The perfect parent

We brought the kids to farm in the city located at Seri Kembangan. The kids had so much fun feeding and petting the animals, they were beyond thrilled to have such a close interaction with the human-friendly animals. I was glad to see such excitement in their faces and yes, we did not let them roam around freely in the farm, even though all are human-friendly animals. Because. This paranoid mommy afraid that even though they are friendly animals, they are still animals. So, we held hands and walked together all the time. I watched over their steps closely. Unfortunately I missed my own steps and I fell on the ground. My pants were covered with mud and my legs were sore. It was ok! As long as it was not the kids. We moved on from one section to another and the park has few stations to wash your hands after petting and feeding the animals. So, don't worry about hygiene. We washed the hands all the time. I even brought my own dettol soap. 

We spent almost 2 hours there and it was time to go home. But the kids persuaded us to feed the giant tortoise one last time. And who can resist those soft baby voice saying please, can we feed the tortoise one last time? Of course babies, one more round and we shall set our foot home. I squatted together with them, looking and watching at them feeding the giant tortoise. 

 

It was almost time for lunch and I stood up, looked at my hubby and said Let's Go! The moment I faced my hubby face to face, I heard a loud scream! I quickly recognized the cry, it was Daniel. I turned over and saw that he was holding his fingers. The giant tortoise bit him while I turned away for seconds to tell the hubby let's go home. Everything happened so fast! I panicked and quickly picked up my crying boy. I looked at his small little hand and saw the few holes of bite. Thank God the tortoise let go of his hand and there was no blood. Only some deep holes and bruises. I carried him and quickly went over to the information counter and requested for some dettol wash. The farm is well equipped with first aid kits, and our little boy got his hand bandaged. 

I was so worried, and we were thinking if we should bring him to the hospital. We stopped at a nearby pharmacy and asked if he required any injection to avoid infection. The pharmacist said it was ok because tortoise are vegetarian. Therefore it was not as bad as dog/cat. 

Due to this incident, I couldn't sleep for days and weeks. I felt so guilty. I felt so devastated. I felt so lousy that I was unable to protect my children. I slept with the giant tortoise running in my mind. It was like a nightmare. And I woke up every few hours at night to check on my boy if he was ok. I checked his temperature all the time. Every time I see a tortoise, I remember this incident. I remember the bite.

Till today, I still couldn't get this incident out of my mind. As much as I tried to protect my children from the start, accident still happened. And lately, there are a lot of news regarding toddler's injury/accidents. Many people think they are the best parent and they can prevent accidents from happening. Oh well... read this.

An Open Letter To Perfect Parents: Put Down Your Pitchforks

This mommy wrote exactly what is in my mind. When accidents happen, keyboard warriors start slamming the wall : WHERE were the parents? WHY leave the child unattended? PUT the parents to JAIL! We are living in a world now that we cannot let accidents happen. It's so sad. Such a sad sad world. People condemning one another. People judge so quickly. Oh people, Accident means an unfortunate incident that happens unintentionally and unexpectedly! No parents of course want their child to get hurt. 
As much as we try to be very careful of everything, accidents do happen. And when that happens, don't be the first to throw stones. Offer some words of comfort. Speak words of life and not deadly words.