On the oh-so-crowded train back from work today, I met a family of 4. The mother was handling her sons, the elder of which was clearly super active. He was bouncing up and down, knocking on the window pane, disturbing his somewhat traumatized younger brother and chattering like a veteran talkshow host at 200 words a minute. He even had his own catchphrase.

"Is it me?"

To which his mom will reply "Yes, it's you!", all the while beaming and bouncing the younger son on her lap.

Her grin was disarming.

It's rare that I see such unbridled laughter and joy on a mom's face, complete with two squabbling and lively kids. Had she yelled threats or spanked them, I wouldn't have batted an eyelid. What threw me off, really threw me off, was how genuinely she seemed to be enjoying her kids and their antics, even on a crowded train full of bleary-eyed commuters who find it all too easy to frown on an almost boisterous kid at the end of a workday.

The bond between mother and children was palpable enough to lift my spirits, and made me forget about reconfiguring, refactoring and synchronizing projects across three PCs.

Two stops away from my station, little bro informed his mom that he had to pee. Unperturbed and with the precision of a drill sergeant, the mom reached underneath her seat for a small backpack, single-handedly dug out a diaper, pulled little bro's shorts down and fastened on the diaper. All in the matter of seconds. This was when I realized the man beside the mom was the dad, for he was totally quiet and motionless up till now, even when the mom could use some help slapping on the diapers.

"I thought I told you to go to the toilet just now?!" He said sternly and clenched his jaws, frowning like a man who'd just realized he' d made edits on an out-of-date CVS code. "How come now need to urine again?!?"

"I went just now already..."

"Then you tell me why you need to urine again?"

"I don't know... But I really went just now..."

And in the distance, I swear I could hear Mr. Philip Yeo snap "Stop your whining boy!".

The mom smoothed things out quickly with enviable finesse and skill. Little bro, having performed his business and none the worse for wear, happily stuck his thumb into his mouth and poked his brother, who turned around and sprayed saliva over his nemesis, illiciting an indignant "Hey!" from the mom due to collateral damage.

Peace, then the grin again.