I think I’ve been too laidback as a parent that it’s no longer funny. The funny thing is, I was a very hardworking student with high expectations for myself right from the get-go.
Fast forward to today, I wonder why my desire to perform has not translated to my parenting ways. 🤔 I’m probably at the furthest end of the elephant-dolphin-tiger-whatever animal mom spectrum… Well, not that that matters but the one thing I learnt is that being too laidback as a parent in sunny Singapore doesn’t quite cut it.
What finally shifted me was when my unsuspecting child, who was used to cruising through lower primary school days without a care, received a rude shock in upper primary. Cognitive ability having matured a little by now, she realised (as well as me) that more than 3/4 of her cohort was steaming ahead while she was merely chugging along!
It’s no longer fun and it’s not funny.
The inevitable truth is that kids in sunny Singapore do need things like homework and/or tuition to support their academic education as a whole. Specifically for me as a parent , it’s SURVIVAL! A watershed moment to recognise that feeling crappy about ourselves leads to, not believing in ourselves and what we’re capable of, which in turns DO NOT help us in knowing what or why or even how to get better!
So we don’t feel bad for ourselves because that doesn’t help.
I had to fix my child’s confidence issue. I scrambled to dig out whatever medals she had earned to date (good thing there was ONE which she received as a class for mass games in Primary 2), and reminded her of every contests she had won (lucky there was also ONE to quote, that is of a colouring contest she had joined by default, again in Primary 2).
I needed to psyche myself up too – that I can make it happen for her – as far as I can help it. It’s scary to be in such a situation but then again who has the time to be scared? You just TRY and I tried hard to build up her confidence, to light up the hope in her, a can-do spirit, that she can BE just as capable as long as she wants to be and tries! I think that’s the first step to making any DIFFERENCE because after that is when the real work towards PSLE begins… 🥴😵💫🤯
Hope this post inspires you in one way or another! Give a LIKE or SHARE this page if it did so I’ll know to share more anecdotes like this. 😊
HE-ACK 