How to choose a childcare centre/ nursery for your kid?

If you are a new parent, choosing a childcare centre or a nursery can give you quite a headache or you may not even care much and think that all child care centres are the same.

Well, I wouldn't agree that all child care centres are the same but here are some things to consider when you choose a child care centre or a nursery for your child.

1. Opening and closing time - If you are a working parent and you are responsible to send and pick your kids from the centre, you have to choose a centre which has the opening and closing time which works for your office hours. If you often work slightly late, some centres are able to have your child for an extra hour or two with additional charges while some strictly do not provide any leniency.

2. Transportation - Having transportation option from the childcare centre to your home can be quite useful if you are a stay at home parent or have a guardian to care for your child at home.

List of Registered Childcare Centres & Nurseries in Malaysia

When it comes to finding for a childcare centre or a nursery for your little one in Malaysia, where do you start?

Well, you can always start of with finding registered nurseries and child care centre which are registered with the Malaysian Welfare Department.

How do you find these nurseries?

1. All you need to do is go to this Malaysian Welfare Department link.

Top 3 Free Apps For Baby & Toddlers 1, 2 & 3 years old - Monki Mun

If you are looking for advertisement free and free android apps for your baby and toddlers but want something more than just ABCs and 123s, check out Monki Mun apps.

I would consider their apps more oriented towards creativity and building your child's fine motor skills. Besides that, the visuals are very colourful and it is advertisement free =)

They have several apps which I had downloaded for my son. See below!

1. Monki Birthday Party

This app theme is about celebrating the main character's birthday. Your toddler gets to choose the birthday cake for the main character. Then he/she has to place (more like drag) ten candles on to the cake and everyone will sing the Birthday Song.

Once the song is completed, your child has to assist them to blow out the candles. It is a great app for your kid to learn about counting numbers (because they have to drag the candles one at a time) and also a great way to learn a new song which is the Birthday Song!

Much Guilt Being a Mother

I constantly feel guilty.

Feeling guilty that my son has both parents separated. Sometimes I feel I didn't do enough to keep the relationship going even though I know both side played a part.

Feeling guilty of leaving my son when I go to work. After two months of work away from my son, it is still quite hard to accept that I have to be away from him most of the day.

Feeling guilty of being so tired every single day even during weekends that I am not able to spend much quality time with my son.

Top 3 Free Apps For Baby & Toddlers 1, 2 & 3 years old - Fisher Price

I admit that I frequently allow my son to have some 'Technology Sessions' ever since he was one years old. However I do limit his time and I realized sometimes technology is not always bad for babies.

I used these few apps for my son and he actually managed to learn about animal sounds, the alphabets and rhymes through repetition (meaning the more he played or uses the app, the more he his able to grasp the concept or information which was being portrayed.

I love these Fisher Price apps are because most of it does not require internet/ WIFI, it uses limited space and they are advertisement free!

Here are my favourites:

1. Storybook Rhymes

Fisher Price has three Storybook Rhymes which are book like apps. Check them out here: Volume I, Volume II, Volume III. You can flip the pages and the pages are interactive. You can press on the illustrations and there will be music or movements which is great for your little one to learn about action and reactions. It is also a great way to introduce nursery rhymes to your kids.

Free of charge & low cost toddler activities!

Having a child can consume a lot of your money especially on educational toys.

During my free time, I would think of ways how to create toys from what I already have which my son would enjoy as much (or even more!) than the toys which I purchase form the local toy stores.

Here are a few of my 'homemade with love' games!

1. Cups and water.

If you have plenty of small containers good enough to scoop a hand full or a cup full of water, these are the items you will need. I have food containers with I had lost their lids, or disposable yoghurt cup containers which are ever so colourful (very attractive for those little kiddies), old party paper cups which you were not able to use but don't plan to use it anymore because you would rather get new ones and also spoons.

Top 3 Nursery Rhyme Youtube Channel For Your 1 - 3 Years Old Child

I frequently use Youtube as an informal educational tool for my son and I didn't realise that he was actually absorbing what he was watching since he was 1 year old.

Although I allow him to watch Youtube, it is important to make sure that he only watches it for a limited amount of time to avoid any 'addiction' issues.

Here are my favourites.

1. Super Simple Songs

This channel has plenty of classical nursery rhymes and their visuals and graphics are really well done! I thoroughly enjoy watching their videos together with my son. Besides that, some of the nursery rhymes has been simplified so that your little one whom has very limited vocabulary can also sing along =) If you are bored with the usual nursery rhymes, they also have their own original simple nursery rhymes which are easy to sing along such as Walking In The Jungle, Little Snowflake, Wag Your Tail, My Teddy Bear and so much more.

My Hobby Is Basically Everything That Has To Do With My Baby

Last week, one of my colleague asked what are my hobbies.

It was such a simple question but I felt embarrassed to admit that my hobby was really to spend my time with my son. It is not reading, not gardening, not cooking, not Facebook-ing, but to spend time with my little boy.

Specifically hugging him while he is playing with his toys, smelling his little back and his little head while doing his activities, annoying him, give him a foot massage, tickling him, piggy back him around the house, play ball with him, blow bubbles with him, making bubbles baths with him, changing his nappies, feeding him his meals, hugging him while he is asleep, staring at him while he is asleep, taking photos of him, brushing his teeth, dancing with him, making squeeky noise with him and so much more.

Everyday Is A Challenge After Separation

Everyday is a struggle.

Felt like I just got married yesterday and today we are both separated.

Took care of my baby for the first one and a half year of his life and now I am struggling to get use to the working life again.

I felt I was lucky to have a good husband and an adorable child and was able to work from home and take care of my bundle of joy.

But I guess, it was an illusion and it was not as seem as I thought it was.

A Bad Mum?

I don't know if how I'm feeling is right or wrong but I'm feeling quite drained and tired.

Ever since I had my baby, I had been always with him almost 24 hours and 7 days a week. I'm his primary care giver so fair enough that I have to be with him most of the time but I feel like I need a break. I don't really feel I had a proper break since I gave birth.

I feel that my in laws would look at it like I'm a bad mum because I want to get away from my baby, but I feel no one can understand this feeling unless they are in my shoes. I do enjoy his company and I love him to bits, but somehow I'm longing for a break where I can do what I want without having to stress and worry about his needs.

Is TV bad for your baby?

Many people always tell us parents not to let our children to watch TV especially at a young age because it will definitely spoil their eyes. This would apply the same for computer screen or any kind of screen with flashing images.

In my opinion, I don't believe that watching TV would spoil our kids vision but rather the long hours of staring at the same thing for too long. This is because the main reason why children are short sighted is because when they are constantly looking at something for a long time at a constant distance, their eye muscle (more specifically which hold their lense which has the main fuction of focusing the light to the retina) does not get to contract or stretch as much. So the muscle becomes less flexible and thus affect the vision of our children.

Are The Toys Really For Your Baby Or For Yourself?

When you go to the department stores at the Baby's area, they are filled with colourful toys which are all waiting to attract your attention. You then browse through them, picking and scrutinizing each of them, thinking which toy is best for your child.

Then you found the ideal toy and bought it.

Who knew, you will be the one playing with that toy most of the time instead of your baby.

At least that usually happens to me!

What I Didn't Expect About Being A Mother & A Parent

People who are already parents or caretakers of children would usually provide you ample of advise and tips about parenthood until you would feel that you are ready for everything and nothing unexpected would happen being as a new parent.

How wrong was I. Here is a list of things which I did not expect to happen:


1. I stink most of the time. The stink mainly comes from my baby's pee, poop stains, vomit & my own sweat. Until now, I don't really have time to shower until my husband comes home to take over.

What People Don't Tell You About Parenthood

Many people always ask parents, "How does it feel to be a parent? Is it hard?"

The most common answer I always hear would be, "Even though it is hard, it is worth it. It makes you a better person and I have never been happier in my life."

Well, that phrase it true up to a point, but I feel that this phrase just makes parenthood sound easy and bearable when the truth is, sometimes (or most of the time) it just drives us nuts but we don't want to admit it because most of us feel that if we complain about it, we are considered as bad parents.

Part Time Working, Full Time Mommy

From this mommy experience, I have realised that being a mommy especially a full time mommy is not an easy task. Being a full time mom is NOT the same as having a full time job.

A full time worker working hours is usually 9AM to 5PM in Malaysia. A full time mom working hours is 12AM to 12AM during the first 6 months especially if you are an exclusive breastfeeder. A full time mom doesn't really work continuously from 12 to 12 but there is not such thing as off office hours because if there is no baby stuff to do for that moment, you are basically in standby mode. You are never really off duty.

How Do You Find Your Own Mother Instincts?

When I was young, I always wondered how this Mother's Instincts works. Does it just switched on once your give birth? Or it is some kind of talent? Do you need to train it? What is this anyway?

Here is a list of what it may be:

1. It is your mother's own voice in your head telling you if your parenting skills is right or wrong.
2. It is your naggy side telling you how you should 'parent' your kid.
3. It is silence. You just don't hear it.
4. It is a reflex thing, just like how you knock something on your knee and your knee jerks.
5. It's a gut feeling.
6. It is common sense which is not so common anymore.

Do You Really Need Parenting Books?

Before I gave birth, many people including many new parents told me that I MUST get a good parenting book which will help me a lot being a new parent.

I was quite hesitant because here in Malaysia, parenting books are really expensive and many of the guides does not apply to the style of Asian parenting. And also you can get plenty of good guidance from the internet and baby forums such as Baby Centre which I commonly visit to get some opinions. Also with parenting books, different authors would have different rules and guides so basically there is no standard rule on parenting.

How Breastfeeding Changed My Boobies

Since I have heard that breast milk is the best, I wanted to try to breastfeed my baby too and wondered what was the hype all about.

I had very little milk the first few weeks, so my baby was always crying because he was hungry. So I had supplemented his feed with some formula milk. But because he was drinking from the bottle as well as breastfeeding, soon he had this thing called nipple confusion. And then I decided to just pump and feed my milk using the bottle as I thought he would be using bottles in the end, so why not just start from now.

How Does Post Natal Depression Feels Like

After my baby was out, the first few days in the hospital was awesome. I enjoyed spending time with my baby & breastfeeding him.

Then it was time to bring my little one home.

In the Chinese tradition, I have to go through a 'Confinement' period where by it is a period when I will be taken cared by another person to heal my body. Usually a 'Confinement Lady' (CL) will be hired to cook for the new mother as well as take care of the newborn for a month. Why is it called the confinement period? Well I think it is mainly because new mothers are supposed to avoid their body from being in contact with any 'cold' situations for an example gush of wind, rain water etc. It is believed that these 'cold encounters' are able to affect the new mother's health later in life. They are supposed to keep warm during this period by eating 'warm' food such as ginger & rice wine and staying warm by avoiding cold areas or even refrain from using a fan!

The Day It Happens - Giving Birth

The occasion of giving birth is very unique.

A predicted date is given.

Way before it happens, thinking of it makes you feel scared, anxious or you most probably had panic at one time.

When it is closer to the date, you start to accept the fact that you will go through it and start preparing for the day. You start to do all sorts of activities hoping to make the day easier which is quick and fast. You start to research through the internet. You would start to make your daily schedule packed by going swimming, brisk walking, pre-natal yoga etc.