SINGAPORE: One father had flashbacks to his own youth when he saw his young son had drawn something on the wall of their home.
But instead of getting upset, as we can imagine many parents would, he decided to frame his son’s “artwork”. And when he shared his parenting #ikeahack over TikTok, Mr Afiq Omar won praise online for encouraging his child’s creativity.
@afiqomarali This is me as a parent. Feels like just yesterday I was doing the exact same thing at my parents’ home. #parenting #ikeahack #fypsg
Mr Afiq’s video starts with a screenshot of messages, presumably from his wife, one of which says, “Ilham just did this,” followed by a picture of a boy in tears.
In the next part, however, the boy greets his dad at the door with a smile. They then proceed to the wall where young Ilham drew his “art.”
“Come here,” his father beckons. “This is what you did, right?” he asks his son.
After the boy nods, his dad says, “What is this drawing of?”
“It’s a finger. One finger” answers Ilham.
“Finger. One finger,” his father repeats, holding up an IKEA frame to the wall.
“What we’re going to do is that we’re going to frame it up,” he tells his son, adding that he’ll put the artwork’s name underneath.
In the background, a woman can be heard chuckling as Mr Afiq congratulates the boy and shakes his hand rather solemnly.
He then prints a label with Ilham’s name and birth year, the date of the painting, and its title, “Finger One Finger.”
Mr Afiq places the frame over the painting and puts the label on the wall.
When his wife tells him that this will just encourage the boy to draw on the walls more, Mr Afiq answers, “That is the whole point.”
He captioned his video, “This is me as a parent. Feels like just yesterday I was doing the exact same thing at my parents’ home.”
Mr Afiq’s parenting won praise from many TikTok users, who commended him for encouraging instead of scolding his son, garnering almost 280,000 likes on the video posted earlier this week.
“Every child has their own creativity. Great idea dad for framing your kid’s art work. May الله bless your family. InsyaAllah,” wrote one.
Another wrote that Ilham might “have his own art exhibition” at one of Singapore’s art galleries one day.
Others chimed in that their parents would have been less forgiving than Mr Afiq, with one saying the young dad had handled the situation with class.
However, one popular comment urged Mr Afiq to find other outlets for Ilham’s creativity. “This is so cute, but teach him and redirect him to draw on paper. Start a scrapbook for him. Or get him an easel.” /TISG