Starting all over again (T-3days)

Today, I decided to start blogging again.

I stopped for almost a decade, I think. Partially because I didn\’t know how to handle the publicity it was getting, and mostly because people were sharing photos of my kids as those “ASD examples” without my permission. I wasn’t ready for that.

There\’s this strange thing about human behaviour. Say you are going through some crisis, usually people will comfort you by telling you about someone else going through a worse situation.

\”Oh your child is just diagnosed with Autism? Don\’t worry. You\’ll be ok. I know someone who has 4 kids diagnosed with Autism!”

Yeah, usually I’m that example people use to “inspire and encourage” others. At that time, when my first 2 kids were diagnosed, I wasn’t ready for that level of sharing. But by the time my 4th kid got diagnosed, I got used to it. I started reaching out to those who needed help.

My friends have been telling me, instead of wasting my time writing fictional romance novels, I should write a book about my kids, or rather, my experiences parenting 4 ASD kids. I don’t want to only write about parenting 4 ASD kids. So boring. I shall write about everything that’s in my head. This is also because I foresee myself spamming the Facebook feeds with random nonsense come Wednesday, when school closes officially and my 4 kids are stuck at home with me. I release my frustrations online, sometimes these stuff provide entertainment for others, but mostly it\’s how I try to make light of my the stress I\’m going through. So instead of doing it on FB, next week on I shall do it here.

I had been rather stressed since the announcement was made on Friday. I can’t pinpoint exactly what was bothering me but I was worrying about groceries, the kids going to school with this widespread virus, the adults in my family going to work, commuting via public transport, my work, how my kids’ are going to cope, etc etc. Such is the life of a mother.

While I’m relatively chill about my eldest kid, who is taking his national exam this year, a small part of me wonders if I’m putting him at a disadvantage by being chill. I know the high SES parents, while complaining about Home-based Learning, would be taking over the coaching of the school work either via private online lessons, or they’d coach the kids themselves. The learning pace for children on the high SES will not be slowed down by HBL. It’s merely an inconvenience the parents are complaining about.

Then there\’s a group who really depend on the teachers in school for teaching their kids. Those are genuinely worried if Home-based Learning is going to deliver results as promised. The Ministry had promised that they will revise the syllabus that’s tested for them, but it just means those on the top of the pyramid, will remain on top. Nothing will change.

Kid 1 doesn’t really belong to the top of the pyramid. He’s not exactly middle either. He’s sometimes at the top, sometimes in the middle, depending on his mood and how much effort I\’m putting into his revision.

Kid 2 belongs to the mid category. She’s not having her national exams but based on her tests last term she was close to failing. Her performance highly depends on whether her parents have time to do revision with her consistently or not.

I don\’t even want to think about Kid 3 and Kid 4 yet.

I guess since both my husband and I are teachers, we should be able to do something about our kids\’ academic performance during this HBL season. Not that I’m criticizing the HBL system, it\’s just that they don\’t cater to the needs of SPED kids. The hubs and I will just have to teach our special kids ourselves.

I mean, you tried online Occupational Therapy? Do you think it\’ll work? It’s considered non-essential services, so the in-person sessions have to stop. I don’t know if the G considered the fact that we are delaying the progress of the kid for every week that he/she misses therapy. I’m fortunate that my kids have graduated from most of the therapy sessions, so it doesn’t affect me. I’m just thinking of the others.

Anyway, we all have to adapt, I guess. The biggest difficulty for all ASD kids is adapting quickly to changes, but we just have to suck it up and move.

Let’s talk about other random things that happened today.

1) Dalgona Coffee

To relief my stress I made myself some Dalgano coffee today, with my German Thermomix Boyfriend, Magnus Koch. I got social-influenced into making it. heh.

Maybe the Nescafe Gold I was using ain’t nuthin to shout about but it\’s overrated. Firstly, while there were many YouTube videos on how to make it, I didn’t find any to teach me how to drink it properly. I tried drinking without mixing. Yucks. Then I mixed it, and I wondered why I bothered with the foam in the first place. Tastes just like instant coffeemix with ice.

Oh well.

2) Free Face masks

We went to collect our free recyclable face masks today for the 9 people living in my house. We\’re just 1 person away from being illegal. What can I say? We enjoy living on the edge.

I want to be the grateful citizen and not complain, but I’m a little confused. I’m sure by now everyone would have watched videos on how to wear your masks correctly and what constitutes an effective mask.

So I’m not too sure if I want to use it. Sigh. I mean, it’s almost as effective as this one.

I might consider making recyclable ones myself, maybe, when I feel like it.

Oh well, that’s all the ranting for today.

Stay safe everyone. Stay at home.