-turn-mummy
A friend shared on FB that she misunderstood an instruction so her daughter brought the wrong book to school, and got scolded by her teacher.  She's upset because her gal felt "lousy" about being scolded.  She's concern that her gal will be dishearten about going to school , and she don't understand why the teacher was so harsh on a P1 kid.  I agree totally and share her concerns.

I'm lucky; Lynn didn't meet such a teacher.  And Lynn is not as sensitive.  She vomited and cried in class and teacher never notice, but it didn't bother her.  When I asked her "why teacher didn't see??", she just shrug her shoulders..

I have my own little story to tell.  I never wanted to be a teacher, because at the young age of 8 (Pri 2), I met a bad teacher, which made me realise that not all teachers are role models.  He was my chinese teacher.  On normal days, he would conduct his boring lessons with text book and chalk board.  One day, he came to class with lots of picture charts, sentence construction slips and other fancy materials.   It was because there's a inspector from MOE to observe his class that day.  He taught with heightened enthusiasm.  I felt disgusted, that's why I remembered it till today.  Along the way, I met other equally bad teachers, esp the ones who show favouritism to an unhealthy extent.  I realised that it's because this profession doesn't attract the best people in the society; many of them are just doing a job. 

On the other hand, teachers nowadays face a lot of stress due to demanding and unreasonable parents, all of them as opinionated as I am.  So this is what I believe and strive to do: (i) Do not depend nor expect teachers in school to teach values and moral; I will count it as a bonus if she meet passionate and sincere teachers.  (ii) Pay attention/get to know the problems that Lynn encounter in school.  I am never close to my mum, so even if she had been a SAHM during my primary school days, she didn't know what went on in my sensitive little mind.   But Lynn is different from me, and sometimes I think she is more like my mum, hahah!!  Hopefully she will the cheerful yet obedient little girl that most teachers like!  

13) My birthday
Did I mention anywhere earlier that WK was away during the 2nd week (ie 7 Jan Mon - 11Jan Fri), during which Lynn vomited (on Monday) and I had this outburst at her (on Wednesday)?  I wonder if things would be different if he was with us during this 2nd week of adjusting to P1 life. 

My birthday was on Fri, the last day of the week.. A lot had happened during the week. Lynn is too young to remember my birthday, and WK's mum never did. That morning we carried out our activities per normal. No special behaviour, no peck on the cheek from my little diamond.   But then I wasn’t expecting anything.

I left office early that day, and went for treatment and window shopping.  Supposed to have dinner with WS, but it didn’t materialize.  I reached home late, at 10pm, and realized that WK’s home already.  I was very surprised that Lynn was not home; she and WK’s mum only came home at 1030.  I felt angry, but I can’t scold them (one is my mother-in-law, the other one is the innocent party with no control over time).  I chased her to bed, wondering how exhausted she must be to be up from 6.30am to 1030pm...   I felt “heart-ache”.  All the stress and battle that I went throu’ to get her go to bed early and to wake up at 630am, all the routine and discipline that I fought so hard to incorporate, all disregarded for a Friday night out with 2 energetic 20s-years-old.   Who will understand the dilemma that a mummy will face on weekend mornings (do I let my baby sleep in late?  Do I wake her up early so that she has no problem falling asleep at 9pm on Sunday?  What kind of monster will I face on Monday morning)?

14) Boo-hoo-hoo, the 3rd week cry baby [14Jan - 18Jan + 19/20Jan]          

One of my friends who responded to my FB posting the week before is Lili, who said that I have not yet experience the stage when long term exhaustion (of having to wake up early) sets in so that the P1 will be extremely cranky and refuse to go to school.  I thought that we experienced a little of that on week 3.

Lynn was probably also feeling a little unwell (exposure to so many children/virus).  Whatever the reasons were, she cried in the morning of Wed, Thurs and Friday.  We had to use all sorts of tactics (scold, negotiate, comfort, distraction) to get her going. 

During the weekends, I reflected on the events of the past weeks.  We asked Lynn what she likes about school, and her answer is “recess”J.  There’s still a very long journey for us, and for her.  As a mother, sometimes I am thankful and grateful that my girl is healthy, happy and is simply here with me.  Sometimes, I secretly hope that she will become a high achiever, a class monitor and a school prefect, and a shiny star at CCA.  I told my aunt about the posting on FB, complaining to her that I was deemed by my friends as too stressed and too high expectation.    She went like “no way!”, and we discussed (gossip, haha..) about cousins/nieces/nephews results.  She joked that she wanted to tell my gal to beat my PSLE score, but was told by WS “pls lah, she only P1!!”    

15) Good luck, and enjoy
OK, there’s plenty of time next time to blog about school systems, exams, results, stress, problems, etc. Back to my new P1 mummy diary, it is Monday, 21 Jan today, and this morning it was smooth.  She drank 1 out of 3 oz of her powdered milk, probably less than 1 oz of Meiji brand (cold) strawberry milk, 50% of a slice of Gardiner pandan flavour bread with nutela (yuck!!), and a few ml of running nose medicine.  She didn’t cry, and was in quite a good mood when we were walking to school.  I’m going to end my posting about the first few weeks of P1 here.  Good luck to Lynn, myself, and all mummies and kids out there.  I hope she will enjoy primary school more than I did!