Image by tim ellis via Flickr

School holiday has just started. It will an one month holiday. In the past, it was pure play, fun for the kids during school holiday, well, apart from the home work.

Nowadays, it will be a busy schedule for the kids even during school holiday. Some of the parents have their kids holiday all planned up. This includes a 2 weeks language workshop, art-and-craft classes, gymnastic, sports clinic for the rest. In fact there are many more variety of classes available like yoga, scuba diving, art and drama, cooking, Lego engineering and Robotics, camps, etc...

The parents don't mind to splurge thousands for the holiday programmes for their kids. No doubt, the parents are doing it for the kids own good, to catch up whatever subjects the kids are lagging, to cultivate creativity or maybe just to let the kids socialise and learn. But, I do think that it will worn the kids out. It is just a short one month break, where there is still homework to be done, tuition classes to attend. When the school reopen, the kids might be too tired and unable to cope with the lessons.

I encourage parents to send their kids to the classes if the kids really interested in rather than forcing them on the intention to cultivate their creativity, or to force them to socialise or learn something new which they might not be interested or worse because of kiasu (afraid to lose out).

I think it will be a waste of money and waste of time, if the parents didn't listen to the kids whether they want to participate in the classes or not.

Image by alex.ragone via Flickr

Today I heard a story from my friend.

His 21 month old daughter just came out from hospital with a cast on her arm.

This happened in a childcare center. He sent his daughter to this childcare center.
One day, he went to the childcare to fetch his daughter together with his wife as usual. When they reached home, they were shocked to find that their daughter's arm was swollen. Immediately they called the childcare to find out. To their surprise, the childcare teacher didn't know what happen!

So, they complained to the principal. After investigation, they only found out that their daughter while playing with other kids, she was accidentally pushed and fell on the floor and fractured her arm!

It is so unbelievable that the teachers didn't know!

Unless you tell me that my friend's daughter didn't cry even she fractured her arm, else I find it very difficult to understand why no teacher aware that this poor kid was crying in pain?
And the teachers didn't even realize it the whole day in the childcare center!
Futhermore, this childcare is quite reputable in Singapore!

This is really worrying that is it safe to put toddlers in childcare center. Is the number of teachers enough to take care of all the kids in the childcare, or they just merely meet the teacher-student ratio on paper?

Image via Wikipedia

Lately, Pampers has been on the news in the US. Their new DryMax diapers have received complaints from mummies through the internet. It has been reported to cause rashes and "chemical burns"!

You can read some of the comments from the mummies in here. If you do a Google on "Pampers Chemical Burns" you will find a lot of news about it.

Procter & Gamble (P&G), the company behind Pampers, is scrambling to fight against the allegation.
And it has been reported in some of the famous news sites like WSJ and AFP.

This is truely amazing that mummies using the power of internet, blogging, facebook to get their complaints through and the the words spread very fast. P&G is listening and responding to the complaints seriously.

I am pretty sure that in future, the mummies bloggers will be even more important group of people that baby care products companies would like to friend with.

Now, when will father bloggers will be taken note of??

Image by Pink Sherbet Photography via Flickr

Birthday gift for kids usually will be toys, games, books or clothes.

Recently a friend told me.

My 7 years old daughter's birthday coming soon. So, I asked her what does she want for her birthday. I was expecting like "No need, daddy", or "Barbie Doll" or "Zhu Zhu Pets", something like that..

Guess what's her answer...

"I want manicure, pedicure and hair done up like princesses"

Wow! The girls mature early nowadays. This kind of session, according to an news reported on the paper, can range from SGD30 to SGD430!! It only lasts for days and cannot be shared with others like PSP.

I think a lot of fathers will start worrying...

Image via Wikipedia

Recently I read an article, it is quite disturbing, but I think it is quite true and worth a read.
The kids and we also might indirectly expose ourselves through internet unknowingly.

You might have read it somewhere too, for those who haven't seen it before, please spare a moment to read.
You can find the article in here too

After tossing her books on the sofa, she decided to grab a snack and get on-line. She logged on under her screen name ByAngel213. She checked her Buddy List and saw GoTo123 was on. She sent him an instant message:

ByAngel213:
Hi. I'm glad you are on! I thought someone was following me home today. It was really weird!

GoTo123:
LOL You watch too much TV. Why would someone be following you? Don't you live in a safe neighborhood?

ByAngel213:
Of course I do. LOL I guess it was my imagination cuz' I didn't see anybody when I looked out.

GoTo123:
Unless you gave your name out on-line. You haven't done that have you?

ByAngel213:
Of course not. I'm not stupid you know.

GoTo123:
Did you have a softball game after school today?

ByAngel213:
Yes, and we won!!

GoTo123:
That's great! Who did you play?

ByAngel213:
We played the Hornets. LOL. Their uniforms are so gross! They look like bees. LOL

GoTo123:
What is your team called?

ByAngel213:
We are the Canton Cats. We have tiger paws on our uniforms. They are really cool.

GoTo1 23:
Did you pitch?

ByAngel213:
No, I play second base. I got to go. My homework has to be done before my parents get home. I don't want them mad at me. Bye!

GoTo123:
Catch you later. Bye

Meanwhile, GoTo123 went to the member menu and began to search for her profile. When it came up, he highlighted it and printed it out. He took out a pen and began to write down what he knew about Angel so far.

Her name: Shannon
Birthday: Jan. 3, 1985
Age: 13
State where she lived: North Carolina

Hobbies: softball, chorus, skating and going to the mall. Besides this information, he knew she lived in Canton because she had just told him. He knew she stayed by herself until 6:30 p.m. every afternoon until her parents came home from work. He knew she played softball on Thursday afternoons on the school team, and the team was named the Canton Cats. Her favorite number 7 was printed on her jersey. He knew she was in the eighth grade at the Canton Junior High School . She had told him all this in the conversations they had on- line. He had enough information to find her now.

Shannon didn't tell her parents about the incident on the way home from the ballpark that day. She didn't want them to make a scene and stop her from walking home from the softball games. Parents were always overreacting and hers were the worst. It made her wish she was not an only child. Maybe if she had brothers and sisters, her parents wouldn't be so overprotective.

By Thursday, Shannon had forgotten about the footsteps following her.

Her game was in full swing when suddenly she felt someone staring at her. It was then that the memory came back. She glanced up from her second base position to see a man watching her closely.

He was leaning against the fence behind first base and he smiled when she looked at him. He didn't look scary and she quickly dismissed the sudden fear she had felt.

After the game, he sat on a bleacher while she talked to the coach. She noticed his smile once again as she walked past him. He nodded and she smiled back. He noticed her name on the back of her shirt. He knew he had found her.

Quietly, he walked a safe distance behind her. It was only a few blocks to Shannon 's home, and once he saw where she lived he quickly returned to the park to get his car.

Now he had to wait. He decided to get a bite to eat until the time came to go to Shannon 's house. He drove to a fast food restaurant and sat there until time to make his move.

Shannon was in her room later that evening when she heard voices in the living room.

"Shannon, come here," her father called. He sounded upset and she couldn't imagine why. She went into the room to see the man from the ballpark sitting on the sofa.

"Sit down," her father began, "this man has just told us a most interesting story about you."

Shannon sat back. How could he tell her parents anything? She had never seen him before today!

"Do you know who I am, Shannon ?" the man asked.

"No," Shannon answered.

"I am a police officer and your online friend, GoTo123."

Shannon was stunned. "That's impossible! GoTo is a kid my age! He's 14. And he lives in Michigan !"

The man smiled. "I know I told you all that, but it wasn't true. You see, Shannon , there are people on-line who pretend to be kids; I was one of them. But while others do it to injure kids and hurt them, I belong to a group of parents who do it to protect kids from predators. I came here to find you to teach you how dangerous it is to talk to people on-line. You told me enough about yourself to make it easy for me to find you. You named the school you went to, the name of your ball team and the position you played. The number and name on your jersey just made finding you a breeze."

Shannon was stunned. "You mean you don't live in Michigan ?"

He laughed. "No, I live in Raleigh . It made you feel safe to think I was so far away, didn't it?"

She nodded.

"I had a friend whose daughter was like you. Only she wasn't as lucky. The guy found her and murdered her while she was home alone. Kids are taught not to tell anyone when they are alone, yet they do it all the time on-line. The wrong people trick you into giving out information a little here and there on-line. Before you know it, you have told them enough for them to find you without even realizing you have done it. I hope you've learned a lesson from this and won't do it again. Tell others about this so they will be safe too?"

"It's a promise!"

That night Shannon and her Dad and Mom thanked God for protecting Shannon from what could have been a tragic situation.