A while back a friend was telling me how when we make choices we are actually closing many other doors. Every day we need to make many decisions, and each one we make limits us to that course of action. It is true, though it sounds negative. In fact, it is just a layman way of explaining opportunity costs.

Don’t be afraid to choose though, because that’s the way forward.

****

I saw these amazing playgrounds featured on Colossal some time ago. We need to have some of this here in Singapore to get kids to put away their electronic devices and get out for some fresh air. This also proves how creativity and art is ever important in our pragmatic society.

It’s hard to imagine how kids as young as three years old carry around their parents’ electronic devices, instead of a doll or a lego toy. I had my first device, a Game Boy Colour, when I was maybe, 10 years old? It’s still a very young age to have such a sophisticated device as compared to my parents, but it’s a whole different story nowadays. Seeing them swiping their fingers away on those touchscreens makes me wonder if I could actually understand, not to mention play games on them, back then. While it proves how remarkable the human mind is capable of learning, we need to consider how such a childhood would affect them, adversely or otherwise, in their formative years.

I had many toys that came and went, but the favorite toy that stayed with my throughout my childhood was my Lego set. I played with them so much, though I had little. I used to put together cars, robots, monsters, spacecrafts, etc. and bring them out on shopping trips with my parents. I had imagined them to be traversing some strange world, exploring a new universe, while my mum shopped for clothes (for herself or for me). As a boy, I built houses for my Lego people and played it like “house”. And I still have my favorite Lego people on my work desk today!

When I have kids in the future, I am definitely not giving them tablets or handphones at a young age. My son can have as much Lego as he wants, and my daughter can have beautiful doll houses with exquisite furniture; nothing electronic. I hope I can stay with this proclamation, and stay firm when my kids beg me for Angry Birds.