Raising a Genius...

Who? A genius? A boy of mine, who will be turning 6 by Aug 10th. Gladly called himself as Ajan, whom in birth cert as Muhammad Danish Nazhan.

As a Muslim, we are mostly encouraged to name our children with a name that has good meanings. So that his personalities matches the name. My son’s name, by fragment, Muhammad takes after our Prophet’s s.a.w name, means highly honoured and blessed, Danish means highly knowledgeable and Nazhan means away from despicable manners. How I take months to come out with such beautiful name for my son..

He is very inquisitive, talkative, friendly and most of all highly active. When he was born, he was diagnosed suffering from G6PD deficiency. G6PD is one of many enzymes that help the body process carbohydrates and turn them into energy. G6PD also protects red blood cells from potentially harmful byproducts that can accumulate when a person takes certain medications or when the body is fighting an infection. G6PD deficiency is an inherited condition in which the body doesn't have enough of the enzyme glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, or G6PD, which helps red blood cells (RBCs) function normally. This deficiency can cause hemolytic anemia, usually after exposure to certain medications, foods, or even infections.

When I got to know this, I thought it was like a death warrant. Then I educated myself to know more what G6PD deficiency is all about. And now I know with proper precautions, G6PD deficiency should not keep my child from living a healthy, active life.

Last night, when the CSI:NY was about to start, my son was babbling and playing with his toys. And I was out from my shower. To my surprise, he was singing along with the CSI:NY theme song. “Out here in the fields, I fight for my meal”. And I was – where the heck does that come from? Well, it surprises me because I never thought he would pay attention to non-cartoons shows. Secondly, his words, though not quite an exact copy, rhymed very well. Yes, I was proud at that moment..

We watched CSI together. Anyway, it’s one of my favourite show, along with House & the other franchise of CSIs – Miami & Las Vegas. I asked him what he wanna be when he grows up. He said he wanna be a doctor. That was my dream too, but I gave up too soon to reach my dream. Then I told him, in order to achieve that he has to go to school, be good, pay attention and be a nice person. No bullying around, no fooling around. Hummm..he is a kid still..with a voice of his own. He said, if he could not become a doctor, he would at least wanna be Ironman. Okay – creativity seeped in. So I decided to go back watching CSI and let him to watch it along.

But then again I gave it a thought. If I ever stopped his creativity, it would never come back. If I let him lingers with his thought of the impossible, he may be disappointed upon knowing that it would never be real.

How parenting is really challenging. Especially when your kids is an inquisitive factbox and would ask anything about everything anywhere whenever he feels like asking.

That question “Where does baby come from” is yet to come. If it does, sooner or later, I would need to explain with the simplest term, without having to reveal so much. Ohhhh..I may need help then..