Koming: Great times for daughters

Nyoman Triwahyuni, 37, popularly known as Koming, started her career as a model, became a presenter and later played in television soap operas, locally known as sinetron. She now is a professional modeling instructor and jointly runs a modeling agency with her friend.

These days, I am an instructor at the John Robert Power (JRP) modeling agency. I teach how to become a professional model, including the various activities backstage, in the wardrobe and on the runway.

Raising three children, I can’t go to the office every day. So, I spend more time working from my home. I also run another modeling school with my friend.

On weekends, I certainly don’t go anywhere. I spend the weekends with my family.

On Sunday, we go to church and accompany the kids to Sunday school. Then, we eat, take a walk, swim or sometimes go out of town or have an outbound activity.

But, it all depends on the health of my family members. If the children are tired on the weekend, we don’t go far. Instead, we stay in Jakarta, go to a shopping mall or watch a movie at the cinema.

Every month, I take my children to the bookstore. They can get books of their choice. The important thing is that they have to read the books. Usually, they pick books about Barbie, Disney or short novels.

My second daughter loves to learn, so she always buys books about how to read and how to count. Usually, my daughters read them before going to sleep.

Also, I love taking my children to places where they can play and be creative. Usually I take them to Alex Gym at Plaza Indonesia, where they can play and do gymnastics, or to Lollipop where they can draw, play games and play on the slide.

Although I take my children to the mall, I look for activities to sharpen their brains and improve their physical abilities. Occasionally, I take them to the gym. It is true that the gym is inside the mall, but they can have physical activities there for one hour, then arts and crafts activities for an hour, then we go home. They have fun.

It’s OK for children to go to the mall, but they need something useful to do there. They should not just walk around aimlessly.

Sometimes we go to the swimming pool. On Saturdays, they have singing lessons. I don’t actually intend to make them into something I want, but I like to encourage them to try many activities for themselves.

I want to make these activities their Sunday routines. So, when they grow up, they will be accustomed to doing positive activities.

Before getting married, I worked seven days a week. I spent Saturday and Sunday on bridal shows. But for now, if somebody wants me as a model, I tell them I don’t work on weekends.

Many won’t accept it, but it was my commitment to my family when I decided to settle down.

— As told to Putera Hasudungan, an intern at The Jakarta Post