Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Toddlers Tantrum and Mantrams...

Parenting is an art involving tough act every moment.


I am sure many of you(parents) will agree to me 100%.
Many of you know my Junior, Master Ashwin from previous blogs (Trick or Treat,PEEK-A-BOO:My Son, Me and Fun things...) He is closing in on his 2 year mark(3 more months). He is a busy Toddler and experimenting various tanturms upon us from his valise everyday. He is been handful especially to my wife. From the time he wakes up till he sleeps at night(except small nap in the afternoon), he is a busy bee keeping us in our toes all the time.

It made me to wonder how come our past generations (grandpa & grandma's) manage to give birth to 7-8 kids and that too in a row and able to handle them. Just take my parents, I have 4 uncles & 2 aunts in my father side and 5 aunt & 3 uncle in mother side. Thats reasonably good example for a biggie size family.
That to most of uncle and aunts are pretty well settlement in their life. Thats a big accompliment by their parents.

It's amazing
and I salute my grandpa's and grandma's anytime. I know there are lot of reasons it could have been possible those days but still as a parent its a tough tackle both mentally and financially. Take the current similar example in America. Americans are either this extreme or the other extreme. Some couples don't even kids till they die but some have 3-4 kids(one parent not talking about 2 parent). They just never bother to care about number of kids. Once its start, its just kept on coming. It doesn't matter whether they are wealthy enough or not. Somehow they manage to make it work.

Being a parent for just one kid itself is like too much to ask. I know some might come with an argument that kids these days are pretty smarter then old generation(including our generation) in all aspects which obviously makes things worse. I would have to agree to that.
I guess its the gene.

As a parent (at works), we are learning everyday. Everyday something new pops up. I learnt that being a parent is a balance between being good, bad and ugly sometimes. You can't always be good because they tend to take you for granted after sometime and try to test our testrones going beyond their limits.

With my son, we are seeing a big change for the past 6-8 months? He started walking when we were just worrying about it. After that, he never stops for second and we are now thinking when will he stop running. He picks up things like Parrot and catch us off guard all the time repeating some words we accidently quote.
He just tried to prounce his first word "THAQU" 3 months ago when I told him "Thank you" for bringing me back a ball. That was so cute and he just caught on it. Now he can speak lot more words pretty clear and everytime it makes us sparkle a smile. Thats all really good and cute until he take us to our extremes.

He now wants try playing my drums, work in my laptop like me, walk like me and talk like me. He is just a COPY CAT. Check out the video which I took like a month ago. He is the first to claim stairs before me and stands first to play drums everytime I go to do my practice. I have to wait until he is done for my turn. Otherwise there will be big tug of war starts. How is that?!





There is no more freedom of talk for us. I always have to think twice before I do anything or say anything. I am learning tips every day from the magazine "PARENTS" I subscribed just for this purpose to educate myself. I learnt that this is the age brain starts to develop and grasp things which will last untill they die. It's between 2-4, what they learn things stick with them has habit sticks for longtime to come. So I want to be very careful in implanting any bad things.Lets say for example "Fear factor". I don't want to teach him the fear of darkness by scaring or booing him to death. Thats what happened to me when I was kid and I still couldn't get over it.


Also at this time when the memory is developing, they have very shortterm memory. You need to keep repeating things which will finally get into their brain and stay. They just grow as a person who need to be repeated constantly which is sometimes irritating but we got to do it to get to their head.

Blogger Ranjini, one of my best blog friend is also my best advocate on this parenting topic.Whatever you learn from books and friends, praticals is always tough than theory right?! When he starts crying by throwing his tantrums for silly things that where he frustrates especially in the public place. I really don't know what to do. I understood, its might seem silly for us but for them its the way of getting things they wanted and desire to have as they can't talk to express their feelings. I tried to use the Mantra I learn by deviating his attention to something else. Some works but not always.

At times no Mantra will work other than the hand work if it goes beyong my limit. I can't stop other than hitting him which I don't want to make it has an habit. Thats bad for me and him. I feel bad what else is the option. My wife really don't like me spanking but she also don't know any other way at these situations.

I know there is always school of thoughts. one "Adi othavramathri annan thambi othavamathan" (Hitting helps better than siblings" and other one, "Pat the back and get the work done". You know the 2nd rule doesn't work all the time.

Here is another video with his act just taken lastweek. Trying to help me when I was working on my front garden.



As first time parent, we are experiencing this parenthood in a really mixed feeling. I am sure having lot of fun with my son but at the same whenever I get pushed to an extent by testing the patience and streching our nerves, its really hard to control our anger. We are trying out different methods like Time out (famous in US) by asking him sit alone and try to stop crying. He picked that up pretty quick and starts to obey it.

We know this is a stage and it has to pass on until that time we have to struggle as a parent and at the same time enjoy cute things without worrying much about the Tantrums but keep abrust with our Mantras which might come handy.

I always welcome any constructive critisium on this topic and happy to take any new techniques(mantras).



Check my other blogsite on Money at www.moneyreallymatters.com

Monday, March 10, 2008

Whats up with Gold?

Gold is one of the precious metal never lost value for all these years, I should say centuries. It's been the craze of human race from the day it was found. This yellow metal always retained its magnetic power to attract both men or women. It's metal for one reason Britains stepped their foot into India to capture hold of the country.

Gold has been considered as a good investment thats the main reason in India they gave gold ornaments as a dowry to the bride which can be used if necessary for the family. Its also used to pass on the wealth from one generation to another.

Enough of Gold history. Let me get on the fact. Look at the chart below. Last year around the month of Jun, it started to slowly raise and hit a lower high and pulled back on Sep again to $650 range(Rs. 800/gram 22 carat). After that it never looked back and started to soar supported by subprime crises and later by weak economy.




Nobody really expected the yellow metal to claim this high close to $1000(Rs.1250/gram 22 carat) within just 8 months and its not looking to stop anywhere soon and aiming for higher highs every day. Its all because of the weakening dollar pushing the inflation and recession is on the brink.


Check out the 5 year chart below, it has come a long way from $300. If somebody would have invested in just 10 bullions for $3000, now its worth $10000. Just calculate the return which is 225%. Wow, who don't want to get that much return. You and me can't predict the economy that pushed GOLD this far. But you surely make a wise choice to buy it when its affordable and it will never let you down.



Short term Trader:

Gold has become an attractive commodity for the trader these days with market fluctuating so much dropping prices to more than $10 dollars a day. It is very good traders vehicle to put money for a short term and get a sweet lump of return in just few months. It really You can boldly make the decision to buy some gold as short term investment and reap the reward when it gets up to $1100 or $1200. But be cautions and brave enough to withstand some ups and downs on the way.

Check out my other Money related posts at Money really Matters

Recommedation:

Long term Investor


Don't buy now. What goes up faster is set to come down 2 fold faster. Gold will eventually come down to a price which is afforable to conservative consumers. It will sure to pullback to $700 - $800 range or much lower(Rs.800/gram 22 carat). That time, don't hesitate to catch the train. It will be a good investment for long time to come. The 20year chart below is the evidence.

(Chart courtesy: http://www.usagold.com/)