SAHM (stay-at-home-mum) vs. Working Mum

As a graduate, I had never thought about quitting my job for my family before I had kids. However, like many other mothers, I went through the stage of a dilemma considering whether I should quit my job and be a full time stay-at-home-mother(SAHM). Due to some circumstances, I stopped working for about a year each for both my kids and eventually returned to work. In that sense, I was lucky to have the opportunity to experience both roles.

From my experience, as a working mother, juggling between family and career is always challenging. The most difficult part is to find a good and reliable caretaker to look after the kids while at work. Next comes the problem of housework - the main being meal preparation, laundry and cleaning the house. A lot of women choose to quit their job due to the former - they believe that they are the best caretaker of their kids - which is true but only to a certain extend. I believe that every individual is different and not everyone is "suitable" to be a homemaker. Some women are very efficient in their job but not so efficient when they stay at home. For them, it may be better to leave their children to an experienced caretaker while they go to work. The housework portion can be solved by either hiring manpower or using more automated machines.

To me, SAHM equals to supermom! It is a job without pay that one cannot leave behind "after working hours"! It is both physically and mentally draining, especially when one takes care of very young chlidren. It is not easy to feel "job satisfaction" and "sense of achievement" as the results are intangible and there is no instant reward. Besides, the financial pressure is there as one is not generating income and thus needs to be more careful with the expenditure. A capable SAHM is "expected" to be able to prepare meals and do most of the housework while taking care of the children, which is not easy if the young children cling on to you and you lack experience on how to handle them. The most irritating part is that people think it is a very easy job and you have a lot of free time! Salute to all the SAHMs!

I do believe that SAHM is good for the kid if the mum enjoys this job and is able to manage the stress. If you are the type who cannot "let go" of your children to another caregiver, it is better off for you to stay at home (provided that you can afford it) as you will be thinking about your children while at work and cannot do your job well. However, if you cannot let go of your career, there is no point for you to stay at home, have a miserable life and in the future regret giving up your career. There is no right or wrong. In either case, you may feel guilty - when I was an SAHM, at times, I felt guilty for not fully utilizing my capability to contribute to the society.

Consider all the pros and cons. Once you make up your mind, execute your plan and look forward. If you choose to work, try to leave behind your children while you are at work, and leave behind your work when you are at home. Make an effort to spend "quality" time with your kids. If you are an SAHM, make an effort to have some time for yourself, a short break away from the children/family to recharge yourself. Remember, parenting is a long journey. At any time, you can still change your mind. :)

Educational Toys from Gigamic (France)

I came across some interesting toys in Singapore Bookfest held by Popular bookstore. The games are all mind-teasing and made of good quality wood. We spent some time understanding the rules and trying out some of the games.

According to the salesperson, the company is called Gigamic. The games originated from France and won many awards. The distributor in Singapore is Avolution Pte Ltd (http://www.familydiy.com), with online stores and retail stores listed on the website; but the products are also being sold at some of the bigger Popular bookstores in Singapore.

Here are some interesting games we saw:

• Quoridor Kid. On a game board with 7x7 squares, to be played by 2-4 players, each assigned a mouse and a piece of cheese. The cheese is static and the aim of the game is for the mouse to eat the opponent’s cheese by moving the mouse one step at a time. The interesting part is that a 2-block width fence can be placed in between the squares to block your opponent’s move. This is a kid's version, simplified from the original Quoridor classic version which uses a 9x9 squares game board and the aim is to reach any of the 9 squares on the opponent’s baseline.
  

• Quarto. On a 4x4 game board, for 2 players with 16 game pieces of different attributes – black/white, short/tall, round/square, solid/hollow. Each player takes turn to put down a piece given by the opponent on the game board and the aim is to line up 4 pieces of the same attribute in a horizontal, vertical or diagonal row. It is not easy as you need to look at all 4 dimensions.

• Cathedral. The concept is very similar to Japanese boardgame Go, where 2 players take turn to put down a piece and capture the space surrounded by its own pieces. The pieces are of different sizes and imitate famous buildings of the world like the Pyramid, the Eiffel Towel and the Statue of Liberty, which makes it attractive.

• Katamino. A puzzle for single player, the aim is to fit in blocks of different shapes into an allocated rectangular space. It is quite common and I have seen a few other games with similar features, including one published by Popular bookstore.

In the end, we did not buy any as we already had a library of games at home and each game above cost at least SGD50. It is also a way to teach our children that we will not buy everything that we like.