by Mamawearpapashirt (Singapore) | Aug 20, 2012 | Education, Motherhood, Singapore, World Motherhood
Singapore has been dubbed a tuition nation.
Outside of the country, we are known as the “garden city” or the “little red dot” or even the city that banned chewing gum. But internally, we call ourselves a tuition nation. And I’m not so sure that it’s something to be proud of.
According to a recent online survey of 955 Singaporeans aged above 18, 80% of Singaporeans believe that tuition and enrichment programmes help children do better in schools. Spending on tuition has also doubled in ten years to a whopping S$820 million in 2008. These programmes are seen by many as a constructive way for children to spend their time.
I was most surprised to find that almost three in 10 Singaporeans felt that children should start some form of tuition at pre-school age. It made me wonder how many of us are driven by the fear of our children losing out to others versus a legitimate need, for instance, a child who requires some extra Chinese lessons because the language is not used within the home. (more…)
June, born and bred on the sunny and sometimes rainy shores of Singapore, is a mother of two - a chatty 4 y.o. girl and a toddler boy who babbles. She works part-time as a communication consultant, and she is deeply passionate about family, writing, faith, and good old-fashioned love. She can be found on her blog, Mamawearpapashirt.
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by Madpsychmum (Singapore) | Jul 20, 2012 | Hobby, Life Balance, Motherhood, Singapore, World Motherhood
As mothers, we always want the best for our children.
The best milk, the best clothes, the best schools, the best enrichment courses. We do everything we can to ensure they get the best and nothing less.
However more often than not, we sometimes do not take care of ourselves in the same way. We eat the leftovers that our kids refused to eat. We spare no expense to dress them up but we wear clothes that may even be decades old.
In Singapore, there are even parents who sacrifice family vacations and other things, just so that they can send their kids to the best (read: most expensive) tuition centre in town! Heck, there are even parents who send their kids to two different preschools at the same time!
Parents spend so much time fussing over their children that I sometimes wonder if they do anything for themselves anymore. What about all the hobbies you used to do before you became parents?! (more…)
Madeline lives in Singapore, a tiny cosmopolitan island in Southeast Asia. She is a mother to a beautiful and intelligent little girl born in July 2010.
Madeline used to be a stay-at-home mother while she was completing her graduate studies in psychology at a local university. On completion of her studies, she has now joined the workforce and is working in the Ministry of Education (Singapore).
Madeline is passionate about children and education and hopes to make a difference in the lives of children living in Singapore. Also an avid traveller and hardcore advocate of breastfeeding, she regularly documents her overseas trips and nursing room reviews with incredible detail on her blog, MadPsychMum @ University of Motherhood.
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by Ruth | Jul 13, 2012 | Competition, Inspirational, Life Lesson, Motherhood, Older Children, Ruth Wong, Singapore, Social Media, World Moms Blog, World Motherhood, Younger Children
As a mom blogger, I often read other moms’ blogs. But the more I do so, the more I feel like I’m not measuring up.
I look at the fun, creative projects the crafty moms do with their kids and wonder why I don’t think of such ideas; I admire the gorgeous photos of meals moms blessed with culinary talent create for their kids and wonder why I can’t cook better; I marvel at mompreneurs who have built successful businesses while managing households with at least two kids and wish I could be more like them; I see the beautiful, Pinterest-worthy homes of some super organized moms and feel guilty about the state of mess in my own. The list goes on and on.
Whether we want to admit it or not, we moms are probably the most competitive group of people on earth.
(more…)
Ruth lives in Singapore, a tiny island 137 kilometres north of the equator. After graduating from university, she worked as a medical social worker for a few years before making a switch to HR and worked in various industries such as retail, banking and manufacturing. In spite of the invaluable skills and experiences she had gained during those years, she never felt truly happy or satisfied. It was only when she embarked on a journey to rediscover her strengths and passion that this part of her life was transformed. Today, Ruth is living her dreams as a writer. Ironically, she loves what she does so much that at one point, she even thought that becoming a mom would hinder her career. Thanks to her husband’s gentle persuasions, she now realises what joy she would have missed out had she not changed her mind. She is now a happy WAHM. Ruth launched MomME Circle, a resource site to support and inspire moms to create a life and business they love. She has a personal blog Mommy Café where she writes about her son's growing up and shares her interests such as food and photography.
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by Mamawearpapashirt (Singapore) | Jun 1, 2012 | Siblings, Singapore
The sibling relationship begins even when the younger one is still in the womb.
How so?
When I was carrying my second child, Javier, I began to introduce Vera, my first-born, to the concept of a younger sibling.
The day we discovered that the baby was a boy, we told Vera she was going to have a ‘di-di’ (little brother in Chinese) to play with, and that they would have loads of fun together.
Being the chatty 2.5 year old that she was at the time, she relished the thought of having a captive audience, and she would thoroughly enjoy talking and singing to my womb, or rather, the di-di who was stuck inside.
At first, I gave her the words to say, such as ‘I love you, di-di’ and so on. Thereafter, her creative self took over and for the remaining 4-5 months of the pregnancy, I think she pretty much dominated the airwaves where her little brother was concerned. (more…)
June, born and bred on the sunny and sometimes rainy shores of Singapore, is a mother of two - a chatty 4 y.o. girl and a toddler boy who babbles. She works part-time as a communication consultant, and she is deeply passionate about family, writing, faith, and good old-fashioned love. She can be found on her blog, Mamawearpapashirt.
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by Madpsychmum (Singapore) | Apr 26, 2012 | Childhood, Language, Singapore
I was watching Disney’s Tarzan with my baby girl one day and it reminded me of this case study that I had read in one of my psychology textbooks when I was studying as an undergraduate.
The town folks at Aveyron discovered a young boy about the age of 12 years old wandering around naked. Covered with scars all over his body, his behaviour was like that of an animal and he was not able to speak. It is estimated that he might have lived in the wild since 4 years old after his parents abandoned him. His sudden appearance then gave researchers at that time a golden chance to study him and find out once and for all whether we are products of nature or nurture.
One of those who studied him was Dr. Jean-Marc Gaspard Itard, who was determined to teach the Wild Boy of Aveyron (as he was called) how to speak and communicate socially with others.
Despite his best efforts, the boy never managed to communicate or speak except for a handful of words even after 5 years of training. It was believed that either he was autistic or that he simply missed the (more…)
Madeline lives in Singapore, a tiny cosmopolitan island in Southeast Asia. She is a mother to a beautiful and intelligent little girl born in July 2010.
Madeline used to be a stay-at-home mother while she was completing her graduate studies in psychology at a local university. On completion of her studies, she has now joined the workforce and is working in the Ministry of Education (Singapore).
Madeline is passionate about children and education and hopes to make a difference in the lives of children living in Singapore. Also an avid traveller and hardcore advocate of breastfeeding, she regularly documents her overseas trips and nursing room reviews with incredible detail on her blog, MadPsychMum @ University of Motherhood.
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by Ruth | Apr 20, 2012 | Culture, Eye on Culture, Family, Motherhood, Parent Care, Parenting, Ruth Wong, Singapore, World Motherhood
Have you ever thought about why you’re having kids?
Some have kids because they think it’s part of the “marriage progression”, they want to carry on their bloodline or because everyone around them are having children.
Others feel that they want to leave a legacy through their offspring. Then there are those who do it simply because they have a strong desire to have children.
In Asia, it’s not uncommon for people to want to have children to ensure that there’s someone to look after them when they turn old. In fact, there’s even a Chinese idiom 养儿防老 – which translates to mean “raise children to safeguard your old age”.
Indeed, in Asian societies that have been strongly influenced by Confucius teachings, such as China, Japan, Korea and Singapore, the practice of filial piety is still seen as an important social value and esteemed as virtue to be inculcated in one’s children from a very young age.
Children are not only expected to respect and obey their parents, it’s also deemed their duty to look after their parents in old age. (more…)
Ruth lives in Singapore, a tiny island 137 kilometres north of the equator. After graduating from university, she worked as a medical social worker for a few years before making a switch to HR and worked in various industries such as retail, banking and manufacturing. In spite of the invaluable skills and experiences she had gained during those years, she never felt truly happy or satisfied. It was only when she embarked on a journey to rediscover her strengths and passion that this part of her life was transformed. Today, Ruth is living her dreams as a writer. Ironically, she loves what she does so much that at one point, she even thought that becoming a mom would hinder her career. Thanks to her husband’s gentle persuasions, she now realises what joy she would have missed out had she not changed her mind. She is now a happy WAHM. Ruth launched MomME Circle, a resource site to support and inspire moms to create a life and business they love. She has a personal blog Mommy Café where she writes about her son's growing up and shares her interests such as food and photography.
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