Thursday, August 2, 2012

Liza walks down memory lane ~ Kids fasting experience

Let's take a break from Europe entry. I feel like sharing something about my kids. I was preparing sahur earlier and was observing them while they are trying to open their mouth and consume their food. I can tell you, sahur is far more challenging than asking them to hold on until berbuka.

All of my kids started to fast when they were 6. They attempted to do half day while they were 5. We encourage them, but no force since they were still young. It was easier for Ilham and Baby to fast due to influence from Mira. They were at the age where what Kakak does, they must also do. Just like peer pressure.

Full month fasting were achieved when they were in Standard One. I must say I was really impress. Despite coming home flat and tired, can't even walk a single step anymore, they still refused to break fast. At times, I feel so kesian so I told them it's ok if they want to break fast, but they were very confident they can go all they. 

There was this one time when Ilham was in Standard 2 that he was down with fever during fasting month. He still insisted he can fast and felt ashamed since Kakak was fasting. I had to forced him not to since he needed to take his medication. While others were battling to ask the kids to hold on and go all the way to maghrib, my challenge was different, trying to get my poor sick child to have meals while his sisters were fasting. He was so upset, but a mom got to do what a mom got to do

How do we encourage them? I have this system when a week before fasting month, I start to plan for the buka puasa menu. Not only it can make me organise better(fasting month is by far much more challenging than other months for maidless person like me), it will also give the kids something they can look forward to. They will provide their input, sharing with me their wishlists. 

Another tradition we have is to have at least one time sahur outside. It can be in Mcd, or nearest kedai Mamak, just to have a feel of another ambiance. We usually avoid having iftar out side, it's just too crowded and performing prayers will be difficult.So, we target to have only 2-3 buka puasa sessions away from home ; one with my parents, one with my inlaws and another time will be just the 5 of us. This is when we have iftar in hotels. Though I am not a fan of iftar in hotels, this is mainly for the kids to enjoy themselves.

Time flies so fast and today is already the 13th day of Ramadhan. Before you know it, it's Raya!

And I haven't even started cleaning the house! Arggghhhh!!!

Signing off,

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