I always like the idea of meeting up with my brother so that Yee Sinn gets to play with my 2 nephews. They are actually quite sweet little things, especially the elder boy. He’s 3 this year and loves to play with our little girl. Well, sometimes he’ll share the toys, sometimes they’ll fight like crazy… but I guess it’s all part of growing up. I like it when the little boy gets ever so excited when he comes over, seeing Yee Sinn around so that they’ll be able to play together.

On the other hand, I do dread meeting up with my “other” in-laws. My hubby’s sister too, has 2 boys. They’re both 12 and 10 this year. The older boy is a kind lad but it is not so for his younger brother. He tends to via for attention with a 2 year old, and loves to irritate everyone with his obnoxious behaviour. During one of the Chinese New Year gathering, he was jealous that his dad was carrying our little girl that he placed his hands around her neck and attempted to strangle her… much to our horror. And just over the weekend while we met for Qing Ming, he tried to terrorize Yee Sinn again by constantly poking her with his toy. It seemed that both his parents are so helpless in disciplining him that they have practically gave up and continued to allow him to misbehave in public.

Hubby and I are very sure that we don’t want our girl to grow up being a brat; hence we have been very consistent in our disciplining methods. It can get painful and even frustrating at times, but I’m sure if we start to put things right now, things in the future will be a breeze.