Zid — Painter, comic artist, bedroom musician.
Diary of a Work-from-home Dad (Chapter 2) 2.7: “Settling In”
Drop a tip via Buy Me a Coffee or keep up-to-date with works in progress by pledging on Patreon 🙏
Diary of a Work-from-home Dad (Chapter 2) 2.6: “The New Old Place”
Continued from “The Move”.
New episode at long last. I’ve been keeping it exclusive for my Patreon members only while the physical print version was being put together 😅
Drop a tip via Buy Me a Coffee or keep up-to-date with works in progress by pledging on Patreon 🙏
Since publishing the first physical compilation of Diary of a Work-from-home Dad (volume 1), I have been to places and in touch with individuals I wouldn’t have imagined had it remained as-is online.
It has been a wild ride since Comic Art Festival Kuala Lumpur in June, PLAY Exhibition in July, a moving interview with BFM Radio, and closing the month with a stage session with My #QuranTime during the Selangor Children’s Book Fair, organised by Perbadanan Perpustakaan Awam Selangor — I didn’t seek the attention it gained, or dreamt of having the media coverage it brought to my plight. I only have a sincere gratitude to every single one of you who have been supporting the project.
There is no monetary profit to be made from the book, only new friends and hopefully to be an inspiration for us to be more empathetic of the silent battles families with special needs children are going through.
Again, thank you is all I have.
I will most probably return to my shell, in my cave, working.
📷 by Ayman (thanks, old buddy)
Diary of a Work-from-home Dad on BFM
In case you missed the program, here’s the recorded podcast: bit.ly/4fcXSzR (or scan the QR code)
Big thanks to BFM and Thrive Well for the opportunity, and *especially* Shiao Eek for being such a graceful interviewer and making me sound bearable (I was told).
Obviously I didn’t listen to it as I can’t stand hearing myself talk without wanting to reload life from a save point 💀
I will be on BFM Radio later today at 4pm to talk about my journey into fatherhood, on parenting Zayra and caregiving Dalya, and how Diary of a Work-from-home Dad became my therapy to keep going.
𝑻𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝑾𝒆𝒍𝒍
Facebook | Instagram | Twitter
Comic Fiesta 2015 was the last event I had participated boothing. At that time, Zayra was just an embryo 👽
After an 8-year absence, I’m actually kambing mbehek to boothing with my firstborn at the 8th Comic Art Festival Kuala Lumpur!
We will be debuting my Diary of a Work-from-home Dad Volume 1 at a promotional price exclusive to CAFKL8 attendees after factoring in admission cost.
For those who won’t be able to attend, online orders will only be initiated after the event 🙏
See you at booth G11-12!
My most traumatic experience yet as a father: Having witnessed my daughter — my special needs daughter — lose control of her motor functions in every sense of the word. It was as if an invisible force was choking her sideways that she couldn’t turn her head to a point of suffocation. Dalya’s entire body jerked violently.
Dalya had just had a seizure.
It occured consecutively throughout the day, each time far worse than I could bear. Her frothing mouth is not a sight I could ever forget. I thought that was it. I recited the Shahada for her in tears, shaking.
We rushed to the hospital, and Dalya was admitted over the weekend, because there were no specialists available. The ward stay pushed my sanity to its limits. I wasn’t able to do anything but watch my attempts to calm a self-harming child fall apart when we are without access to our crisis management routine. She scratched, she bit, she banged, she bled. Nobody present was able to help, save for the emergency sleeping dose every time she went out of control.
Tests were done, and everything was “normal” as a healthy child should be SO FAR. Without going into the details, the takeaway is that this is going to be a recurring episode that we need to always be on alert for, due to Dalya’s Smith-Magenis Syndrome condition.
We are now back home, settling into the provisional medication from different specialists of their respective departments to treat her individual symptoms.
If there’s anything good that came out of this, is that Dalya will no longer be on this journey alone.
Coming soon to Comic Art Festival Kuala Lumpur 2024
Diary of a Work-from-home Dad Vol. 1
“Bismillahirrahmanirraheem” (Hind Rajab’s final Al-Fatihah)
While we celebrate Eid al-Fitr with our families in peace and security, it is incumbent upon us as an ummah to not forget the suffering of the people in the land of our first Qibla. Spend some time to pray and make dua’ for our distant relatives in Palestine.
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘦𝘵 𝘔𝘶𝘩𝘢𝘮𝘮𝘢𝘥 (𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘣𝘦 𝘶𝘱𝘰𝘯 𝘩𝘪𝘮), 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘣𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘶𝘴𝘭𝘪𝘮 𝘶𝘮𝘮𝘢𝘩 𝘢𝘴 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵, 𝘦𝘹𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮. 𝘏𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥, “𝘔𝘶𝘴𝘭𝘪𝘮𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯; 𝘪𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘺𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘰𝘳𝘦, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺 𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘴, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺 𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘴”
Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri. Eid Mubarak. May our sins be forgiven.