Friends and Kids

Hmmm..  my friends, who are not married or don’t have kids, stopped contacting me since I gave birth to Hiro!  I know they think I might be busy taking care of baby and won’t have time to go out or even answer the phone, but I actually do.  I do go out because I get bored if I stay home all day.  I do have my own time as D works at home and loves taking care of Hiro.  We sometimes even fight who feeds him with expressed milk.

I emailed/sms/called them saying “let’s meet up”, but then I realised I’m the person who always asks for a meet up – even before I had Hiro.   Doesn’t anyone want to see me?  … ok, I know it sounds bit crazy – clearly I was having a negative thought.  I even emailed mum asking “do you still remember me?”.   :p

Just to take the stress off, I visited my friend who recently moved into a new house.  She has two girls – 12 years old and 7 years old – and is working as a teacher assistant in Perth.  She also has studied baking here and we used to work at a bakery in Claremont together : that’s how I met her.

Homemade cake and freshly brewed flat white. 🙂

As she used to work as a kindergarden teacher in Shinjuku, Tokyo for 10 years before migrating to Perth, she knows a lot about babies/kids.  And, I knew I could get some advice on parenting (as I still don’t have much idea of it).

She gave me some Japanese books about baby’s food and health to read at home, and talking to her gave me a clearer idea of having and raising kids in Perth.  I didn’t know that kindergarden here is only for 1 year!  And, there is pre-elementary school?

In Japan, kindergarden is for kids between 3 and 5 years old.  Then, 6 years of elementary school followed by 3 years of junior high and 3 years of high school.  Here, 1 year of kindergarden (not compulsory), 1 year of pre-elementaly school, then 7 years of elementary school.  I see, I see…  I’m really glad I could talk to her about these stuff.   I can’t imagine Hiro going to school yet (how he is going to look like??), but it’s never too early for me to plan and prepare for what’s going on in future. 🙂