Working with children Day 1: I wish...

It feels good to go for a course today, away from work commitments :) I was quite amazed to see a few pple I know there...someone I used to work with before from MCYS and Hong Teck's wife.

The part of the course which touched me was when each of us came out to share about ourselves as a child and what we liked and disliked about our childhood. It's amazing to see how everyone, be it in their 50s, 40s, 30s or 20s all share common feelings when we imagine ourself as a child once again. Some common themes that came out were:

I wish my parents were more patient with me
I wish there was more physical affection
I wish they will do things with me which matters to me
I wish they explained to me why I was wrong before they scolded me
I wish they did not compare me to other children
I  wish they have praised me more often

Yes, people who has children and even grandchildren sharing vividly and vulnerably about their experiences as a child. Not that uncommon isn't it? To learn to work with children, we have to first search back to our childhood and learn from there. Let our younger self speak to us :)

Thank God for this girl who made my day. Somehow we had an easy time chatting with each other and I am thankful for her honesty and genuiness as she shared some personal things with me. After lunch before we began the second part of the lesson, she said to me, " I like you very much" and I was like "huh?" and she said again with a smile, "I don't know why but I like you very much." wow, to me, that was like...and I said (a bit embarassed), "yup, I like you too." Dunno why I find such words hard to get it out of my mouth while it's so easy for others. But..well, she is such a sweet girl :)