All the sweetness and savory birthday meals. May she enjoy all these flavors life bring.
I love myself before becoming a mother. I love myself even better as the years go by. It has improved so many aspects of my personal life. It sets my priorities right, improve my time and energy management, and helps me trying to pursue the right goals in life.
In raising her, I keep editing my life and adjusting my direction.
It’s not only about raising a human being to be something in the future, doing specific jobs. It’s more about raising someone who knows who she is, where she came from, and where and to whom she will return.
Putting my best effort into raising a conscious human being with a strong sense of direction in life. So whenever she’s lost, she still knows to whom and where she must return and turn.
Keep improving the work of raising a person with confidence and humility, knowing there will always be The Most Merciful and The Most Powerful to protect her, grant all her heart wishes, and guide her to achieve them. At the same time, she understands where the credit goes for everything she has in life.
A human being who understands the real compass in life is never another human being. Including me, her mother. She is not me and will never be me. So, I hope she’ll find herself, and I sincerely hope she’ll find herself in the right place, doing the right thing,surrounded by the right people.
I hope you live a great life filled with barakah.
Keep your head down to count your many uncountable blessings, Keep your hope high while you ask for your future. Give your best effort and let Allah decide the rest.
The initial schedule was arriving in Madina around 9.30 morning, but then, six hours delay made us has to deal with 10 hours of layover and arrived at 21.30.
A flight with 100% punctuality and no delay history, yet, it delayed for 6 hours, ONLY on the day we departed. Instead of arrived early as planned, we had 10 hours of layover in the airport, wasted and doing nothing. Even the transit hotel plan missed us.
Half of the day was abruptly taken by unexpected event, half of them was more for Umra preparation, it left us with a full day in Madina. but Allah made this brief time spent in Madinah sufficient for all things that the heart yearned.
Arrived in Madina exhausted and unfocused. Alhamdulilah we chose the right hotel after changed it for few times. At least, something was right.
Nabawi has always been tranquil and beautiful. I only had few main itineraries in Madina other than regular pray in Nabawi. Visiting Quba, Raudah, and Rasulullah Biography museum.
Entering Raudah now needs some permit and it is quite hard to obtain. It seemed too good to be true until it turned out happening on the last minute. Even how smooth the visit was left me speechless.
It reminds me of one of Rasulullah SAW saying : “What has reached you was never meant to miss you and what has missed you was never meant to reach you”.
In this Umrah trip, we experienced both.
Umrah bound to Makkah using Haramain train and the Umrah process itself Alhamdulilah went smoothly.
The real struggle was when dealing with the bucket list.
In few previous umrah and Hajj, pray in the ground floor with Kabah view was a regular thing to have. Doing daily Tawaf on the ground floor is easily reachable. Returned to Haram afrer 13 years, it’s totally different situation to deal with.
It tortures me to certain degree on this trip until I spent almost 30.000 STEPS just to execute what has been fixated on my mind which becomes one of the bucket lists in this trip.
Constructions are all over the places and many access blocked. You can’t just enter from any gates to have what I want to have. More blocked access for woman too. Beside that, maybe as it’s getting closer to Ramadan, it’s been quite crowded.
I spent the whole first morning trying to figure out this, then continue the quest between zuhur and asr. Couldn’t stand the thought of coming here from thousand miles away just to accept things at it is without any proper fights.
Hajj was crowded and I even managed to do this for every prayer time I did in mosque, not easily of course. The voice inside kept saying, « Haji aja bisa masa umroh ngga ». Such thought can be poisonous, but I’d rather consider it as fuel.
When I finally figured it out, then I understood that I couldn’t have everything due to current situation and had to compromise a bit.
Such understanding can only be accepted knowing I have done the best possible thing through these thirty thousand steps.
Knowing what you want is indeed a blessing and a curse.
Umrah with Kid
I have been sounding several times to my travel members that we would plan for an Umrah trip once my daughter reached akil baligh age. The time when she’s considered an adult in Islam.
But then, plans changed, the calling for Umrah came faster and after a long search, the only way forward was to execute the plan.
I have told her many times that Umrah trip is totally different with any other trips that we have been through. It will be tough, it will be harder, and it won’t be a trip to the park and playground.
She once again, showed her maturity beyond her age in traveling. Dealing with long hours of layover, anxious and exhausted parents without any complaints which is the total opposite of her mother. I wish I could be as easy going as she is, a little bit.
As she has survived any kind of walks and hike, from beach to mountain, she endured all the walk and hike in this Umrah trip.
Taking children for Umrah for the first time, I learned that we should really set a realistic expectation for them and for us. Certain standard that allows them to enjoy their experience without compromising the parents standard of ibadah. We have gone far for that, after all.
So, what I did was in Madinah, we went all the way for five times prayer since the hotel is nearby and it was manageable.
While in Mecca, she only went for five times prayer in Zuhur, Maghrib and Isya altogther. Tahajud and subuh only for parents, and she just woke up once adzan subuh heard. Even her parents were leaving and doing their own thing separately.
Zuhur was at the mosque while Asr she stayed at home to have some early dinner to prepare Maghrib and Isya together at the mosque. Providing books during the waiting between Maghrib ane Isya worked well for her.
The only city tour I wanted for this trip only for museums and looked like it suits her well.
I hope this trip brings her joy, more experience and excitement as a moslem, and may Allah always guard her in every step of the way. Amin.
Epilogue
A trip (especially) to Holy Lands has always been about my meticulous plan and the reality that reminded me (especially) again and again the He is The One Who Decided all the results.
I often wonder should I be less invested in things so the expectation would be somehow not makes you devastated when things don’t go according to the plan?
I know all the theory.But, during turbulence it’s often hard to think clearly and stop the what ifs. I think this is the price of being quite opinionated and determined (In bahasa : sok tau and banyak mau).
His bounties are more than we deserve, but, the way it reaches us, I still need more training to get used to the suprise.
This trip is personally challenging. It is emotionally exhausting, dealing with the unexpected long delay, the crowd five times a day, yet it is also exceptionally rewarding.
To have all my bucket list ticked with certain degree of struggle, to witness all the little help from Allah through the strangers we met, to enjoy the trip at our own pace, the best duration of the trip, surviving a long delay, completing Umrah together, again, Alhamdulilah is an understatement.
I saw that the doctor somehow also enjoyed it in his own way. Hopefully, he also found what he’s looking for other than all the surpsingly good speciality coffee in these two holy cities. We also had a young smart mutowwif as a company and the discussion has been really interesting.
Despite the struggle and the crowd, I love Makkah more than Madinah. I love how quiet it is in spite of the loudness. I love how diverse it is. Madinah is literally tranquil, but Makkah has some level of peacefulness that Madinah couldn’t have.
In the end, May Allah receive all the worship, grant all the prayers, and give us many more chances to return to these blessed places. Amin.
Draft ini sudah tersimpan selama lebih dari empat tahun. Saat itusemua masih kabur dan kalut. Saya tulis panjang lebar karena saya ngga mau lupa apapun yang saya baca dan rasakan saat itu.
Anak saya memiliki kondisi yang dinamakan Hiperleksia.
Hiperleksia adalah kondisi yang cukup langka dan tidak sepopuler kawannya, dyslexia.
Hyperlexiais a syndrome characterized by an intense fascination with letters or numbers and an advanced reading ability.
Children who havehyperlexiaread at levels far beyond what is expected at their age“.
Hiperleksia adalah sebuah kondisi dimana seorang anak memiliki kemampuan membaca di atas usianya dan ini terjadi sebelum usia 5 tahun. Kata kuncinya adalah : self-taught.
Bisa membaca TANPA pengajaran.
Namun, kemampuan ini tidak diikuti oleh kemampuan MEMAHAMI bacaan yang setara dan kemampuan berbicara yang sesuai dengan usianya.
Dari gambar di atas terlihat jelas bagaimana Hiperleksia ada di sebrang dyslexia. Kebalikan dari anak dyslexia, anak dengan hiperleksia memiliki pengenalan word/symbol yang baik namun pemahaman yang kurang.
Salah satu akun advokasi hiperleksia @andnextcomesl yang saya ikuti menjelaskan dengan baik tentang hiperleksia di bawah ini
Butuh waktu beberapa lama untuk memproses semua ini dan tiba-tiba semua kejadian-kejadian yang sudah lalu menjadi masuk akal :
– Tiba-tiba bisa baca sebelum ulang tahun ke empat. Baca ya, bukan mengeja.
– Baca kamus bergambar berulang-ulang dan menghafal semua isinya
-Melihat benda dan menyambungkannya ke bentuk huruf. Ex : Mommy, it’s a …, it looks like A/B/C, etc.
– Cepat membaca not balok dan huruf arab.
– tanpa pernah diajari, tiba-tiba hafal perkalian.
– Menghafal nama bus dan jurusannya ketika di London, bahkan ketika hanya pernah naik sekali atau pun yang bahkan di luar daerah tempat tinggal kami.
Seperti Dyan @andnextcomesl, salah satu pertanyaan besar saya sejak bertahun-tahun lalu :
Ini jawabannya :
Saya menghabiskan satu hari membaca semua post dari akun ini dengan perasaan campur aduk. Rasanya seperti waktu pertama kali berdiri di depan papan DLD di Alfred Salter 6 tahun lalu.
Menemukan (sekali lagi) apa yang saya cari. Tapi kali ini, semua terasa pas dan benar.
Hiperleksia bukan diagnosis yang berdiri sendiri. Dia bisa bergabung dengan kondisi lain seperti ASD, ADHD atau SPD.
Ada 3 kategori hiperleksia :
Secara kasat mata, anak saya bisa berada antara hiperleksia tipe 2 atau tipe 3. Tipe 3 ini adalah hyperlexia dengan autistic trait namun bukan autistic. Ini yang memerlukan tes objektif lebih lanjut.
(Tarik nafas, lap keringet dan air mata).
Apa level anak saya saat ini? (Konteks : 4 tahun lalu)
Anak saya berkomunikasi sehari-hari dengan baik. Bahkan ‘terlalu baik’ jika memang ada kondisi lain selain hiperlexianya. Sangat suka matematika. Sangat suka bermain make-up, baru-baru ini lumayan bisa main skateboard.
Tapi jelas memerlukan terapi wicara yang terstruktur. Jadi bukan buat belajar bicara atau memperbaiki bicaranya, tapi untuk melatih pemahamannya terhadap bacaan.
Sebenarnya, membaca sudah jadi rutin harian sejak bayi. Tahun lalu lockdown di London, sekolahnya memberikan apps membaca dan matematika gratis buat orangtua (Epic! dan Numbots) . Sampai saat ini kami masih menggunakan keduanya. Setiap hari. Jatah Epic! gratis dalam seminggu adalah 2 jam. Idealnya sehari 20 menit, tapi seringnya dia membaca dua kali lebih lama sehingga kadang 2 jam sudah habis sebelum seminggu.
Ada pilihan Epic! unlimited yang kami akan berikan. Langgannya per bulan sekitar 130 ribu. Kalau bayar sekaligus setahun terakhir kali cek sekitar 1 juta. Aplikasi ini bagus sekali. Pilihan bukunya beragam dan menarik.
Di apps Epic! ini, pada sebagian besar bukunya, di bagian akhir terdapat quiz antara 5-8 pertanyaan pilihan ganda untuk melihat pemahaman anak terhadap buku yang baru dibaca. Anak saya cukup bisa menjawab hampir semua pertanyaannya.
Sedikit contoh :
Skor rata-rata quiznya berkisar antara 80-100%. Jadi, pada umumnya, dia paham apa yang dibaca.
Bagian yang memerlukan support lebih baik adalah bagaimana menjawab secara verbal atau menjawab tanpa pilihan. Selain itu juga, perlu banyak berlatih bagaimana memahami kalimat implisit. Salah satu ciri spesifik dari anak hiperleksia ini adalah mereka memahami kata secara literal.
Kira-kira seperti itu gambarannya.
Di satu sisi, saya bersyukur sekali kembali dipertemukan dengan apa yang selalu dicari. Penting sekali buat benar-benar mengerti untuk bisa menerima dan melanjutkan ‘perjalanan’.
Di sisi lain, ngga peduli sudah menghadapi ini bertahun-tahun, ini ngga mengurangi kegelisahan dan pernyataan, dalam tahap apapun, ini tidak (pernah) mudah.
Tapi, mengutip kata-kata dr. Mustafa dan dr. Sally di post ini cukup memberi sedikit penghiburan :
“She’ll be ok”.
“Every child will find their way. Something that we worry too much now could be irrelevant in the future”.
Semoga.
Kata Marthin Luther King Jr :
“We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope”.
Betul. Tanpa harapan, kami ngga akan pernah sampai ‘di sini’. Harapan yang bawa sampai sejauh ini dan saya percaya, akan lebih jauh lagi.
Akhirnya, dari saya setelah semua yang telah dilewati dan akan dilalui :
New year usually comes with new arrangements. In designing the days spent, it’s not only about plotting clasess/activities in empty schedule.
Choosing a schedule is not only about choosing the time, it’s about choosing priorities and managing the flow and energy from one activity from another.
One of the most rewarding things from this mothering job, it really employs and exercises my lateral thinking skills. Before deciding something, I get to see and consider the things from many angles, not only for her but also many things that has important influence to her. Including and consulting the principal is compulsory, but, as someone who is doing daily operations, I need to operate based on the reality of the situation, but among all, I always stick on the priorities as much as I can.
Learning new things is compulsory, but for the little girl and me. But, at what cost? The class is interesting but, it’s conflicting with prayer time. The class and time are matched, but it is on my fasting day. The class has good advantages, but it is on the day of our regular weekly Quran night. The class fits everything, but, it’s conflicting with my other schedule or vice versa.
In deciding which activities to participate, other than money spent, the more important thing is to consider what we will lose in gaining the knowledge. Opportunity cost is talking here.
Classes and activities may come and go, but certain priorities will always be on the first row. There should be certain things that are non-negotiable. When you know what’s yours, it will give a clear answer to the question. It also makes you easier to say more no than yes.
Based on experiences in few areas of life, when you get your priorities straight, everything else will fall into place.
I am a huge supporter of homeschooling but our situation doesn’t really suit for doing it fully. So I take half of the schooling while still sending my daughter to formal school whose values so far is aligned with what we preach and practice.
This end of semester’s reflection is quite different than the previous ones where it was more sentimental.
This semester I took studying more seriously by implementing regular night study with or without tests. This is more about to reduce the headache due to transition from lower grade levels to upper grades which academic demands are jumping significantly than my passion for teaching and learning.
At the end of this semester, we registered her to a CognitiveMap test in one of the institutions in Jakarta which is also globally renowned. This is not an IQ test, but I think it gives better insight about how the current brain of the child abilities. It test five brain muscles : vision, auditory, sensory motor, focus, and emotional processing.
I searched why these five and found a journal that explains it well. It has been determined that neuroplasticity occuring in childhood brain is mainly related to these five aspects.
Other than insightful, this test result is quite useful to decide and understand more about how she learns best and which area she needs to improve.
I often wonder will I do differently if we didn’t receive any diagnosis? Will I try this much if she is one without any specific conditions? Will I be less worried about her?
I am not sure about the answer. One of my strength which can also be my weakness is, I always take everything seriously. Especially if it’s something that gives significant impact to my life and future.
I made list and notes rigorously. I read intensely and extensively. I nag The One who decides all affairs regularly and continuously.
I often wonder whether it’s a blessing or a curse to be this stubborn about something that I think it’s right.
What could soften me a bit is certain phrases from my readings : « Mothers/parents matter. But, they are not everything ».
Your efforts matter. But, the end result is never yours.
For the past 10 years, the most difficult part of parenting is not about her. The hardest struggle is about regulating my self. The toughest battle is about to change what’s inside me. To fight many things that that have been imprinted subconsciously for years.
To unlearn few beliefs growing up that no longer resonates with me. Yet, in the other hand, to insist she understands, memorizes, and applies certain values that I consider important.
To acknowledge those things, it is important. To fight it, boy, it’s a battle that makes me cry regularly during early morning one-on-one session. Even every time I edited this post, tears couldn’t help falling knowing how much I lack as a mother.
Other than our spouse, The One who we really have to include in every stage of parenting is the creator. Guidance, patience, compassion, things that could only be granted by Him in this life task of raising a human being.
As she is growing up, I am also growing old. May Allah grant me the force needed as we’re heading to puberty and perimenopause. Amin.
————————-
For the past ten years, she grows as beautiful as the literal meaning of her name. Inside out.
For the past ten years, she has grown according to the meaning of her name. A knowledge seeker, a learner, a beautiful sunbeam illuminating our world, makes life full of hope, warmth, and radiance.
In her name as a whole, my hope refers to QS 58: 11
وَإِذَا قِيلَ ٱنشُزُوا۟ فَٱنشُزُوا۟ يَرْفَعِ ٱللَّهُ ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ مِنكُمْ وَٱلَّذِينَ أُوتُوا۟ ٱلْعِلْمَ دَرَجَـٰتٍۢ ۚ “Allah will elevate those of you who are faithful, and ˹raise˺ those gifted with knowledge in rank”.
Happy 10th birthday, my dearest. May Allah bless you with strong faith, excellent health, and sufficient wealth and always guide you every step of the way. I wish you all the resilience and excitement you need to deal with whatever life throws at you.
I hope this first decade of your life has been a great enjoyable ride for you as it’s for me. It’s not always rainbow, but being your mother has been one of the best adventures in my life.
Thank you for all the random “I love yous” you throw me daily. You know I love you too, right?
Things have been going in between bumpy and smoothly for the the ninth year.
We’re still in the early pre-teen phase but for those who has been dealing with non typical child development problems since early years, we start noticing some issues that need to be addressed more seriously with the help of expert. Unless it’s something which the consequences is irreversible (like getting married or having kids), early is always better. Things that we work on are still around her difficulties.
One of the best presents we received this year : we finally meet a local child psychologist who understands us, the parents. A psychologist who is in the same frequency, who understands what we know and read, who validates our thoughts and feeling. We finally meet one who is willing to find out what she doesn’t understand in order to help the little girl, and make a decision and tailored therapy based on that.
We rarely meet this kind of psychologist here. Someone with different insights and experiences than the typical one. More, one that builds good rapport with the kid. We’ve been having more than five sessions in few months and so far, I am quite pleased with everything.
Even better, it is located just 10 mins drive from home.
I observe a pattern, apart from any kind of diagnosis she has, she is blessed with one important thing : she happens to always meet the right people at the right time to help her with whatever she needs. A true Godsend. Hopefully, it will stay that way. Amiinn.
We still have a lot of homeworks to be done. I hope we could finish them all ‘on time’.
……..
As an only child, school is the village to cover what we couldn’t provide at home : meeting other kids regularly. For someone who rarely survive and not really into playdates, school is the only option. That’s the main reason why I send to school.
School delivery and pick up has been one of the most interesting parts during the last few years.
School during autumn term was one of the best core memories in motherhood. Every single morning during autumn never failed to make me want to capture everything that I saw. Be it the view to the school or the little girl herself.
When walked through the little forest, she made so many stops to see things, be it mushroom, plants, worms, just anything. I really loved all the morning walk sessions to the school during the -ber months in spite of the cold weather.
One of the best periods in life
Unlike one in London, school trip here is far from scenic. But, the car conversation has always been more interesting and intriguing that they givesome aches in my heart and brain sometimes.
“Do you know?” That is her signature silence breaking once the car engine was starting and she started talking and facts throwing about everything. Or, “I have a question”. Usually, I take a deep breath first after this because it was mostly a-how and why question that requires more thinking before answering.
For someone who always prefers driving in silence, I keep telling myself to enjoy this as much as I can. This might be tiring to deal with sometimes, but, I am gonna miss this so much later. It will pass like so many things that I thought would last forever have passed. Once it’s gone, it’s gone.
Every time she closes the car/taxi door in the morning, then said our usual “have fun and have a nice day”, couldn’t help spelling my specific prayer, every single day while unconsciously taking a deep breath.
Time indeed slips through my finger Moments where I remember She’s only five year old little girl In a blink of an eye she turns into a niner
May Allah protects her through all the way. Guard her in every of her actions and decisions. Keep her safe wherever she is. Strengthen her faith and keep her in a straight path. Amin. Amin. Amin.
On today’s Developmental Language Disorder day, instead of talking about the old story about how DLD diagnosis changed everything,, I want to talk about this one.
Love these two so much!
This Young Sheldon show is one with many great parenting insights.
One thing that makes it so relatable is because I am raising one whose first diagnosis was DLD which just happened to be as a door opener for many things to come.
I couldn’t helping laughing all through season 1 since they described well how it looked living with my own daughter, while I have been weeping a lot all through season 2 with so many punches given on the heart in every eps.
My daughter is nothing compared to Sheldon in term of brain intelligence, but, I could feel the parent’s frustration of how to deal with this kind of kid when you know nothing about them, when it doesn’t fit the parenting knowledge that you know, when you have to beat your ego in so many situations because it won’t work with this kind of kid. They know much more than you in many things. Their brain doesn’t work like ordinary people do.
But, on the other hand, they also know so little about how human works in general. Understanding human is difficult. Kids like them are having hard time to understand the grey area,for them it’s always black and white.
They might look like any other kids outside, but, it takes a lot of deep breath to deal with them in daily basis, just like what Mary and George experienced.
We’re keeping therapy sessions up until now, even double it, (if not plan to triple it),not to make her as normal as possible, but to help us teach her many things that we couldn’t.
Another thing that is so relatable about this show is both are beyond privilege. L&S are having a family which accepts them just the way they are and get all the support needed to be themselves. Have encountered many kids whose parents give up on them once they received the diagnosis. As much I understand how hard it is to accept the reality, but, giving up on our kid should’ve never been an option.
With or without diagnosis, every kid comes with their own intelligence. Like Missy, my most favorite character, whose intelligence I wish my daughter to possess and keep training her for that.
No long words could do the justice to describe what it took to finally secured a proper recording to be submitted for the exam.
From eyeing distinction as a target to finally settle, “let’s just aim for pass” then.
Started practicing the very first song on August 2022. Fast forward a year later, no single recording was decent enough to be submitted.
The list of recordings captured were only small part of hundreds that we did since last April.
Finally got the one we had been waiting for the past five months(!!). Alhamdulillah.
We haven’t even submitted the video, but this is the closure for all the efforts done in grade 3 ABRSM.
When I think we deserve certain result for our hardwork, the reality snapped back harshly by showing countless messy and bad recordings we got along the way. The harder we tried, the more frustrating we were.
We finally got it when we finally on the ‘Que Sera Sera’ mode.
For someone who has so little patience, this is my daily training.
Not just about piano practice/anything, but to take whatever it takes during the process of doing everything in life and be patient to accept any results which is outside my control.
Still far from mastering it, my face showed it all when things don’t go according to what I expect.
The result we received today.
Distinction for Grade 3 ABRSM.
It took a lot of Astaghfirullah to achieve this and a simple silent Alhamdulillah when we received it.
It was leisure four months to achieve a high level of distinction 147/150 for grade 1.
It was tragically twisted seven months to achieve (only) merit 124/150 for grade 2 exam.
Spent more than frustrating twelve months to return to distinction bracket of 133/150 for grade 3 exam.
Proof that life is not getting easier, Your efforts matter, but there will be time to surrender and let it go to The Decider, because the end result is never ours.
After more than a year of practice, four songs from the scratch, countless frustrated moments, more than grateful this is the result we deserve for all the sweat and tears.
I had been quite loose with many things regarding the little girls’s activities since at least two months back. I took another responsibility, which moved my attention and energy to the new something than the regular activities that had been around before.
I’ve been sensing that something was off for weeks. I asked the same question every day, checking whether she had done all the compulsory daily training, and got a short yes as an answer all the time, and I took it for granted. It might be because the routines have been around for almost three years without zero days. So, I thought she knew what to do already.
It was a Tuesday three weeks ago when I suddenly checked the iPad and found out that she had been neglecting the four daily routines together, not only for days but weeks, for the past two months.
It was pretty disappointing and made me throw a tantrum here and there. Half of it, I was angry because I ignored the off feeling for too long. I was being lazy.
It turned out the child could also understand that. When the parents were lazy, so she was. She started learning mommy was busy, and the training was getting more complicated; one day off wouldn’t hurt. I did it for the second, and the rest were more straightforward.
Consequences were decided right away and accepted without any arguments. At least she knew she was at fault this time. Screen time for pleasure is banned for 30 days. I rarely take her pleasures as a consequence, but this time, she neglected her primary responsibilities and made another huge mistake that wasn’t tolerable here. So, I did it without any doubts, not only for a few days, but for a whole month.
Well, there’s always a silver lining behind everything. It’s been a while since I saw nap time view after school, a long-kept writing book that had been left untouched, the second session for Quran after Maghrib. The Amazon book package Daddy had ordered weeks before arrived at the right time, so more reading materials were available to kill time.
So many things could happen and be done without distraction, not only about the phone, but more about our attention.
Honestly, I love this period. She seems more relaxed without screen time for pleasure doing other things rather than staring at the screen. I have been thinking the way to keep a massive part of this after the ban is lifted.
This circumstance reminded me that no matter how close you (think you) are and how well you (think you) know your children, there are still so many things that you need to learn about them, and there are more things that you don’t even know about.
Like love is never enough for a marriage to survive, raising a child takes more than money. It’s the time and energy spent with and on them when we want to do it properly.
A Penny for My Pensieve 