Happy Father's Day 2012

Celebrating Father's day makes me feel nostalgic for it makes me miss my father and brings me back memories of him. Being a father is not easy. They are the head of the family and they need to be strong and provide for the whole family.

I admire my father for he is very hardworking and loving. He also was very tolerant of us yet he is very protective. I can relate how protective my hubby now with our own girl. That's the way fathers are.

To my hubby and all the fathers in the world, a very happy Father's Day 2012. Continue to be a blessing to your family.

Learning to Read

The other night, while me and hubby were busy chit-chatting, Keona was also busy scanning her books and learning to identify letters in the alphabet. I get amused when I see her doing this.

She looks really serious.LOLz

Effect of Early Spanking

Keona has been growing really fast. She is a fast learner. You teach her today, keep repeating it...and she'll never forget it anymore. She is also becoming very curious. She would want to touch anything that interests her.

There are times when hubby raises his voice because Keona sometimes doesn't follow a simple "No". And I reminded hubby that he should not spank our baby or raise his voice when disciplining our child. I remember in my child psychology subject way back in college that the most important thing is to let the child understand why he is being spanked. If she doesn't understand, she'll develop hatred towards people who spanked her.

In an article that i have read in a newspaper, a research shows that children who are spanked as 1-year olds are more likely to behave aggressively and perform worse on cognitive tests as toddlers than children who are spared the punishment. Though the negative effects of spanking were "modest", the study adds the growing body of literature that spanking is not good for chldren.


Age 1 is key time for establishing the quality of the parenting and the relationship between parent and child according to a research scientist. Spanking at age 1 reflects a negative dynamic and increase children's aggression at age two.

My childhood memories on All Saints Day and All Souls Day

When I was young, I have lots of memories on All Saints Day which happens every 1st of November. This is a time of the year, that we, as young children would have lots of fun because our cousins and relatives from other places would go home. There would be lots of foods cooked, usually native delicacies- suman(made of rice wrapped in banana leaf), bebingka (rice cake), biko, boiled native chicken. In the evening, my Pappa and Momma would prepare food and put it in the altar. These traditions are influences from my grandma during that time. Being a young child and curious that I was, I would ask questions to my father...

Me: Pappa, why would we place foods in the altar?

Pappa:(looking hard up in answering my question) The souls of our departed loved ones will eat food during this time...

Me: Oh, how would they eat foods when they are already dead?

Pappa: My child, they have souls, they will not eat the food, like we do, but they will smell the aroma of the food that we are offering in the altar.

These are traditions the we have lost as time goes by. When my grandma died when I was 14 years old, traditional practices that we got from her gradually died a natural death.

When the All Souls Day come, lots of people visit to our place because our house in the province is just a stone's throw away from the cemetery. This is the day when people would flock and visit their dead loved ones, light a candle on their tombs and offer prayer.

Verbal Hugs and Kisses are Foods for Your Child's Emotional and Mental Health

We parents would really want our children to grow up happy, secure,physically, mentally and emotionally healthy.

I have read an interesting article about developing our child's emotional and mental health. An internationally known psychiatrist says that most of those unhappy and unsuccessful, all angry at the world are among those who have never been hugged and kissed by their parents when they were kids. And the best hugs and kisses that are "food" to a growing child's emotional and mental wellbeing are the verbal ones , words and gestures that say I love you because you are you.

Unfortunately, family counselors say that a lot of parents are unaware of the vital role that "verbal hugs and kisses" like praises and compliments - play in their growing child's emotional and mental development. Many parents think that hugging and kissing aren't their general style. We are quick to criticize our children but slow to compliment them. We often admired them but seldom express our admiration.

Family counselors are one in saying that praises and compliments have more lasting effects on the growing child than the physical ones when these are done not as acknowledgment or an expression of thanks for a job well done but as spontaneous manifestation of parental affection.

Most parents, fathers especially are afraid to hug or praise their children for fear of spoiling them. But ego, they say, enriched by feelings of security and being loved is much better than an ego that has been deflated for lack of self-esteem.

There are ways for parents to learn to see more of their child's good qualities and appreciate them, making hugging them a pleasure and an enriching experience:

• Look for good qualities in your kids which you haven't noticed.

• Treat your kids the way you treat your friends.

• Take note of the good things your neighbor and friends say about your children and repeat what from them.

Hug your children once in a while and hug the one who needs to be hug the most real tight. As family counselors and parenting experts point out, " The child who is hardest to hug usually needs the hugging most!".