Karaoke with the kids

Whenever we go back to our hometown, my mil would pull us all in for mahjong. Both our parents love the game, and though it could be seen as a waste of time (in korkor's perspective), it is definitely a great pastime for old folks. I told my kids that they see them as pathetic, but in actual fact, they are very blessed to be enjoying their old age like this, going for holidays twice or thrice a year and having friends at home to exercise their minds with this game.

Though I like to join in once in awhile, but after some hours, I do feel precious time wasted on us indeed. But on the other hand, I feel obliged to play with them,, so I try to balance the time as much as I can.

The last we were back, I rejected my mil's invite to play, after an evening of the said game already. Instead I took the kids to sing songs at a karaoke outlet, with their young aunt, Jing Jing Jie Jie. Their very first karaoke session! Fortunately, I won some extra bucks from the last night's game and that sponsored our sing song session.

Korkor and meimei were rather sporting about it, but didi was very careful and selective, I would say. We sang for 3 hours straight on all the newest fast numbers and that was pretty fun.

It will be a long while for the next karaoke session for me!

Different perspective from different generations

This school holiday, we had the chance to get together with my 2nd bro's family back in Ipoh and in Genting.

The cousins who rarely meet, were awkward with each other in the beginning, but gradually they did warm up, much to my happiness. But that night at my mom's, the kids were playing iPads each on their own, maybe sometimes glancing over at the other's shoulder to see how the game was going along. How pathetic.

In the car, korkor lamented that his grandma (my mil) has such a pathetic life, only playing mahjong for the whole weekend. That kicked off a lecture on how different everyone's perspective is.

We told him that we and the older generation feel that they are the pathetic ones who only know how to play the computer games or the gadgets we have. I went on a lengthy long winded grandma story of how my cousins and neighbors' kids played, without toys, without tv, both outdoors and indoors, all day all night long. We would just think about silly games and make up silly rules and had fun, without feeling bored at all. How could we have such imagination really is beyond me.

And most importantly of all, we did not need to ask our moms what do we do next. Argh!!! that irky question when I banned their computers or tv or gadgets, "what do we do now?", can't you think for yourself??? This new technology stuffs really kill their creative cells!

Well, of course, after all that's been said, I don't deny parents play a vital role too. We should take those away from them, but really, I'm imposing some few hours banned from those stuffs, they are already hating me to ends. Sometimes, I just tell myself, just let them hate me. It sure feels sick to be the bad cop.