Travel through time style of parenting

Sometimes, I swing between back to the future and time travel when it comes to grasping with how to bring up good adults.

I remember once my ob-gynae, a male in his late 40s shook his head and jokingly told me "L, you do not want to have more babies lar. You got 3 enough lar. Headache you know?" Of course, he was joking with me. Such remarks if wrongly quoted in the angmohs country can kena sue, you know? Then, his nurse joined in the joke and told me that ob-gynae's teenage son is driving him up the wall. Back then, I was so eager to get a baby to play with because I had just stopped working and found that having a baby must be fun. Well, babies ARE fun. But....

I like to read the Youth section of the papers. Not that I enjoy listening to teenagers ranting and venting but I am doing 'time travel'. My jaw dropped, my eyes popped out, I get cold sweat, insomnia, stomach ulcers by just reading. Teenage pregnancies, venturing into voodoo, depression, suicidal thoughts etc etc. One can feel the rebellious tones and wonder who had done wrong. E.g. I remember sometime back, a few girls were debating on religion. One of them proudly declared that she loves those white face, dark eyes type of worshipping. I have forgotten the name for that. Another said she follows the Wiccans way of worshipping. (sorry, I am not very clear on this but I know that it is something the native Americans practice) From my involvement with some overseas bereaved moms, I know that a few teenagers had committed suicide after getting too confused. Some may call it devil worshipping. I think it is more of a misguided kinda thing.

So, with kids reaching the teenage years, I have to travel to the future, hear what the older teenagers are into. Try to understand their reasonings. And most of all, pray really hard that God will guide my kids.

(Background noises while I am doing this blog : A neighbour of mine, in some far away unit, is screaming his lungs out at his child at 1.30 am. I can't hear whether it is a son or daugther because only the man is yelling. But it is very nerve wrecking to know that kids can really screwed up and by then, will it be too late to scream at them? The man is telling the child to move out. Does that solve the problem, what ever it is? Worry.... God please grant me the wisdom that I very much needed in bringing up fine adults. Amen.)