Category Archives: Kids

Adult, Kids, Money, Relationship, Thoughts

Gold Front

Can you believe it? You can buy physical gold and I mean gold jewellery from retailers online now.

Ah… The beauty of online shopping.

Plus, I always go for items on sale. It is the weight and purity. Not the design.

I always thought goldsmith shops are for the old. Now that I am not young anymore, I admit I enjoy walking in to jewellery shop just to check out the price and designs.

Sparkling stuff and precious stones.

I have been gifting gold as gifts to my friends’ children since I started being invited to baby full month or 100 days or one year birthdays. Depending on the relationship, it has to be at least 1gram.

Sad to say, no one gifted my poor child gold when he is born nor on his birthday.

Prices of gold has gone up a bit. If only I bought and kept gold last time. If only I knew. I knew but I didn’t. Just like my encounter with Bitcoin when it was only $200.

I bought gold display ornaments for my nephew’s 21st birthday and he told me he is going to keep it as his family heirloom. Awww.

Gold is a presentable gift. Many times I did not feel like putting in effort to head to the mall to buy useless toys and I did not want to be too generous in giving money, I go online and buy small gold pendants.

I have another baby full month party to attend and I am gifting something that cost less than what I would normally put in a red packet.

For this case in particular, I believe my insurance advisor has earned enough from me…

I am still sore about not being able to claim for my hysterectomy as he claimed my case “slipped through the crack” and is a special case. He convinced me to cancel a policy covering women’s illness and go for something else.

I will put up a nice gold front business wise but nah, I will not be generous to him anymore.

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Adult, complain, Kids, Money, Relationship

Mummy Woes 05: It’s a Competition

I threw a birthday party at an indoor playground for the little one sometime back.

I didn’t give much thoughts about it. The price seemed reasonable enough for the number of guests with some party food.

I got a shock after the final bill. $1.3k in all for a 1 hour 45 mins party. I really can’t justify the cost.

I didn’t even celebrate my 40th. Kid’s birthday party is too tiring with the preparation of the cake, decor and door gifts.

Why did I do it? I believed was pressure to host a party because people are asking. I should have invited all the sampat relatives from the husband’s side to collect red packets.

To think that I used to gift gold bars whenever I attend friend’s children’s birthday party. I have not received any back despite my generosity.

Come to think of it, it is just like weddings. People invite you to fill up a seat. When your turn arrived, they had other plans.

When other birthdays are near, mummies from my group started outdoing one another.

“I’m so tired, I spent 2K doing it,” said one.

“I spent 3K and I’m exhausted,” chipped in another.

As if comparing childcare centres is not enough. This felt like comparing where we send our kids for enrichment and how much we spent on kids. Ballet simply topped the chart for expenses.

What’s next? Learning lab?

I am so done with birthday celebrations. Next big party will be in 18 years time when he is of legal age. I’ll probably give kiddo cash to go out and party with his friends.

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Culture, Fertility, Health, Kids, life

还愿 05: 注生娘娘 Chinese Deity of Birth and Fertility

At Lian Shan Shuang Lin Monastry at Toa Payoh.

My mother prayed for safe pregnancy and delivery during her time. Then she prayed again to keep her children safe from harm.

I visited this temple when I was young with my mum and I still visit every year with my family during Chinese New Year for prayers.

Call it keeping the traditions alive.

I finally visited in 2019 after admitting I do have fertility challenges after I left my last banking job without another job and after all the injections for my second IVF cycle and before the next egg retrieval.

Pray. Just sincerely and silently. Girl or boy doesn’t matter. As long as the embryo latches this time, and as long as the pregnancy is smooth and as long as the child is healthy.

Maybe I was too sensitive but I sure thought she was smiling back at me at that time. Nonetheless, I took a couple of red eggs home to eat on my bed with my husband.

Fast forward a few months later, I gave birth to my precious at 32 weeks. He was a premie with no health problems. He was placed in special care only because he hadn’t reached full term. Baby was safe but the mummy wasn’t (I had loads of complications accompanied with other struggles).

I could have lost him if I didn’t felt paranoid and checked myself into the hospital in the middle of the night and subsequently placed in the delivery ward.

I could have lost him as my placenta had detached which resulted in the emergency caesarean. He could be a stillborn if there were no oxygen from the placenta.

I could be brain dead if I hadn’t asked a nurse to help me to the toilet who then administered CPR on me for more than two minutes after I collapsed because little did I know blood clots stopped oxygen into my lungs.

I think I was lucky. Extremely thankful that both of us are alive. Hence, I patiently waited until Covid restrictions were relaxed and returned 200 red eggs to give thanks and also to share the blessing with other couples.

What is 200 eggs and some incense for my life, my joy and happiness?

As long as my child is still young, seems like I will be visiting this temple for a long long time.

On a side note, in the IVF Facebook group I am in, people kept mentioning this temple and returning eggs here and encouraging others to visit. I guess it didn’t only work for me…

More on Keeping the Faith.

Read the history of the deity here.

Read on how to pray here.

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