
One of the very important things children need to learn from the start is to have empathy and compassion. According to the fabulous book above, children who have a higher emotional quotient get ahead in life at a much faster pace and go much farther in life. That is why when I first enrolled T1 at school, I made sure she went to a school that didn’t focus on any academics but more so on their emotional well-being. Children from a very young age are naturally born emotionally insecure and it is up to parents to ensure that the child’s environment is nurtured towards the child being a happy and confident child. The academics can really come later. Really.
Children need to have fun. They need to be allowed to grow at their own pace. They need to be praised. No matter how ugly their handwriting is, we are supposed to find the one good thing about it and praise that. Perhaps it is how round they have dotted their alphabet i’s. And it doesn’t matter if their drawing of a cat looks like a horizontal line, we are supposed to tell them, “That looks like a super hero cat!!!” or “That is a really skinny cat, did you starve her?” and NOT “Is THAT a cat? It doesn’t look like a cat. Here, let me show you how to draw a cat”– Praise, praise, praise……or at least make it positive rather than negative.
Is there such a thing as over-praising then?
Absolutely.
Praising your child blindly for every God damn thing they do or don’t do, is sending him or her to the pit holes. This will only spiral them into a severe insecurity zone because when they come out into the real world, they quickly realise that what Mommy said all their life that they were good at was really not true. And then they don’t know where they stand anymore.
Praise has to be genuine, honest and specific. There will always be something positive to say about something. If you don’t have anything positive to say, then you’re just not thinking hard enough. Of course, I am referring to children below the age of 10 here, the toddlers and preschoolers. As they mature, our parental role takes a twist again. We should always praise our child’s efforts on what they do rather that the end result. Like I told T1 that I was very proud of her that she tried her best in folding her clothes and putting them away. Never mind that I had to do it all over again. I didn’t have to tell her that.
Recently, we visited my grandmother and had lunch at some Thai coffee shop and my grandmother said she wanted to go next door to the pharmacy. I quickly took the opportunity to ask T1 if she could please accompany her great-grandmother and help hold her hand, since the old lady is 85 and can barely walk straight. T1 obliged without complaint and I was so proud of her. She could have said no and given some excuse, or asked me to do it instead.

It is important to instill a sense of compassion in children as once it is too late, it is just too late. Do you know kids who just don’t care? Everything has come so easy to them that they just don’t care about much at all! Our jobs is to make sure that they DO care. It is important to care…….
**************************************************************************Who is Mamapumpkin?
Mamapumpkin spent 7 years in London committing crimes to gain her Bartlett degree in Architecture. She then spent 7 years as a Stay At Home Mom raising her children as documented in this blog of over 15 years thereafter returning to the Corporate World stronger than ever as the Country Director of a British Multinational. She sets out to prove to all, that you can have anything and everything that you want; if you have that fire of desire burning within and the drive to work hard. Even better with much love.
Mamapumpkin has not only grown corporate businesses successfully in the past but has grown not one but TWO network marketing businesses in the notorious MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) industry, achieving success in under 2 years. She believes in the MLM business model but realises the DRASTIC PITFALLS and great stigma attached to it, understanding EXACTLY WHY the majority would shy away (or RUN for their lives) from ANY MLM business. But open your eyes and take time to understand it intellectually, remove your hang-ups, confirm your research, and you may just want to seize an opportunity. She did. And no, she never went about chasing people for sales. She had a sophisticated system work for her through technology and a smartphone.
She now impacts lives authentically with proven strategies amassed through the last decade of her own transformation offering online coaching programmes and always supports the underprivileged. She believes that we can all have a life of our own desires to enable real contribution into the world. But first, one needs to understand what this all means.
A beautiful life without limits.
If you wish to learn some tools to propel your life forward guaranteed, be brave enough to make contact as her life's purpose is to build people. She operates through a discovery call after which she will commit to helping you. Or not.
Most lose out on an opportunity because they are afraid they would be sold to, conned or whatever fear resides in their brain without even trying. And that's on them.
Mamapumpkin is a living testimony that women really can have a lot. Being financially and time free has enabled her to travel the world anytime, anywhere, doing anything, and she spends most of her days with her children, having fun, and supporting others wherever she can. Also having fun.


This is a very good reminder for me. Gosh! I can learn so much from you, and in the meantime, I feel awful guilty to be lacking so much in my motherhood role so far. Is it late to mend it still?