When I was growing up, my siblings and I found joy in simple and non-expensive things.
We didn’t have a room full of toys because Bapa was the sole breadwinner of the family.
But there was one family activity that we absolutely adore – it was going to the beach.
We loved it so much that we needed to be dragged out of the water, most of the time.
I also remember eating Mak’s nasi lemak which tasted 100 times better at the beach.
Obviously, it didn’t matter that we were wet and sticky and had sand on parts of our body you don’t even want to know.
What mattered was that we were hungry and the warm and spicy sambal tumis udang eaten with fried chicken wing and creamy nasi lemak was heavenly.
So now as a parent, I want my children to grow up experiencing as much of that as possible.
So I organised an impromptu family picnic to East Coast Beach.
Other than to relive the good old memories of my childhood, the picnic was also to (hopefully) get Fayrah to be less afraid of being in the sea.
Yup, secret’s out.
My darling bambino is afraid of seawater – particularly because of the waves.
Heheh…you should have seen her. It was so funny.
Everyone was just throwing ideas on how to get her to the water but Fayrah, being the determined little one that she is, she wouldn’t budge.
Hahaha…it was a real laugh.
After a while, we gave up trying.
I figured she will grow out of her fears and get into the water in her own time.
But she loved the sand.
Oh boy, does she loved the sand.
It was waaaaaay past her naptime and it was obvious that she was very sleepy but she insisted on building sand castles.
Wonder where she gets her stubbornness from…Hmmm..
Nonetheless, I was so glad that the picnic happened because we all had so much fun especially the kids.
Best part of all was that Fayrah had fun – without any expensive toys or gadgets.
How do I know that?
Because we drove past East Coast Beach yesterday and she asked, “Ibu, go beach okay?”
Alhamdullillah.
Almost Perfect Mom 