The picture is so cute! I interpret it as Shawn trying to read Kate's palm like how those teen boys try to hold their girlfriends' hands for the first time by pretending to want to read their palms, and Kate looks bashful about a boy holding her hand. So cute!
Buffy,
Thanks for the kind offer, but I'll probably get my husband to collect or get the person to mail the products. Travelling to Raffles Place will be out of the way for me.
busybee,
I'm not sure whether you're speaking specifically about my bil-spanking-my-baby incident or generically so I'll share with you my thoughts on both:
Probably becos I work with parents alot and see how different kids turn out under different parenting style, I am comparatively cool about others chiding my elder kid if she's at fault. I don't want my kid to feel that I'll still defend her when she's at fault, or lie to gain my protection. I've seen many kids lying to their parents about what happened knowing that their parents will believe them and defend them accordingly. No matter how much a devil they are elsewhere, the parents insist that they are provoked, got into bad company, someone else instigated them, or simply the whole thing is totally untrue and the whole world gang up to wrongly accuse them. I thought it's really sad that these parents are in denial and they are the ones who do alot of harm to their kids.
My sister is one defensive parent and she wouldn't even punish her kids when they had been really naughty. She just tells them,"Don't do it again." which doesn't work. When someone commented that her boy was naughty, she gave a very unfriendly face and pulled her kid to her. As an onlooker, I couldn't help but felt that she was sending negative messages to her kid. She doesn't like us to tell her what she ought to do, so we don't, but we still spank her kids when they are naughty, when she's not around.
But I think it's ok to pamper babies abit. Up till now, I haven't scolded my baby since her birth, except for the occasional firm 'No'. I'm alot more patient with her than with my first kid. Probably bcos old already, so mellow abit too. I think I won't be able to tahan if someone not close try to discipline my baby too, but bcos I know my bil's pattern, so I take it that it's my baby's first exposure to a ferocious object.