Parenting

When I was a kid, my parents loved to say things like "When you have your own kids, you will understand" or "I hope your kids do the same things you're doing now so you will know how we feel." Of course this last one was reserved for moments when I actually screwed up bad, which happened a few more times then I care to remember.

I know Korean parents tend to be more dramatic but the funny thing is now I have a kid and now I understand. Well, she's only four and still can't go FUBAR on us. So far, everything she does is beautiful and we love every moment of it, but I still can see some traces of what I'm about to face in a few years.

For instance, when I was a kid I hated to go to bed. I'd stay up for hours after my bed time. Reading, watching TV or whatever it was that kept me awake. Sometimes my dad noticed the light under my door and crashed into my bedroom and urged me to sleep. Then I developed some other tactics to stay awake like, for instance, using a flashlight to read in bed, or squeezing a towel under my door so nobody would notice the lights were still on.

Well, my daughter hates to go to bed but since she goes to school twice a week we have to be strict in enforcing some sort of a bed time for her. It's a struggle every night and I have to ask her to "Please, go to sleep" several times before she finally does so.

One of these nights I caught her trying to fool me, coloring a book under her blankets, using a flashlight. I know it's all downhill from here...