The apple doesn't fall far from the tree

Yesterday, I got to see some of my old friends again, and its been awhile since we saw each other. Of course time has change, all of us now married and even have young children. As usual the chat started about hows everybody doing, then one of my friend shared that for the last few days he's having trouble getting his 1,5 yrs old daughter in bed at night, so he asked my other friend with 4 yrs old son how she managed to get her son trained to sleep on time every night. And from that innocent question suddenly started a whole new conversation piece about how to raise and disciplining children.

And friend with the son said that having a child is like having a mirror that "slapped" in her face constantly, because whatever she said or did to him especially the negative ones , he will imitate them to others. This really makes her think twice every time she wants to punish or teach her son.

I couldn't agree more with her, and I even pointed out that I am big believer of :"Most children are not born bad, they just have bad parents." And as usual after I said that I'm waiting for the million dollar comments such as:"you are not a parent yet, so it's easy for you to say that" and "You know they gonna say the same thing to you when your kid behave badly.," As I predicted both comments did come almost the same time.

Well, for the first statement I usually answer:"I may not be a parent yet, but been working in early childhood education field, I've seen enough that give that conviction." and as the second statement, since I'm waiting for my first child to be born soon (less than 2 mth), me n my husband already decided that we're going to educated and teach our son the best we could, and if he behave badly, yes we will take the responsibility.

When I say bad parents, I meant parents who neglect their children physically and mentally. also parents whot never teach their children about boundaries and discipline. Don't get me wrong, I like children to creative, active, independent, and free spirited but that doesn't mean that they just be rude and uncivilized. I'm sure you've seen them, children throwing tantrum and causing scene in public. What I've learn is that if they have enough confident to do that in public, it means they must done worst than that at the comfort of their home, so the question is what did the parent do when the children did all of that at home?

Anyway, I know that we are, including me and my husband are just humans. We are imperfect, which means we are bound to make mistakes, even in raising our children. But it doesn't mean we don't try our best as parents.     

Things U find everywhere in Mideast

Things you will find easily and cheaply in most countries in mideast (not in the order):

1.Hommos (paste made of ground chickpeas, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt and Tahini root )

2. Yogurt

3. Laban & Labneh (strained yogurt)

4. Olive (fresh, pickled, canned, chopped, u name it, they got it)

5. Feta cheese

6. Men in Thobs (simple ankle length robe made of cotton or wool for winter) and Ghutra (a large, diagonally, folded cotton square) held in place with Igal (a double coiled cord circlet) on their head.

7. All different kind of nuts, especially Pistachio and Almond

8. Pita bread

9. Dates

10. Baklava

11. Fresh cow milk

12. Eggplant

13. Cucumber

14. Bell pepper

15. Women in Abaya (a black, all the way to the toes length robe) and Shayla (black scarf covering the head and the face, except their eyes)

16. Especially in Saudi, gasoline

17. Falafel and Kebab

The Myth

Things that people think of when i mentioned Mideast, especially Saudi Arabia (not in the order):

1. Camels, since they found the biggest oil reserved in the 30’s, the only place you will find these babies are in the zoo

2. Men with 4 wives and 1000 harems. You still can find them but they are rare, especially the 1000 harems, that’s only in the movies and stories. Most men nowadays have only 1 wife.

3. People live in tents. Unless they are camping, nobody lives in tents anymore, that’s in the past!

4. They only eat lamb meat. Yes, they sell them in the market and yes, people still eat them, but they also eat chicken, beef, fish and even lobster.

5. War n bomb. That’s in Iraq and Afganistan, guys! Most of the countries in mideast are peaceful, even richer than yours!

6. Arab men smell like lamb. Again, maybe in the past they were, but now they smell like Polo, Bvlgary and other international brand name perfumes.

7. All arab men are rich. Not really…..yes some of them have money more than Oprah and Bill Gates combine, but most of them are just like you, regular people with regular office jobs.

8. Beside sand, there is nothing in the dessert. WRONG! Most of the cities look very green.

If you have more misconceptions or just simple questions, just post them here, and i’ll try to answer all of them as accurate as i can be.