WHY PARENTING?

Why Parenting?
Many of you must have questioned or are still questioning why this fresh College Graduate would want to write a book about parenting. You have probably realized by now that I am still single, have no adopted children or children of my own. However, I do have a heart and passion for children and youth. I have taught at the YMCA children camps, gone for numerous mission trips, taught Conflict Resolution and Anger Management Modules to Grade 5 students in Canada and volunteered to teaching Sunday Schools at my church, City Mission Church. Additionally I am thankful to God for creating this desire to share how children, youth and young adults perceive parenting for their point of view. This book was inspired to bridge current parents’ understanding of their children and enhance the intangible relationships within families.

This need to share such values and insights was initially birth in me when I was still a teenager. I was appalled by the numerous youths who continuously cursed and sweared about their parents, belittle their jobs or lifestyle and show absolutely no respect what so ever. This by far was the norm and such bombardments of disrespect flood our city. I was blessed to have been brought up by good Christian parents who loved and cared for me unconditionally. However, I have to give tribute to the fact that my dad was posted overseas forcing my mother to give up her job and become a full time mom in Canada. Having been fortunately raised overseas where the work hours our less and more flexible, my family was able to spend a lot more time than a typical family in Singapore would.

We live in a culture that is booming exponentially and where a standard two-income family’s cash flow just breaks even or is still in debt or is left with very little savings. It is almost impossible for a fresh graduate to ultimately pay for a down payment of any private residential unit (public residents: HDB requires that you are over 35 years old or are married to qualify for a HDB unit) as the prices have soured due to the recent 2007 economic boom. Parents are forced turn to foreign helpers to take care of their children and many children end up spending more time with these helpers than they do with their own parents. Obviously, with little to no time spent as a family, relationships will inevitably tarnish and wither away.

So who is to blame? The society, the parents or the children? However there is only so much that we can do to change how the society we live in. But there is a 100% cause and effect to how we can decide to change how we act as individuals, be it the role of a parent or the child. So the real question is, how willing and determined are we to foster the relationships you have as a family unit? To what extents are you willing to go through to fight for this goal?


Young at Heart. Parenting is an opportunity for rediscovering one's inner child that had been buried deeply beneath the layers of conditioning that we had acquired in the process of growing up. It is a reminder to feel young again at heart, and experience the world with a child-like wonder. It is all right to be playful. Give yourself full permission to party and have fun with our children.