Category: Family

About family & family issues.

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Ready for the Next Chapter? I think so…

See the picture above? Those are my son’s things he has decided will be going with him to Singapore, where he has chosen to serve his NS (National Service). See my post from July regarding his graduation and NS.

It’s a milestone and quite a big one. Many have been asking how we, as parents, feel about him leaving the nest.

Well, there’s a part of me who can not believe he’s already at this stage of his life, there’s another part of me who is very proud that he has come this far, yet another part of me is uncertain. Uncertain of how I would navigate this change, manage the physical distance and balance mothering while giving him the space to fully become the young adult he needs to be.

I turn to others who have already walked this path and to God who is my constant guide through life.

Another question friends ask us is what we would do now, as empty-nesters. A friend related how his parents told him they had to relearn how to just be a married couple again. I guess that might be one part of it.

It will be an adjustment but it will also be an opportunity for us to move into different roles. By this I mean, we will always be his parents but our role will shift gears into being advisers rather than direct influencers. I feel it would probably be the same in our relationship as a married couple; we would move from being parents first to giving priority to being a partner for each other.

I am sad yet excited, proud yet ambivalent, wanting to reach for the future while still holding onto memories.

For now, I tell myself to remain cool and calm and tell you, with my heart at busting point, my boy passed his driving test and can now legally drive! Another milestone – what else can a parent be but proud 😀

This picture just shows the sample license as I didn’t want to show his actual license for privacy reasons.

syc

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We were in Normandy, France…

So we did not go to Singapore for the summer as we would normally do. Our annual trip to Singapore will be in November because Tobias has finished school and will be registering for National Service (military service, for those non-Singaporeans) after he gets his Swiss driving license (a process he had already started and should finish in October).

We thought we do a trip to somewhere in Europe and the husband suggested a visit to the D-day landing beaches and to visit some sights around Normandy. And that is what we did. Packed the dog and ourselves into our car and drove to Normandy.

It was a long way… made longer after we discovered how expensive the toll-roads (expressways) are. So after the first day, we took to the national roads (country roads). It takes longer, no service stops but was much more scenic.

Our first stop was the city of Orléans, its most well-known citizen is Joan of Arc. So we saw some sights that evening (see pictures below), and had take-away Chinese in our rooms (because the restaurant didn’t allow dogs 😦 ).

The next morning we headed to Caen, the big city on the Normandy coast, with a pitstop in Le Mans for lunch. We had a lovely light dinner at a pub. The next day, we set off on our tour of the D-day sights, starting at the Pegasus Bridge, onto Ranville Cementry to pay our respects to the people who gave their lives, finished at Sword Beach and Gold Beach.

Unfortunately, it was at Gold Beach that I injured my foot. There was a pothole in the street, which I didn’t see, fell, scrapped my left knee and hurt my right foot. We had to hobble back to the car and drive round to find a pharmacy. They were very nice at the pharmacy.

The next day, I stayed at the hotel with our dog while the husband and the son went to Mont Saint Michel. They said it was nice but too crowded. No pictures from me on this day besides one of the dog and I in the room.

On Day 5, my foot felt better so I decided I could go on this last day of sightseeing. We did the Overlord Museum, near Omaha Beach. Then to the beach and onto Pointe-du-Hoc. Unfortunately, we were finding France not as dog-friendly as we had hoped. No dogs on beaches even. Finally, at Omaha Beach Lexi was able to run around. She played with the waves, which was unexpected, it was so fun to watch her zooming on the beach.

We started our drive home that Saturday, with an overnight stop at Auxerre and arrived home on Sunday afternoon.

Despite the accident I had, it was a good trip. We might go back there again but maybe without Lexi because she really wasn’t allowed in many places.

Enjoy some pictures below.

syc

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Graduated! Matura Done! Next Chapter…

I am a proud mother of a young man who has graduated from the Gynamisum in Solothurn, Switzerland. That’s pre-uni level for our family and friends in other parts of the world.

So he has breezed through 2 years of kindergarten, found his feet during 6 years in primary school, survived 2 years of secondary school and put in the hard work for his 4 years of Gymi (pre-uni); a total of 14 years of formal education!

There was a lovely graduation ceremony at the end of June. I really liked it. It was filled with speeches, music and dance. One of the more moving and inspiring speeches was by this well-known singer/poet who has Iranian heritage (I have sadly forgotten her name) and she spoke so movingly about how women in Iran have no movement in all aspects of their lives, thus have little choice in their direction in life. The ceremony’s theme was Movement – so she encouraged the graduates to take hold of their options to have choices and to move forwards in life.

Here are a few photos from that lovely ceremony, which took place in a redevelopment of an old cement factory:

Next chapter for my boy – National Service in Singapore. While he has deferment pending renunciation of citizenship, he has chosen to serve. We fully support his decision. It would be good for him to experience life in Singapore and have some time to consider what he might want to do for further studies or a career.

syc