Easter

One of my new year resolutions is to spend more time with the kids and celebrate every special occasions with them. Basically to pass on some family traditions.

On Sunday, it suddenly hit me I have not arranged for any Easter celebration when my husband asked what I was planning to do with the kids. Contemplated whether I want to pay exorbitant amount for Easter brunch in most five-start hotels which include kid activities like egg hunt. Since I don't particularly enjoy crowded places and to keep up with my other resolution which is to be frugal, I decided to skip the hotels.

Instead, we went for brunch in a nice casual restaurant, Koi, at Kemang.  The kids get away with ordering what they love which for my daughter means a huge waffle loaded with ice-cream topped with berry sauce for lunch.  We agreed "no tech" which means no phone, blackberry and ipod at brunch. Instead we talked, and to my surprise my daughter knows more about Easter than I do.  We chit-chatted and browsed through magazines together. Nothing fancy yet an extremely enjoyable lunch.

We then ended Easter afternoon with chocolate hunt at home where I hid Ferrero Rocher chocolates (most Easter chocolates were sold out by then) and the kids had fun searching through the house for the chocolates with our puppy running after them equally excited by the commotion the kids created.

I've decided that we'll make brunch and chocolate hunt the Easter tradition for our family, simple activities we all enjoy and will remember.  Also, will start the tradition of having Sunday as "no tech" day.  Sunday is a day we bond as a family.

Job and Retrenchment

The financial crisis seems far behind in most part of South East Asia.  Most people who've lost their jobs would have found one by now.  And the impact of a weak economy and fear of retrenchment has long been forgotten.

We so often complained about our job; the work itself, the colleagues we have to deal with, office politics, difficult clients and the list goes on.  Yet we fail to be grateful for a job that helps put bread (or rice) on the table. For most of us who like what we are doing on most days, we should even be more thankful.

The impact of retrenchment is detrimental to one's self-esteem and definitely disruptive to the financial stability of the family.  When you are told you would be terminated, even though you know that it's due to the weak economy, the first question you have is "why me".  Your mind will start playing trick on you and self-doubt will start to kick-in.  You probably will lose your self-confidence.  You start worrying about covering the basic needs of the family and having to change the life-style of everyone on the family to ease through this challenging period.  You find it difficult to explain to your family why you lose your job and how this will affect them.

So while we hold a steady job, let us be thankful.  Not suggesting we should stick around a job if we utterly dislike what we are doing.  But if it's a matter of a few lousy days and a few rotten apples among our colleagues, let's brace ourselves through.  As they say in yoga, let it go.

Staying true to ourselves

Many of my female colleagues face the challenge in managing work and family.  In Asia, thankfully for domestic helpers,  many of us are freed from household chores.  That does not mean it's anyway easier for career women.  The issues with domestic helpers render a different discussion on its own.

The challenge in managing work and family is a constant balancing act women have faced since the industrial revolution when women started to get a job outside, first to assist the family financially and as time passed, for self-fulfillment.

There are many women who are constantly haunted by guilt from working especially if they are not doing it for financial reason.  Many well-educated women in South East Asia who are from well to do family tend to stop working after they start a family.  I have considerable admiration for women who decide to quit their job to be full-time mom or as they are now called, home-makers.  It's a round the clock job that is as much challenging as holding a 9 to 5 office career.  As long as the decision to leave their job is a conscious one they've embraced and not one made out of family pressure and guilt.

I won't call it an advice, but for the rest of women who enjoy working for the self-satisfaction, financial independence and the social networking, I suggest we stay true to ourselves for I am not sure we will be any happier leaving something we enjoy doing.  Our happiness is as vital to the family as much as we care about theirs.

To all women out there, may you stay true to your choice.