My alone time

When the children were younger, there was a trick I used to play on my family.  I used to pretend that I hate ironing clothes.  My ironing board is located in the laundry room which is along a small corridor at the back of the house.  I would tell my children, looking sad, that I had to iron clothes.  I get them to watch their favourite TV programes with their father, before I head to the laundry room. Their father will ensure that they do not distrub me while I was ironing.  

That was the most alone time I had for myself.  I had a portable radio there and I would listen to some cassette tapes that I had picked up from the Buddhist society.  They were moral educational tapes with very interesting story lines.  I remember one about a well-known noble man in ancient time.  A young boy insulted him in public and people around were surprised that he was not punish for being disrespectful.  A few years later the noble man regreted forgiving the young boy because he grew up fearless and killed someone.  It did influence the way I raised my children.

Punishment is not for revenge, but to lessen crime and reform the criminal.
-Elizabeth Fry 

Now that the children are older, I have more time to myself and I still spend thoes moments listening to stories.  This time I use my mobile phone. Other than while I am ironing the clothes, I also do it while I am doing these mundane chores at home:

-weeding the garden
-cooking meals for the family
-doing the laundry

I am now addicted to listening to true crime stories on YouTube.   I also (mostly) listen and watch (now and then) them while I am taking my lunch alone at my bike shop or while I crochet. It stops my mind from wandering to matters I don’t want it to think about. Self pity will be one of them if I am doing a chore that I feel I should not be working on.

I have been told that watching/listening to crime stories is very negative as there are fights and death involved. But you will be surprised at the amount of information I can learn by listening to some of my favourite YouTubers. From them I learn about:

-the people and the environment of the towns where the crime occured (geography).
-the crime rate of the states involved (statistics).
-how crimes are solved (how investigators work).
-how scientific methods are used to solve crimes (science).
-how criminals think (psychology).
-why or how criminals kill and hide their crimes (life stories that led to the murders).
-the victims (how relationships can trigger crime of passion).
-unsolved crimes (which I can create awareness by sharing the stories)
-information of crimes that occured in other countries (general knowledge).
-sentencing of the criminals (law and how court hearings are conducted)

Do you know that the judicial system in South Korea is very lenient for sex offenders. A rapist sentence was reduced as he claimed that he was drunk when he raped an eight-year-old girl. When he was released he returned to his former residence which is less than 1km from the victim’s home. It is also not far away from schools and playgrounds where he had been seen hanging around. 

I picked that story up from Rotten Mango. 

You can learn a lot about Asian culture if you listen to Stephanie Soo on her podcast and YouTube channel. I also like it that, she is creating awarteness by highlighting what is actually going on so that we can take actions to push for change that will help victims of crimes.

How negative is that?