Wednesday, January 26, 2011

The Miracle Worker - in EOP class

Dear all,

How was the movie? Comment please..:-)

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Welcome to Parenting Class :-) (Sem 2, 2010/2011)

Salam everyone,

So far so good? I am sorry for not writing earlier. This is my first entry after a long, long time. Yes, I AM guilty as charged - for not maintaining my blog. T.Harv Eker a self-made millionaire mentioned the 'Law of Maintenance' which basically means anything that we wish to be in a good condition should be constantly 'well-maintained' i.e like a good relationship VS a hit-and-run one. If this is difficult to achieve, perhaps the practice of KAIZEN is an option. Doing something small but on a constant basis.hem.... But I'm not going to blabber on that. Now, I want to discuss about this course you are taking.

Hem....where shall we start? Oh yes, I told you in our first class - to START with a FRESH mindset - to leave behind any negative/ wrong models of parenting that you have experienced so far. This is very IMPORTANT so that we are not replicating the bad ones to our next generation. I would use 'we' alternately as a device to remind myself too!

Let me start on a positive or a rather beautiful quotation. I took this and other quotations from the book "Committed" by Elizabeth Gilbert. "There is no greater risk than matrimony. But there is nothing happier than a happy marriage." - Benjamin Disraeli,1870, In a letter to Queen Victoria's daughter Louise, congratulating her on her engagement. Beautiful isn't it? "Nothing happier than a happy marriage" Ahhh!!..But you got to be happily married to truly understand what this means!

....and so my task begins... I hope to shed some light into this matter. I wish I had a similar course like this when I was studying in UPM between 1990-1996. I only had 'Munakahat' class that I took at the evening religious school in Johor when I was younger. That was a really good one. However, no one told me of the challengers being a working mum and wife back then. It wasn't my ustazah's fault at all. She wouldn't have any inclination back then that the world is going to move so rapidly that young men and women need to be told of their 'rights' and 'obligations' in this challenging context.

The most important thing is to know how do we go about compromising with each other while maintaining rights of both the husband and wife? Because we come to understand that "Sometimes life is too hard to be alone, and sometimes life is too good to be alone" (p.81), that we must seek to understand in order to be understood (from 7 Habits of Highly Effective People).

So....I shall hand you this platform to discuss and throw your ideas....what are the rights and obligations of a husband and a wife - from the Islamic and also from other perspectives. Let us free ourselves from any gender bias and discuss this matter with an open mind. We also know very well the great mandate that Allah had bestowed upon men called 'husbands'. Even our mothers can't supersede them. Pretty cool and awesome to be given the highest rank don't you think? But again, what are their obligations to their wives and children? Can this 'mandate' lead to corruption of power? (Sorry guys, no intention of being sarcastic here). Hehe..So..... think hard and do some homework...coz a good homework will usually produce good results :-)..

See you soon!