Boy ke Girl?

Praising your child helps to reinforce your child's correct behaviour and self discipline. It also increases the bond of affection between parent and child and builds self-esteem.

I still remember, before Amar was born, I thought my praises for Sarah was in abundance. Probably because she is the first child and I was a jakun mom. She gets a lot of "Good girl" remarks from me.

After Amar was born, I had a difficulty to say "Good boy" to Amar, because I was so used to saying "Good girl" to Sarah. Sometimes, tersasul-sasul cakap "Good girl" to Amar and "Good boy" to Sarah.

I'm sure I have confused everyone now. It has even confused little Sarah at one point.

"Good girl, Sarah. You are a very good girl." I praised her once.
"No Mama, Wawa good boy." Sarah corrected me.

Anak saya tu memang lagi pandai dari saya. Macam saya lagi pandai dari tuan doktor. But since I was cleverer than a doctor, I tried to correct her,

"Sarah, good girl." emphasising the word girl.
"No, Wawa good boy!" That time, she emphasised the word boy!!
"Girl" correcting Sarah again.
"Boy" She's getting irritated with all the corrections.

And we went on and on. Sometimes I won, sometimes I just gave up (sebab bising Amar nak tidur).

And sometimes I have to give some explanations to Sarah why she is a girl and Amar is a boy. For example, Mama pakai tudung. So mama, girl. Babah tak boleh pakai tudung, so Babah, boy.

Then she started asking, "Wawa (p)akai (t)udon(g)?"
And I would say, "Yes, Sarah boleh pakai tudung. Sebab Sarah girl."
"Aman?"
"No, Amar tak boleh pakai tudung. Sebab Amar boy." I explained.
"Doll (p)akai (t)udon(g)?" She asked innocently, still in the same topic.
"Yes doll boleh pakai tudung." I answered.
"Emmm, (b)otol (p)akai (t)udon(g)?" Here she goes, I thought. She would ask every single thing that she saw.
"No, botol tak boleh pakai tudung"
"Car?" Dia tak habis tanya lagi.

Sometimes the explanations went deeper than just a mere tudung. But it is hard to put them in words and also because I've agreed with the terms and conditions as a Blogger that I shouldn't include any explicit materials.

At present, Sarah manages to differentiate a boy from a girl. Sarah knows that she is a girl. Amar is a boy. Babah is a boy and Mama is a girl. Marium is a girl and Abdullah is a boy. Chihiro is a girl and Abang dia (Haku) is a boy. I have no idea how and when she has made up her mind about who's boy or girl. But at least she got that right now and deserves a hearty "Good girl" from me.