Kiddo's bedtime prayer tonight

'God Bless Daddy, Mummy and Me. Help me get better. Keep Daddy safe on his travels. God Bless Grandpa, Grandma, Ah Kong and Ah Ma. God Bless all the orphans. Let there be no tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanoes. Help me not whine, moan, cry, and tantrum. God bless all my new friends, old friends, and ab-so-lu-te-ly everyone. Help me sleep well and not wake up late for tomorrow's school trip to the zoo. Good night God. Amen.'

What can I say? A kid's environment certainly affects their thought processes. Much more so than one would imagine. I use prayer time as a guide to what the kid is thinking, and a spring board to talking about stuff. Ever since the recent spate of natural disasters have hit the local papers, she's been including tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanoes in her nightly prayers (Downside of a kid being able to read the back side of the paper while I'm reading the front).When I talk to her about it, I can tell she's concerned they will happen to us and people she knows. On one occasion, I remember having to sit down with her and the encyclopedia to work out how safe Jakarta, KL and Singapore were for the various friends and relatives she was worried about. And being here where poverty is so visible she has asked about the street children who beg at the car door. So has developed a slight obsession about orphans and their lack of parental love. Sigh... I guess if we were living in London she would pray about blizzards, gale force winds, tube delays and Indian summers.

Being an expat kid, she's had friends in KL, from her old school Tutor Time, and now in ACS. Not to mention the other expat kids that come and go. I can see how distressing that can be. I certainly do feel it when friends move away. The friendships tend to be rather like a summer romance, you know they're going to end right from the start, you make promises to keep in touch no matter what, and parting is wrenching. But once everyone's moved, it's only the occasional email or skype. Sometimes not even that. Thank God for blackberry messenger. These friendships tend to be quickly forged and quite intense, after all, no one really understands what an expat goes through other than another expat... She's also had to get used to Daddy traveling quite a lot. Now when she's had a scolding and says, 'I want to talk to Daddy!', Mummy has to do time zone as well as airline ETA computations. It's no longer just calling and having The Man furtively whisper that he's in a meeting and will call us back.

The moaning, whining bit... Well, that's totally my fault. because of my ear problem, anything above a certain frequency hits my brain like a laser beam and turns it into what feels like a cauldron of boiling lava with nails shooting into my ear drums. Her voice then echoes and reverberates in my skull, bouncing around and causing more churning of the lava and nails... Well, lava explodes, and so does mummy. That's generally when monster mummy makes a visit. My own yelling adds to the mix and I get even more steamed. Not nice for everyone... So every night, without fail, kiddo asks to not moan or whine. Depending on what's gone on at school, some times she adds in, 'help me to cheer not jeer (school lecture) and help me not mock or be smart alecky (heh heh)'

She throws in the 'help me get better' whether she's sick or not. Being an asthmatic and allergic-y kid, there have been times when she's on pills, syrups, puffers, sprays, creams for months on end. This is like a mantra for her. Can't sleep unless she says it. No matter, I don't imagine God would hold it against her...

All this is certainly a change from 2 years ago when her prayers were, 'God Bless Daddy, Mummy and Me. God Bless Grandpa, Grandma, Ah Kong and Ah Ma. God Bless Riesling, Cookie (our dogs), Baileys and Smokey (our cats). God Bless my friends. Help the woodpecker not eat all our fish...'