Elements of a good day

Yesterday was super nice because I started it with a positive mind set, I was not in a rush, I did what felt good, and I felt inspired.

My cutdown run was probably the hardest workout since I started the training plan. 2 miles warm up, 3 miles at consecutive faster pace, and 2 miles cool down. It would have been a good workout but not extremely hard if I slept well and humidity less than 90%. I was quite exhausted but always happy to have done it.

I spent the morning laying around trying to regroup myself while girls did kumon and practiced piano.

Random thought on summer parenting. A parent friend asked me what’s our plan for the girls for summer… aka summer studying/organized activities…. I said none. She shared that she’s looking into few options (reading/math class, science experiment, etc.). My first reaction was: did I miss this? should I sign them up for these too? am I not being the responsible parent? Then my gut tells me: no. summer break is supposed to be summer break, no schedule, plenty of free time to the point to get bored, and family bounding time.

The culture difference between asian vs. non-asian parents are so large. All asian parents I know are doing things to improve kids academic performance over the summer like a catch up plan. Western parents usually plan for trips, relaxing break. In our household, my husband is Chinese and would have preferred that the girls are doing something productive over the summer. Fortunately he leaves big parenting decisions to me, and I’m inclined to give them mental break. Is this parenting intuitive? probably not because I don’t think I’m an intuitive parent as my own parents. It’s probably from all the parenting books/articles/research I’ve read over the summer, and my own experience over the last few years at work. Having space, commit 80% of my time to deliverables, was the key for my professional growth. Because I was not 100% of the time doing something, I could do forward looking planning, strategic thinking. I know it doesn’t translate to kids necessarily, but the concept of leaving space is the same.

anyway, long chat about not scheduling activities for the girls 🙂

I had a great breakfast combo: toast with 1/2 avocado, lentil burger and homemade pickles, really really good!!!

the family tackled a big project, shower Cookie 🙂

While I laid on the coach and read my book, Lizzy was building a space ship and talking me through all the rooms… she made a bedroom for me too 😀

I finished Can’t Hurt me…. so inspiring… I love when I feel somebody voices my own thought

and started a new book in kindle before falling asleep…. look who was my company.

final parenting thought. When I was comfortably reading, Lizzy asked me to help her with the towel as she was taking a bath in my bathroom. I said: why don’t you come out and get it yourself? It was a combination of deliberate let-her-manage and laziness. My parents used to sleep in and let a 6 years old to get milk alone (walk 300 meters to a stand, 6 floors from where we lived). I used to go out to have breakfast alone before going to school when I was a 3rd grader. I never felt I was not loved and it was common practice among parents in that time (80s).

How parenting has changed in just 2 decades? Sofia’s almost 10 and I can’t imagine sending her to store alone to buy things. yet, I would like to be the “lazy parents” to let my girls grow independently. It is more challenging because this is not the norm, and living in Asia with helpers that would tie shoelaces for the kids until they go to college makes it extra hard. It requires deliberation to CHOOSE WHAT IS RIGHT OVER WHAT IS EASY.