Let Everyday Be World Kindness Day in Your Home

For Muslims, every day must be a day filled with kindness. We are commanded to be kind in the Quran and ahadith. Allah says,

Woe to those who pray, who are heedless of their prayer, who pray to be seen and withhold small acts of kindness. (Quran, Al-Ma’un 107:4-7)

We are reminded that Allah is Kind and our Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, is also kind. 

Welcoming An Intensive Care Newborn

Last week, by the Will of Allah, we had the first of the next generation added to our extended family. My niece had a baby so he's my great nephew (that makes me sound so old!). Praise be to Allah. 

When we visited the baby, we found him in the intensive care nursery, apparently he had trouble breathing on his own. It turned out that he had an under-developed larynx that we were assured should sort itself out with time. However, they wanted to do a brain scan to make sure that everything is alright. For this to happen, my nephew has been transferred to another hospital and has been in that hospital for about a week now waiting to have his scan. They wanted him to settled first before they do it.

Oh my poor little nephew! A week in hospital without his mother. Of course she visits him but it's not the same to have a newly born with you constantly. He needs his mother!

Parenting with Patience

"How do you have patience with children?" I'm constantly asked this from mothers of young children whom I teach. Sometimes it's a rhetorical question but just this week, the mother waited for me to answer her.

This got me thinking because I didn't want to say the usual "don't get upset", "don't react" or "remain calm". These are things that people already know. It's what happens when you're in the midst of a situation - how do you remain calm, how do you not react? This mother, I'm sure, was looking for strategies to remain calm and to not react.

What I Learnt From Daring Greatly

Daring Greatly is about having the courage to be vulnerable. In a world where we're shamed into feeling that we're not enough, we need the courage to open up to someone close who can offer us empathy. Because through sharing with another who can understand how we feel, we are sharing our humaness and connection and that's where the healing is.

Daring Greatly is not just a parenting book. The author looks at courage and vulnerability in general as it applies to everyone then specifically at the workplace and in education. And finally, at how it applies to parenting.