Mr and Mrs Good/Bad

Gooly is very into drawing nowadays. Whenever we are at a restaurant, he asks for a pen and paper so he can doodle.

He draws the underwater scene - submarines, divers, sharks with gills, etc.

He draws airplanes which resemble a lump of Playdough.

And then there are clouds looking like caterpillars, the Sun with a happy smiley face, and so on.

Naturally, I'd say, "Very nice!" because he tries so hard. It's evident when his mouth protrudes in concentration. In extreme cases, his tongue is stuck out.


Not enough with compliments from a biased source, he would seek second opinion from Papah, the art critic whom, to your amazement, can come up with remarks as below:

"Where got rainbow black color one?"

"WHAT is that??"

"Why you conteng conteng?"

Creativity is clearly not in Papah's dictionary. While I am ready to 'ooh' and 'wow' Gooly's masterpieces, Papah is quite the opposite.

Not that I mind..Gooly should really take criticisms constructively. Or even better, ignore them completely. Either way, he is learning the mechanism of survival at an early age. We don't want to sugar coat everything, you see. Imagine if both parents are living in 'lalaland, pretending or worse, believing that everything the child draws deserve a place at the Lourve Museum.

Be realistic a bit lah, kan?

Anyways, museum-worthy or not, he should continue drawing if he likes that. For now, I teach him retorts such as, "You don't think it's nice? Well, I think it's nice." And he comes up with his own, "It's nice. TRUST ME!" And he still colours his rainbow in black. Phew! Am I glad he doesn't give two hoots about the rigid rudimentary of the seven rainbow colours.

It's 'S-kicking' when you have the guts to stick to originality.

I like this mean side of Papah, cos I get to be the good guy, telling Gooly, "It doesnt matter Papah doesn't like it cos I lurrrrve it. It's the best drawing!" *halo appearing*

Before you conclude that Papah is Mr. Mean of the family, he isn't lah. He is Mr. Good in the food department. He allows chips, ice creams, cakes, chocolates etc. despite my protests. He also gives the "no-nap" license to Gooly.

Hence when Papah is good, I play the baddie and vice versa.

A perfect balance in this lifetime partnership. Yum seng to the joy of parenting! *clink*