Miya mula mengeja!!

Just now dia pointed to Monitor PC papa dia and said:

"A...D...E"....."Badak!"



Wah..anak mama mengeja...Tapi silap ejaan la sayang.

Miya the Late Teether & an Eager Teether too..

Miya got her 1st tooth at 15months old. Pops out the 2 lower incisor.

Then last month on Hari Raya, Miya got a fever and pops come out the other 1 and half upper incisor. With this, along comes another 4 tiny bumps on of lateral incisor (top & bottom). But none have yet cut through the gum.

So I said to myself, Ala...yg lain tu lambat la lagi kluarnye.



This morning, we had our usual "tooth brushing battle". Miya pegang berus gigi while Mama pegang kain to clean Miya's teeth. Usually she will shut tight her mouth. On some good days, she will just open a tiny bit. But today was different. She open her mouth all wide, macam anak burung mintak makan.

Dalam hati I said, Wah..anak aku good mood...so boleh cuci the whole mouth. Cuci gigi, cuci lidah...then cuci gusi belakang..

Suddenly I could feel something sharp tersangkut at the wash cloth..Buang kain and raba with my fingers....

Woah..terus I jerit to Papa Miya "Anak dah ada gigi GARHAM".

Yup, she got her first molar on the right side TOP and BOTTOM. But nothing on the left side.

HikHikHik..the eager teether tumbuh gigi tak ikut susunan aturan...

Takpe la anak, janji ada gigi. Patutla laju aje menguyah lately.

Are we being fair to our parents?

Since last night I've been haunted by this one thought. We mothers have been doing our best in trying to bring up our children in this big world. We try to give the best affection, attention, clothing, food, education and etc. We would even trade our life for the safety of our offspring. Correct?

So, what if... our parents is a fugitive from the law. Our mother is a wanted woman accused of murder or stealing. Our father is being labeled as a war criminal or a spy from an enemy country....and they are now in hiding......and only we know where they are. Deep in you, you know that your parents are not capable of these crimes and if they did do it, they must have a real good reason behind it.

The law enforcer knows that we have such information, but they have no hard evidence to get us to spit out such info.

Then what if, one fine morning. The police come banging on your door with a warrant saying that you have committed a certain crime, say they there is a firm evidence that proves that you are a drug lord.... truthfully, everyone knows that it is a ridiculous.

However, (like in those hollywood interrogation scene) you were being beaten the crap out of u and then given the choice; to plead guilty to a life sentence or to give the location of your parents.

What would you do?

Now remember of what I wrote earlier about how much we would do, in order to make sure our children is safe from the cruel world....and now do you think that our parents did do the same thing for us when we were just a wee tiny creature on this earth.

And again my question...what would you do?

Breastfeeding to be Blamed for Saggy Tits?

Recently and even many times before, many moms on www.susuibu.com forum keep on asking and discussing on will breastfeed distort or sag their breast.

To me, it is only logical that time and gravity will take toll on our darling pair of boobies.

Then this morning I found this article on iVillage newsletter.

Saggy breasts: Will they ever perk up again after weaning?

by Debbi Donovan, IBCLC (see more from this expert)

Q:I have a post-breastfeeding question. I breastfed my baby for seven months. I just weaned him over a month ago. My breasts have gone down almost to my original bra size. However, they do not look or feel anything like they did before I breastfed. They are very saggy for one thing. They also feel so empty. I know I'm used to them being full of milk, but this is like there is nothing inside of them -- not even breast tissue. Will they ever perk up again?

A:It can be surprising after weaning (or after pregnancy, in non-nursing moms) to see how your breasts have changed. Breast changes occur in all women as they age, and not just in women who have given birth (or breastfed).

How your breasts change during a pregnancy is related to genetics, skin elasticity and amount of weight gain. Avoidance of smoking and excessive sun exposure can help the skin to retain its elasticity.

Breastfeeding often gets blamed for the sagging of breasts. Actually, it is pregnancy and not nursing that affects the shape and size of your breasts. Breastfeeding and gradual weaning make it more likely that fat will be redeposited in your breasts, helping them to regain more of their pre-pregnancy appearance (Minchin, 1989).

Usually by about six months after weaning, your breasts will have returned to more of their pre-pregnancy look. They also will feel more dense, as fatty tissue begins to fill them out again.

Read more: http://parenting.ivillage.com/baby/bbreastfeed/0,,3wvw,00.html?nlcid=pb|10-26-2009|#ixzz0V4zBo9Hz

So whether you breastfeed or not, your breast will have changes to it...

And my advice is to invest on a great bra and don't limit yourself to those granny bra or nursing bra only. For over 17months of breastfeeding, I'm proud to declair that I only have 1 bright pink nursing bra (gift from bitch when i became a mom) and the rest of my collection are the front-hook "hip & happening" bras. Front hooks are also a great solution for breastfeeding mom. You just unhook it, feed & hook it, but it does get a bit tricky if you are nursing in public.

The thing about Bras..they are not just suppose to be something that covers & support our boobies. It is also the ultimate weapon to aid us in feeling good. So when you feel good, your boobies looks good too. Am I right, hot mamas?

Also, give them darlings a nice massage during showers. Let them freshen up once a while. ;)

Today......Not so many years ago.........

"During the past few decades, we have lived in a culture that has privileged fame, money & power. Many of us have been led to believe that these were the only values worth pursuing, unaware that the real, behind-the-scenes manipulators remain anonymous" - preface of the Author - The Winner Stands Alone. A great book as a birthday present to me from Papa Miya.

-psssst..cake tu papa miya buat....

Breastfeeding Father?

No..I didn't mean that dad should suapkan their man boobs to their child. What I'm saying is that dads can help with breastfeeding.

A new dad might think that his role in breastfeeding is a minor one. So...NOT!

Studies show that the attitude of the baby's father is the most important factor in whether or not a mother begins and continues to breastfeed. Betul tak ladies? If our anchor tak support us to BF our kids, kejap aje la kita BF anak kita tu. We might not even reach the 6months BF milestone pun kan?

"Dad's instinct is to protect his new family. One way you can do that is by supporting your partner's decision to breastfeed. You can read books about breastfeeding or attend classes on breastfeeding with your partner. You can also help by discouraging others from criticizing your partner's decision to breastfeed, especially in the early weeks.

Dads teach their babies that there is more to love than food, and that there is a world outside of Mommy. Forging your own relationship with your baby will enrich both your lives — and Mom's, too.

Find your own way to have fun with the baby. Take charge of baths, or walk baby around in a soft carrier, or be the one to introduce squeaky toys and rattles. And remember, new babies love to nap on Dad's warm chest."

Content courtesy of March of Dimes.

Indoor Activities with your Toddler

Wow..tak sangka anak kita membesar that fast. Feels like its only yesterday when she's a tiny wee newborn cutesy cuddly hunnybun sugarplum pumkinyumkin. Sekelip mata aje anak kita dah jadi big girl... and you can see that during this toddlerhood, anak kita seems to be very hungry for knowledge & adventure. So how can you play and teach anak, while at the same time spend valuable time with them.

Here's some ideas:

1) Play "cave", "camping" or "pondok-pondok"

Tie or hang a large sheet above your dining table or anything that you can hang them on to. Buat ala-ala khemah. Put some teddies and treasures under the khemah, and go adventuring with your toddler! This will be lots of fun and in a way will educate your toddler to think creatively. There is no harm in indulging into some imagination.

2) Toddler fashion jewellery

Well since we are ladies and we love fashion & dress up, we can share our passion with out toddler tak kisah la anak kita girl or boy. So what can we do?

• Your toddler will adore making making necklaces untuk diri dia or untuk kita. Like Miya, dia pantang jumpa benda bertali-tali, mesti dia sarung kat leher dia ala-ala pakai nacklace/handbag. As an activity bersama anak, we can help our toddler thread some string through some penne pasta, some small doughnut-shaped cereal, buttons, rolls of paper, beads besar and anything that is suitable. You could paint the pasta first and talk about the patterns formed as you make the necklaces.
• Making handbags! get an old shopping bag or make your own using paper. then let your toddler decorate it.

As for me & miya, macam2 aje we all buat. Janji we all perasan tengah bergaya pilih gelang mami jarum or dressing up nak jd catwalk model utk fashion collection in Milan..Kikikiki..

3) Making train sets

As we all know, toddlers love train sets. I pun tak paham kenapa, but mmg common we see toddlers can sit for hours playing trains. So berbaloi kita ada train set untuk dia..tapi kan, not all parents could afford to be buying toys for their child.

As for us, we've decided that it is better to be spending money on books for Miya (ye la, menayampah, beli then kejap aje dia excited and lepas tu entah mana2 dia campak or ignore the toy) and so most of her toys, Miya & I will be making them. So we made our own train set. Very sempoi.

• get a few boxes like bekas telur, kotak ubat gigi, kotak door gift kenduri kahwin, kotak teh and apa-apa kotak yg kecil.
  
• Then make holes on the sides of the box and pull strings thru each box (macam masukkan beads dlm strings nak buat rantai tu la), tapi make sure the head is a box of the biggest size among them all.
  
• Bila dah siap, main la train2 dgn anak. For me & miya, sometimes dia jadi train, sometimes its kapal tunda and sometimes its a very big worm trying to kejar miya. You can choose apa-apa aje tema untuk bermain. So both you & anak will start thinking creatively while having lots of fun.

Selamat mencuba & don't forget, the main target is to HAVE FUN!!

Do share with us your activities so that we can try too.

Boobfeed Toddler Pengsan?

Mystery Box

Mystery Box is a fun game to play with your child.

1) Get a Box. I used a shoe box.
2) Make a hole on it of the size of your fist.
3) Decorate it if you want.


4) Get some tiny stuff that you want to show/teach your child.
5) Show the object to her and put it in the box. Make sure she is looking at what your are doing. Sambil tu kata "See this..mama is putting the crayon/mouse/toy into the box.."


6) Then get her to put her hand into the box and search for the object.

7) When she pulls the object/any object out. Ask her what is it and then tell her the name of that thing. "Wow.. Apa tu? Its a Crayon. A red Crayon".

We had lots of fun with this box and hope mommies out there will try it and share their experience here too.

Mama cut off Miya's bangs!!

All the pictures above are Miya's recent hair styles. But today, Mama gave her a mini makeover. Mama potong rambut Miya...Kikiki..Nasib la kena potong rambut dengan stylist yang tak bertauliah.

This is Miya's 2nd haircut. The 1st one was when she was 7days old, when her Nenek shaved every single hair off her head.

Ever since then, her hair grow slowly and I think its a sign of mogok. Kikikiki..

But recently, her hair has turned into a scraggly mop. She hates having to brush her bangs off from her face. She hates wearing “pretties” to hold her hair back out of her face. I pakaikan hair clip, sekejap aje lekat. Then she will pull it off, unless she puts them in herself, which is not exactly an attractive look either. I suppose I could just get over myself and let her do what she wants with her hair, since it is her hair........

But I am a control freak. So this morning, I just cut off her bangs. Miya buat muka blur-blur aje, as if "Hoh..apa Mama buat ni?"

Tips to get your kids to eat more

Lately Miya haven't been eating much, especially during seating meal. So what I did, I've been serving finger food all day round. Tapi at the same time I still suap her during the 3 main meal (breakfast, lunch & dinner). Still cam biasa lah, 2-3 suap aje laku. Pastu dia cabut lari. Kena berkejar satu rumah kalau nak suh dia makan lagi.

Solution: What I've been doing, I put all of the finger food on a table yg anak sampai nak capai. It is a great solution in getting your todd to eat while dia main-main. I've been serving raisins, cheese, fries, nuggets, fish fingers, fruit cuts, steamed vege, mini toasts, mini pancakes, & wheat biscuit (cereal/nestum compact to bentuk biskut).

Ni tengah google lagi ni, trying to find more finger food yg simple & attractive. Ke I patut start terjebak dgn "kawaii bento" wave?

Chatterbox 1st Anniversary Giveaway

Truthfully... this is my 1st time joining giveaway, contest and etc. I spesis buta IT & tak cerah on most online savvy thingy ness. It took me quite a while to understand what is sticky mode, what is Tag, what is awards..Itu pun still byk benda I tak paham and that's why you see that my blog have never had those stuff going on in it..Kih kih kihs...Bukan bodo sombong, but Bodo Malas.

But since Hanz dah personally invited me, I cannot say No. So this is me giving my 1st try on a giveaway.

Back on topic, as most of kita member2 blogger know, Hanz is having Chatterbox 1st Anniversary Giveaway. Yelah kan, one of the best way to show love is to share. Sharing is caring and as we can see Hanz really care about Green. Tu yg dia beria sgt nak give away some "green stuff" for us mommies. Tak caye, check la sendiri kat blog dia. With this we can create a better future for our kids. Tak gitu? Gitu gitu gitu.. Anyway, on How to Join?

"Follow 3 Simple Steps below:

(extracted from Chatterbox's giveaway entry)

1) Write a post / entry in your own blog about my giveaway. Just 1 post, not more, not less. Please make sure, you put up linkable this giveaway link & my Chatterbox link as well.Invite your friends to join too. 2) Visit /Browse / Surf this Chatterbox as often as you like & by all means, for any post you will find it usefulness, help yourself to it but please let me know. I love to share anything that I know or experienced with others. Do get to know this Chatterbox & me, so...you can provide your opinion, views, ideas or whatever feedbacks, be positive or negative, I'm ok with it. 3) Leave your (i) blog link entry about this giveaway & (ii) your feedbacks on my Chatterbox's Content in this Giveaway entry at Vis-a-vis.(Comment) This giveaway starts on 15th of October & ends on 15th of November, 2009 @ 11:59pm (Malaysian time)"

Ok... did I miss anything?

Cleaning your baby's bottle & breast pumps without chemical.

Many new parents out there are so worried about providing the best care for their babies, among it they spend a lot of $$ on stuff to clean & sterile the feeding bottles. Some parents use sterilizing tablets, some uses steam sterilizer, some rebus the bottles & some clean the bottles with mild detergent. Those are what being practiced by many parents over generations.

I even saw my own mom gone thru those event on merebus, merendam dgn table and little did we all know that it could do more harm to our love ones.

Yes, this is what many green mommies out there have been preaching. Semua benda tu may not be good for the baby, eventho the bottles will be 100% germ free.

Sebenarnya it is sufficient to wash the bottles with running warm water & rub salt to bahagian yg ada lemak susu or minyak. I myself didn't know about it until la I dah beli Avent's Microwave Steam Sterilizer.

Also there is a much simpler way to wash the bottles & pumps, it is by using this Melamine Sponge by Daiso (feel like sharing with u guys after baca posting Hanz on Daiso ). I've been using this sponge for year utk cuci bilik air & dapur. Just by using water & this sponge, i can remove tough stains. Daki2 in the shower hilang woo..

During my working days, I usually carry 1 small sponge ni in my breastpump travelling bag. So kalau can cuci, mmg la senang. Then at home, I'll use it to wash the bottles & the pump under warm running water. Kalau I tak confident air kat Malaysia tu ok, I akan steam everything in the Avent sterilizer by using air yg dah di filter.

Here, since we got hot water 24/7. Its very convenient for me to be doing these cleanings, only once in a while aje I will rendam the teats in air garam.

So mommies out there kalau wanna go green on bottle cleaning, head to daiso now & grab a handful of the melamine sponge. they come in many shape & sizes. I beli yg paling besar, coz i rasa value for money. Kat daiso, anything for Sing$2, NZ$2...in Msia tak sure brape coz tak pernah pegi. But lemme tell u this, I pernah beli sponge yg sama at Isetan, size very small around size sponge cuci pinggan biasa tu, but at RM9. pergh..tu yg bila jumpa kat daiso tu i shopping sakan tu.

Yes we r enjoying Spring!

Ameera Zahrah, Princess Blooming Flower.

-these are the pics we took on the way to the market on Saturday Morning. Can u feel that "simply fresh" feeling?

Mondays Child (Traditional Poem)

Mondays child is fair of face,
Tuesdays child is full of grace,
Wednesdays child is full of woe,
Thursdays child has far to go,
Fridays child is loving and giving,
Saturdays child works hard for his living,
And the child that is born on the Sabbath day
Is bonny and blithe, and good and gay.

Not the Mama?

Mommy's Break to keep Mommy Sane

I once learned from Dr. Phil that parents, particularly mothers who have a tendency to martyr for their families, have an obligation to take care of their children’s caregiver. As parents, we are duty-bound to spend adequate time tending to our own well being. Not only is it not selfish, it is essential for our physical, mental and emotional health. It is impossible to pour from an empty teapot. If the caregiver stresses out or becomes ill, there is no one left to look after anyone.

Parents are the model of how adult life is like and since our children are constantly learning on how to live from us, therefore, we indeed need to portray something wonderful and positive. But how are we going to portray of such image if we are having a tough time to keep ourselves sane? Here’s some tips.

Self Care Breaks

1. Keep a diary or a blog and keep the commitment. With this, you are at a constant tempo expressing yourself outloud. With nothing much bottled up, surely you will have less steam scorching your inner being.

2. Do something each day to nurture yourself physically (take a walk), mentally (read the paper), emotionally (call a friend) and spiritually (meditate or solat). Do your chosen activity for a few minutes or much longer. This may help for you to connect to your inner thoughts.

3. Nap when you can. Research studies report that napping increases energy and focus. However for me, if I have too much naps I will have headache. So I keep this nap thingy in moderate pace.

4. Transform self care routines into mini breaks. Take in a long and appreciative breath as you smell your hair shampoo, feel your silky lingerie and taste your favourite breakfast. I love my morning coffee, exfoliating my face in the afternoon before zohor prayer, eating peanut butter from a spoon in the late afternoon and blogging. Change what doesn’t satisfy you.

5. Soak in a bubble bath or give yourself a massage in a hot shower. Get that comfy and refreshing feeling.

“Mommy and Daddy Time” Breaks

1. Daily greet each other with hug, kiss and “How’s your day, hun?”

2. Regularly have five to 10 minutes pillow talk.

3. Have one mutually favourite television show or movie to watch while cuddling.

4. For a high couple enhancement break...Don’t forget to have sex atleast once a month. The more the better...You’ll get what I mean.

ADD & ADHD Drugs may cause depression to kids?

Something I found on the news this morning. So just wanna share with my friends out there and also as a reminder to me that kids & drugs don't mix.

"CHILDREN as young as five have attempted suicide or are severely depressed while on drugs to treat ADHD, by KATE SIKORA, October 13, 2009 12:01am.

The Advertiser has obtained reports from the Therapeutic Goods Administration showing at least 30 children have had severe psychotic episodes and wanted to kill themselves.

One boy, 7, became so depressed last year while on Ritalin he tried to commit suicide.

Serious reactions to ADHD drugs have doubled in three years, up to 827.

But the true extent of the side effects is unknown, with many doctors and parents under-reporting.

Use of heavy stimulants has been questioned by child experts who believe the drugs, including the failed adult anti-depressant Strattera, could be masking the true psychological problems of children.

It is also difficult to know if the drugs made a child suicidal or if the tendencies already existed, said Dr Jon Juriedini, head of psychological medicine at the Women's and Children's Hospital.

"It is difficult to say whether a drug is good or bad based on the adverse reactions," he said.

"However, when a drug, such as Ritalin or Strattera, is not proving to be beneficial or making people better, then you need to way up the side effects and ensure you don't get adverse reactions.

"There's very poor evidence that they are effective in anybody."

There are about 400,000 scripts for ADHD drugs, including Ritalin, Strattera, Dexamphetamine and Concerta issued each year.

A black box warning was recently placed on Strattera packaging advising consumers it causes suicidal tendencies.

"There's suggestive evidence that Strattera might be associated with psychotic suicidal behaviour," Dr Juriedini said.

"There's clear evidence that stimulant drugs tend to cause or precipitate psychotic episodes in children."

The majority of the cases involving children are boys aged between nine and 12 years old.

This year, one eight-year-old hallucinated every day for three months and experienced spiders crawling on his skin."

3 Types of Intelligence?

Siapa tak nak anak bijak? Almost all parents wants their child to be intelligent at everything and almost every child is intelligent of at least something, right?

I read doing my usual research on parenting and homeschool, I found out that at an early stage we can develop certain type of intelligence. Here's a copy of what I found:

Emotions: Birth to 18 Months

The brain learns best when it's challenged with new information. The University of Georgia's Better Brains for Babies program reports that babies and children learn certain skills most easily during particular "windows of opportunity." Read on to find out at what ages babies reach these windows of opportunity for emotional, verbal, and logical skills, and learn how to help the process along with the advice of the Better Brains for Babies campaign.

Emotional intelligence, which involves an understanding of others, predicts about 80 percent of a person's career success, reports the University of Georgia's Department of Child and Family Development (CFD). Emotions such as empathy, happiness, hopefulness, and sadness are shaped by how the infant is nurtured. With a well-developed emotional intelligence, a person tends to form good moral standards for himself. Although emotional intelligence continues to develop through adolescence, a baby's early experiences form the basis for a lifetime. Here are some methods for enhancing your baby's early emotional skills:

• Provide a secure and consistent environment for baby.
• Smile often.
• Acknowledge and verbalize the emotions that your baby is feeling.
• Show empathy when baby is upset.
• Bond with your baby on his level; "converse" through baby sounds.
• Explain why you're saying "no" instead of just saying it.
• Allow your baby to help in family activities, such as sorting laundry.
• Express positive feedback for good behavior.
• Explain when and how your baby's actions affect others.

Speech: Birth to Age 10

Babies are born with the ability to learn any language. The more spoken communication a baby is exposed to, the quicker and more thoroughly the baby will learn that language. Babies and children also quickly pick up grammar and sentence construction in a way that adults learning a new language can't. Here are some tips on guiding your baby's language development:

• Start reading to your baby at a very young age.
• Talk back to baby's cooing and babbling.
• Point out and name things around you.
• Repeat yourself often.
• Pronounce words clearly.
• Use daily life activities to explain what you're doing.
• Sing songs and teach your baby the words.
• Play language games with your baby, such as nursery rhymes or patty-cake.
• Consider teaching your child a second language while he's young.

Math and Logic: Ages 1 to 5

Problem-solving skills are directly related to sight, hearing, and touch. Interestingly, a baby's math skills are often developed in conjunction with his musical skills, reports the University of Georgia's CFD. By stimulating these senses, your baby can develop strong skills in spatial relations and problem solving. Here are some ways to do that:

• Give your baby different shapes, objects, and colors to touch and see.
• Expose your child to classical music.
• Give your baby toy musical instruments to play with.
• Attach a mirror in your baby's crib.
• Carry your baby facing outwards so she'll have lots to look at.
• Provide an assortment of toys that can be taken apart or put together.
• Give your baby toys that make noise when she squeezes or pulls a string; they can teach cause and effect.
• Teach your baby to put things in categories.
• Play counting games.

Additional Sources: Jenny Friedman, PhD; Child Development Specialist Karen DeBord, PhD; Building Baby's Brain: The Basics by Diane Bales, PhD & http://www.parents.com/baby/development/intellectual/

Miya's Stunt

"Miya practicing for audition nak mengantikan monyet sarkis" kata Tok Ma dia.



This is how Miya is everyday. Sepahkan rumah in the quest to explore the world.

Then buat aksi stunt on bike while watching playschool videos.

Mama-Miya Bangra Session!!

Parenting Tabula Rasa: Nature v Nurture?

Tabula Rasa...Latin: "scraped tablet", though often translated "blank slate".

Tabula Rasa is the concept and belief that each human being is born "blank" (with no built-in mental content), and that their identity is defined entirely by events after birth. Similar to the Muslim’s view, when a newborn child is like a piece of white canvas and the journey of life will then colour to become a master piece or a piece of scrap.

Such concept was also being developed by Ibnu Sina (known as "Avicenna" in the Western world) in the 11th century. He uphold that the:

"human intellect at birth is rather like a tabula rasa, a pure potentiality that is actualized through education and comes to know" and that knowledge is attained through "empirical familiarity with objects in this world from which one abstracts universal concepts" which is developed through a "syllogistic method of reasoning; observations lead to prepositional statements, which when compounded lead to further abstract concepts."

So it is no surprise that many parenting experts commonly debates over the “nature and nurture” educating concept.

What do you mommies out there think, whether “nature” or “nurture” dictates our traits and behaviours?

From many parenting books, we learn to know that “nurture” commonly refers to the the environmental factors that influence one’s character, while “nature” represents the idea that heredity is the principle determinant of human traits.

Many believe that at birth, the human mind is a tabula rasa and that most traits are adopted during one’s life. To the contrary, many others believe that a person’s traits and behavior are preordained by heredity.

So what? Anak monyet tetap anak monyet? Anak pencuri tu tetap mencuri juga? Does the sentence sounds familiar to you?

In my honest opinion, such a categorically partisan decision cannot be logically made.

We have seen several aspects of a person’s character have been scientifically proven to be caused by ancestry. Some people will say, “Sebijik macam Papa dia masa kecik dulu”. But there are times we also hear people saying ,“Mana belajar perangai tu, Papa dia time kecik dulu tak pernah buat perangai gitu”. So its safe to conclude that clearly, genes and environmental signals equally contribute to behavior.

From my reading, there are some traits that are purely hereditary. However, most of these clear-cut traits are physiological, having to do with the body. Examples of genetically controlled traits include vulnerability to diabetes, eye color, and ear lobe detachment—things that are usually static after birth (excepting plastic surgery of course). Environment does not have any imminent effect on these hereditary traits.

Another relatively clear-cut trait is religion. Statistically, most children adopt the religious ideals of their parents. Even after the natural stage of doubt that comes with adolescence, most people will return to their parents’ religious preferences in adulthood. This parent-child influence practically defines the “nurture” argument. Parent-child religious trust is something that can only be established during development. Even if a person decides to observe a different religion than that of his parents, the “nurture” argument is still being proven: it suggests a lack of trust and reinforcement, or a desire for independence.

So practically... Almost everyone would conclude that the behavior of the parent causes the outcomes in the child. The parent’s behavior usually does cause the outcome of the child (unless they live apart from each other).

So children live what they learn, right?

Another interesting case of the nature vs. nurture debate would be free will. Do people really control their own decisions? Are a person’s choices genetically preordained, or are they shaped by his environment? Can people really be blamed for how they act?

While only a few traits apply to either nature or nurture, most belong to both at once. The fact that environmental forces actually trigger genetically-based reactions reinforces this theory. Heredity and developmental experience work in sync with each other.

Therefore, it is erroneous to say that dominance belongs to one or the other.

If the question of nature vs. nurture was asked of me, I would reply that the answer is “a fair mixture of both.”