For the past few weeks, on almost every weekday’s morning, it has become my new routine to wake up earlier than I used to. Instead of 7am, I now have to wake up as early as 6.15am.

Reason behind this change? To bring Darius to his childcare centre.

After I have woken up and performed my basic morning activities (brushing teeth etc), I will go wake Darius up. There are times when he will have woken up himself before I did (e.g. when he’s hungry) but at other times, I have to wake him up, motivating him to open his eyes by whispering ‘time to go to school, Darius’ into his ears. Since he enjoys going to school, this method has proven to be rather effective in getting him out of bed.

I will then bring Darius to the toilet beside our kitchen for his big business, motivating him by singing and rubbing his tummy while whispering ‘poo poo’ or some ‘umm umm’ sounds. Usually he will be successful in pooping but at other times, we will move on to the next tasks after 10 to 15 minutes of trying.

Meanwhile, Catherine will have woken up too and she will help prepare his breakfast — a bowl of oatmeal with honey stars, flaxseed and mashed banana, all mixed up in his Gain IQ milk. Although the cc does provide breakfast (i.e. bread) for children who reach there early, Darius has yet learnt how to break them into smaller pieces before feeding himself. Furthermore, bread alone might not be nutritious enough for his breakfast (which should be the most important meal) so we are still sticking to giving him our own breakfast.

While Catherine is feeding him, I will be bathing and changing my clothes. Initially, bathing wasn’t included in my morning routine but after realising that I easily feel hot and sweat while on the way to the cc, Catherine suggested that a nice cold bath would help cool down my body before I left home, not to mention refreshing myself and fully waking up myself.

On top of bathing, I’ve also just started to wear a cooling top (e.g. sports jersey type of clothes) for the journey and only change into my working attire when I’ve reached my workplace. So far, these implementations have been effective in keeping myself as cooling as possible. This also helps minimise the chance of me falling sick due to constant change of temperatures between the alighting/boarding of air-con buses and the humid outdoor weather.

When I’m done changing after bath, Darius should have finished his breakfast with Catherine’s help. She will then change him into his cc uniform while I check his bag to make sure his cloth diapers have been packed in and water bottle’s refilled.

With everything’s ready, Darius and I will leave home while he waves goodbye to his mum. Usually he will hesitate for a while (he can’t bear to leave mummy yet) before joining me at the lift. He will be in a quite happy mood then though. Guess the excitement of going to school with daddy has helped eliminated some of his separation anxiety with mum. ^^

Taking the lift down, we will then make our way towards the nearest bus stop, with him walking himself till we reached the car park, where I will carry him for safety reasons. I then let him walk to the bus stop himself.

I will look for a seat at the bus stop and let Darius sit on my lap after I’ve sat down, so as to minimise any unnecessary movements which will raise my body temperature. Since he will be busy observing his surroundings (especially on the passing MRT train, buses and cars on the road), Darius will not fuss and sit on my lap patiently until the bus arrives.

Usually it will take around ten minutes for a bus to arrive. As expected, there is always a morning crowd wanting to get up the bus too, so it is unlikely that there will be empty seats available when we board the bus.

Fortunately, most of my experience with Darius on public buses have been pleasant so far, with other commuters giving up their seats for us. Most of these kind gestures come from females so I guess they can relate to my situation better. These experiences have made me believe that Singaporeans are quite gracious after all (I can’t say the same for our youngsters in general though).

Alighting at the MRT station, we then make our way across the overhead bridge before transferring to a feeder bus. The wait for this bus is usually short since there is a high frequency of it during morning peak hours. After a ten-minute ride, we alight and walk past a school and some HDB flats before reaching the cc.

At the entrance, I will hand Darius over to the teacher-in-charge present to take his temperature and check his hands and tongue for signs of HFMD. If time permits, I will accompany him into the centre to help take off his shoes/socks (I will loosen them a bit to let Darius take them off himself) before passing the bag to another teacher. Meanwhile, Darius will carry his shoes and place them into his designated pigeon hole. ^^

Darius will obediently let the teachers check his body

I will then wave goodbye to him, before he turns around to join his teacher and friends. I have always been appreciative that he does not whine nor cry upon our separation, so I can be sure that he’s in good hands and that he is enjoying himself in our absence.

I’ve also noticed some of the older kids at the school (usually girls) will help take care of him, holding his hand, talking to him and bringing him around. This further enforces my good impression of the environment where most (if not, all) of the kids are very well-behaved. This is one of the main reasons why we have chosen this cc over the others in the first place.

Leaving the place, I will head towards another nearby bus stop to take a different feeder bus to another neighbouring MRT station, before transferring to my company transport. Considering that I wake up at around 6.15am and reaching the company at around 8.15am, my morning routine above takes me a whole two hours to execute. I also tend to get tired easier at work due to my earlier waking hours and the toil accumulated on me during the journey.

There are certainly times when I wished we had our own transport so that we will not have to go through these hassles (i.e. no more sweating) and time can be saved (i.e. waking up later). We will also be able to avoid public eyes during the journey, since Darius and I tend to stand out among the crowd, especially while waiting for our buses at the bus stops. So far, I’ve not seen any other fathers (or even mothers) taking public buses while carrying a child as young as Darius. Fortunately, I’m quite thick-skinned so I don’t really bother how and what other people are looking and thinking about us. ^^

Also, considering the extra expenses that we will have to incur for a car (especially now that my three rides of public buses only cost less than S$1.10 due to transfer rebates), it might take a while before we are to take up that option.

There is also another option of getting a school bus to pick up Darius. However, considering that he’s still young and is unable to communicate his needs effectively, Catherine and I will not feel at ease to leave him all alone with the bus driver/helper. Furthermore, one of the motivating reasons for Darius’ love for school could be his journey with me or Catherine when traveling to and fro the cc.

With these considerations, looks like our morning routine will continue despite the hassles we faced and sacrifices we need to make, till we feel he’s ready for other alternatives.

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