“I am such a bad plant parent!”

“I kill all my plants!”

“I have a black thumb.”

These are common expressions of lament and defeat from people who have not grown plants successfully.

I wonder if these become a self-fulfilling prophecy as well.

I mean, could the act of saying “I don’t have a green thumb” actually making us pre-decide that we would become awful plant parents?

I guess it’s okay because they are just plants, not pets or humans.

Well, I refuse to plant parent shame. I am a helicopter parent, I will admit. Helicopter plant parenting is one of the surest way to kill your plants by over-babying them. I do that when they’re very young, because they are the incredible cutest when they’re a few days old after germination. And the wait. The wait from sowing the seeds to when you see them start peeking out of the soil is one of the most exciting feelings there is. I suppose the anticipation is similar to expectant parents waiting for their baby to be born?

You just want to be there every single moment and watch the seedlings. And water them. And watch to see if they’re going to grow new leaves after five minutes. I’ve literally found myself staring at my plants for a good 30 minutes, leaving for a few minutes, then going back to stare again to see if something new happened.

Then, once they’re a bit bigger after 3 weeks to a month, that’s when impatience sets in. It’s the equivalent of when children start primary school. At this stage, I just wish I can send my plant children to boarding school. Because, honestly, I feel so tamad taking care of them at this point, I just want them to have pakinabang already – either bearing fruit or ready to be harvested! There, I said it. I am such a bad plant parent!

So what kind of plant parent are you? Just bear in mind that many times when we give up, we give up on the plants way earlier than they were planning to give up on us.

If we just give them a chance, they would like to show us what they can do for us – give us beautiful blooms, beautiful fruit, healthy leaves, and nourishment.

Just remember, plants need space to grow. Just like human children, if they don’t have proper space, they will feel constricted and we will limit their potential.

Also plants cannot thrive when we helicopter parent them. They will soon die.

But, yeah, whatever your style is, just keep on planting!