Empathy

Benja displays empathy in many situations.

The first time was towards our neighbour Veda's cries. Benja would make a frown with a 'woo' sound to imitate her and say "Baby, cry" or "Da, cry." That was many months ago when Benja was 16 months old.

It was in one of his favourite books "Girls and Boys Don't" that Benja fully understood the word "cry".

When a singer sang with great sorrow on a tv programme, Benja looked at mummy with his squinted eyes and said, "Woo... aunty cry."

You could perceive the sadness even when a person was not crying - through her expression.

On Mummy's birthday, she wanted to go so very much to Sentosa with you, but with the splitting headache she couldn't. When Mummy cried, you felt for her, hugged her and said, "Mummy 怕怕。"  Mummy was so touched by the gesture.