Cover Story

Sharizan Borhan
Having a swinging
good time as a daddy
Text by Kua Kee Eng
Photograph by De One, Baby & Family Professional
Photography
Makeup by Angeline Ng

Sharizan Bor
Sharizan han
Borhan
• Malaysia’s King of Swing
• Radio DJ
• TV programme host
• Character-voice artist
• Master of ceremonies
• Oops, D ADDYY should
ADD
DADD
be FIRS T!
FIRST!

S harizan Borhan started off as a singer 10

years ago, and won the best New Artiste (Male)
Award at the prestigious Anugerah Industri Muzik
(AIM) in 1997. Since then, there’s simply no turning back,
as opportunities started to pour in — hosting TV and radio
(Red 104.9 & Lite FM) programmes, emceeing in corporate
events and has just recently released his latest album,
Timeless, a compilation of melodious Jazz numbers.

On top of all these, he is also the father to three adorable children

— Kayra Adriana Borhan, 9; Kayden Lee Borhan, 4; and Kaylin
Adriana Borhan, 2. Sharizan first became a father when he was at
the peak of his career. “At that time, I think I was exposed to lots of
children and I’ve always loved children. Yeah, it was at the peak of my
career, but I thought it was a good time … and every child is a gift from
God, and I believe if God thinks you’re ready, then He’ll just give one to
you,” said Sharizan.

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 The Balancing Act
Sharizan believes that having a dictate timetable serves as a balancing act between his
work and family. “I’m always home for breakfast, lunch and dinner. When the kids are off to
school, that’s when I’ll go for my recordings,” said Sharizan. He usually starts work at 10 a.m.
when his children are in school. “I’ll allocate about an hour and a half. Then, I’ll bring them
home from school, have lunch with them and make sure everything is okay. Then, my next
recording usually starts at 2p.m. right up to about four or five in the evening.” Although Sharizan
and his wife have a live-in maid cum nanny, they will never be away longer than an hour or
two from their children, even if they have to attend urgent meetings or appointments
occasionally.

“The growing up years is just too wonderful for any parent to miss. If you miss it, you’ll never
get it back,” said Sharizan firmly. Sharizan and his wife have ventured into trading lately,
and have moved their home-based office to a more spacious place nearby their house. “In
the office, we’ve allocated a small space, set up especially for our kids, where they can bring
in the toys and play there, as and when we need to bring them along, whenever we tend to
get a little busier,” he explained.

Trial and Error

“I would say that my eldest would be the
most spoilt one among my three children.
As our first child, naturally, we tend to
spend more time with her; we’re always
there 24/7 — the unconditional attention.
Currently, Kayra is going through some
adjustments,” said Sharizan. “Parents
are always paying 120 per cent of
attention to their first child, making the
child thinks that mummy and daddy will
always be there, and the child ends up
to be very dependent, but children need
to understand that parents also need to
make a living, they need to provide for the
family.”

There are occasions when

Sharizan and his wife
could not be there for
their children, and their
eldest would complain.
“Comes the second
and third one, we
realised our mistakes,
and this time we don’t
give too much, but well-
balanced attention,”
expressed Sharizan with
a triumphant smile.

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 Being a Disciplinarian
“My wife and I work together. One of us will play the role of being the passionate one, to
ensure there’s a place where they can get comfort, and the other will be the disciplinarian,”
explained Sharizan. Surprisingly, the friendly and humorous Sharizan assumes the role of the
disciplinarian, instead of his wife. “It’s a lot of reasoning with them, we basically treat and
talk to them like an adult, we explain to them exactly why this and that isn’t right.” He went
on, “No point scolding them if they did something wrong. All you need to do is to take away
certain privileges from them, especially things that they enjoy, for instance, watching TV.”

He also stressed that parents should take action immediately when their
children did something wrong, not an hour later, as children tend to
forget what they’ve done. “We always lay down the ground rules,
before implementing them,” asserted Sharizan, explaining that the
children should, in the first place, be made known to the consequences
and punishment of their wrong doings.

“Rotan (cane) might be used as a threatening tool,

but we don’t really use it. We normally hit the rotan
against the wall, which eventually produces a loud
sound effect, to let them know it could be very
painful, and only on severe cases. Yet, we
seldom have to use it now, because we
have this thing called ‘the chair’!”
explained Sharizan. He said that
whenever his children, especially
his son, did something
wrong, the child would be
ordered to sit on ‘the
chair’ which was placed
at the centre of the living
room, and never to get
up until he was told to do
so. Sharizan or his wife will then
explain to him about his wrong
doings and make him realise his
mistakes. He claimed that this is a
much more effective method compared
to using the rotan or scolding.

Communication between husband and

wife on the methods to discipline a
child is very important, and Sharizan
would usually talk it out with his wife
and find an agreeable solution. He
also pointed out that losing temper
and scolding children, especially
toddlers, wouldn’t have a positive
effect, as they are too young to

42

Sharizan Borhan.p65 4 2007/5/22, ¤W¤È 10:46

 understand. He said, “All parents do that, but at the end of the day, if you look back, your
children won’t understand why they were being scolded. What they need is guidance from
you and you’ll have to guide them. What people see in that child is basically the reflection of
you — how you bring him up as a person. I do admit that I’m not perfect, but I’m still learning,”
said Sharizan.

Look at the Positive Side

Sharizan used to take it out on cars when he was feeling stressful. And he used to eat a lot
then. However, as time goes by, going through different stages of life
have altered his way of handling stress. “Nothing really stresses me
out a lot nowadays, as they’re all manageable stress. You have to
learn how to push it away. I’ve come to the point that I’ll just chuck
it aside and just cool off, and sometimes I’ll just talk it out,”
Sharizan stated his resolve with a smile. “If you bottle up your
feelings and worries, then, stress will eventually build up and
will affect your health and relationship with others. So just smile,
look at the positive side of things, as there must be a reason why
things turned out the way they did.”

“Fatherhood is a wonderful journey,” said Sharizan. “There are

different stages in life — In your early 20s you’d love to party
and have fun, and in your 30s, you’d like to settle down,
get married and naturally parenting comes into view.”
He enjoys playing the role as a father and having
fun taking care of his children, for instance,
bathing his younger children and tickling them
afterwards. As his eldest daughter will be a
teenager soon, he will need to address a
different set of issues and modify his parenting
approaches.

When I asked him whether or not he’s planning

to have a fourth child, Sharizan answered,
“Having one child is nice, but eventually the child
will get lonely. So having two children is a nice
pair, but when it comes to three, it’s already
a handful. Hence, I think three is just the
right number, and it’s manageable.” The
reason towards his resolution is that, he
and his wife wish to give each of their
children equal and quality time as well
as attention. “Here we are, two parents
with three children, are we going to
provide each of them equal time and
attention? Just imagine if we have four, five or
more children,” he concluded with a hearty laugh. PH

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