There is nothing more fascinating with a kid than a good book that his/her parents read to him/her. I remember my mom reading books to me. I also remember her buying me books, encouraging me to read. My aunts did the same, as well as my grandma. They have all been instrumental in my love for books.

So when I learned about Personalized Stories’ children’s book, I just know I have to buy one for little Hazel. What is special about the children’s book from Personalized Stories is that, the stories will revolve around your kid, or in my case around little Hazel. You can choose what story you like for your kid. There are classic and Christian stories to choose from. For little Hazel, I think I will choose Alice in Wonderland for her. She is a precocious child and this story suits her.

If you are interested to get a personalized story for your kid, go to PersonalizedStories.com now.

The Singing Bee in ABS-CBN, hosted by Cesar Montano, is a show that our family loves watching together. I think it’s the frustrated singers in us. We love guessing the lyrics, especially the part where the words are being jumbled for the contestant to guess it. The show already produced 3 millionaires to date. We enjoyed those episodes leading to the million win of Rachel Alejandro. More so with the episodes with Aiza Seguerra. That diminutive woman has a really lovely voice. Aiza won two consecutive 1 million pesos. Making her the first contestant to win 2 million pesos! She deserves it, she’s that good.

The Singing Bee is just one of the primetime shows that we watch every night. I momentarily set aside what I do and just shuts down my laptop for 30 minutes. Tonight, it will be the kids’ turn to try their luck in guessing the song lyrics.

My sisters and I love travel shows. We would often bookmark our calendars for special shows wherein our dream destination will be featured. At the cable subscription that we have, there is a Travel and Living channel that we love so much. Half of our viewing time was spent on that channel. Just yesterday, I was able to “tour” Greece through one of their travel shows. I was also able to watch a show where they feature 5-star hotels. We were able to get a glimpse of London, Spain and las vegas hotels there. And you know what? Watching shows like these bolster your resolve to travel outside of the country with your family.

I was reading the entertainment section of the newspaper a few minutes ago when an article caught my eye. It was about a promising young actress and a matinee idol who were in a controversial relationship that ended a few weeks ago. It was controversial because the young actress, known as Heart Evangelista here in the country turned her back on her parents for the man she thought she will spend the rest of her life with. The matinee idol, Jericho Rosales to local fans, has shown his true colors three years into the relationship.

You see, Jericho is known to be a playboy. Shooting an international movie, he met Hollywood starlets and shacked up with one, Heart’s driver even witnessing one rendezvous between the two. So Heart decided to break up with him and go back to her family, who despite everything that happened, with Heart badmouthing them even, welcomed her with open arms.

This is a classic story wherein a parents’ disapproval of a potential romantic partner of their child proved to be reasonable after all. Had Heart listened to her parents when they were adamantly shaking their heads over the relationship, she would not have suffered like she is suffering right now.

You know, when you are very much in love, there is nothing right to you but what you are feeling. Even if your gut instinct is telling you something is off, you ignore it because you just want the euphoria of being love continue and no one, not even your parents, can tell you what that the relationship is wrong. I am speaking through experience. Warning bells were ringing at the back of my head but NO, it was all perfect for me. Thank goodness I learned my lesson early on, before I threw away my dreams and everything my parents have worked hard for.

If any of the teens and those hopelessly in love are reading this post, I have one unsolicited advice to all of you: listen to your gut feeling. If you feel something is off, or your parents are telling you to back off, then listen to it, listen to them. Somewhere down the road, you’d thank your instinct, your parents for the warning.

And parents still know better than anybody else, even ourselves.

Believe me.

I’ve gotten into the habit of watching whatever my brother is watching on tv, dvd/vcd or YouTube. My reason is two-fold: I get to watch whatever he’s watching plus I get to monitor if what he’s watching is appropriate or not. Meaning, I act as his personal censors board.

He watches Pinoy Big Brother daily. He’s gotten into the habit of watching the noon time streaming, the 5pm update Uber and the primetime PBB show. I’ve noticed this father who is verbally abusive not just to his son but also to other people in the Big Brother house. The father I am talking about is John, Kevin’s father. He hails from Spain and is here, admittedly, to seek funds for his son’s equestrian dreams.

I saw an episode a couple of days ago wherein he is bullying his son into having a circumcision. Big Brother made a deal with the father that if Kevin acquiesces to a circumcision, 100 other kids will be given free circumcision as well. Kevin was really angry with his father because:

*he couldn’t believe that his father would tell other people that he was not yet circumcised
*John, the father, was bullying his son into undergoing circumcision when Kevin does not want to change whatever in his body
*John was swearing at his son and calling him names the whole time they were arguing

What I found extremely alarming with that scenario was that Big Brother did not put a stop to the father’s bullying. No, let me correct that. It was not just bullying. It was already verbal abuse!

And you know what, the abuse never stops. I saw a teaser shown this afternoon while we were watching Uber. John is in his verbal abusive mode again and this time, the teener Josef and his aunt are the targets. The nerve of the guy! Watch the episode tonight and see for yourselves.

I do believe PBB should do something about this guy. They are sending wrong signals to everyone watching the show. Is abuse a form of entertainment nowadays? Is that it? Are they letting John go un-reprimanded because his abuses will draw a guaranteed audience?

Preposterous! Something should be done to this abusive father and pronto!