Tip 14: Ohio Haruka-chan

Ohio is a state in the United States of America but thats what I utter every morning to Haruka-chan, my baby. Actually, the right english spelling to correspond to the greeting Good Morning in Japanese language is Ohayou (though it sounds the same as what you would call the state of Ohio) and if you want to be polite, its Ohayou Gozaimasu. After the first week when the baby is at home, you can always greet the baby "good morning" every day whenever you draw open the curtains to usher in sunlight. All the better if the baby wakes up with eyes wide open to see you greeting him/her. The baby if not fast asleep will still hear the sound of the curtains opening then the voice of mummy and daddy utterring something every morning when light enters the room. Even as the baby can not really see clearly the curtains and the objects in the room yet, but he/she can distinguish the light entering the room and hear so clearly the noises, voices and sounds around her. And before long, the baby will understand that its good practice to greet "good morning" as a new day starts.

I have never been a morning person since childhood. The creative juices usually start at night and I could burn the midnight oil and stretch it till the wee hours of the morning. Then, my slumber is never interrupted for a few good productive REM sleeps till my blanket is pulled, I am pushed out of the bed or when my mother shouts "you are late for school!" Though these days, I can not afford to pull off too many stunts of staying up late as I am now a daddy who needs to show a good example of "Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. ". Thought I had another year or two to keep my bad habits but my daughter seem to be a good observer even at her young age. I realized too that I did not have the good habit previously of greeting good morning to people since I would be busy rushing off for school or appointments in the morning everyday instead. So, now that I have a new home, I think mummy darling is always the person who can give you a new lease of life to be the perfect man of the house. And come to think of it, its indeed a good habit to start the day greeting each other goodness. And never too late to start from the first week of birth for your baby. Oh yes, for those who want to catch up on Japanese language, -chan is a title given to a young child or baby like you would give -san (Japanese) or mister as a title to an adult. Ohio!