This is a post I made in the old blog on Tuesday, 30 January 2007 at 11:03 PM.

I found three strands of my hair turning white. I plucked one out, showed it to Eric and said, “Tua sudah Mommy, (I’m old already)” with a mock sad expression. The reply I wasn’t expecting was a teary, “Mommy mau mati sudah? (Is Mommy dying soon?)”

Oh no. Just the other day, my sister Lydia had the same predicament with her soon-to-be 7 year old daughter, Aishah, and my sis told me how she explained death, and that seemed to calm her down. So, I tested the same technique with Eric. There I went ranting, about how people who passed away are actually happier because they don’t have to worry about getting sick, having to work, needing to eat, that they are in a better place in heaven, that Jesus takes care of them, and all other nice stuff I was squeezing out of my brain hoping that I can explain it truthfully without being too over-the-top or harsh and turning ‘em into lies.

Did Eric fell for it? Hardly. It just brought more tears to his eyes even though he wasn’t sobbing his heart out. I looked at his dad sitting aside him on the next sofa, hoping for some back-up. All Daddy did was to give me a blank stare while sipping his Maggi (I mean, I can’t blame him — he WAS really hungry!).

So I continued to soothe him, and changed my tactics to explain to him what old age is all about, that getting old is actually fun, pointing out that everyone gets old, that he’s getting old too, when he grows older he gets to do more things like driving his own car, reading a book by himself, going out with his friends, etc (and purposely leaving out the “getting a job” part of it). “Do you understand now?” I asked. He answered sadly, “But when I grow older, you’ll be sooo old.”
“It’s okay, then. We can grow older together.”

A minute passed before he finally said,”I want to change to Disney channel 61.”

Phew.