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Finding Freedom from Fatherhood
So liberating, when your family takes a vacation without you. Every once or twice a year, the in-laws plan overseas trips for the family, parents, siblings, children et al. Sometimes I join in, sometimes my work schedule doesn’t allow it. But the wife and I agree that the kids should see the world every chance we can afford, every opportunity they can get. I get a lot done when the wife and kids aren’t around. I managed to watch Bohemian Rhapsody in a theatre, finish binging on Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., do some laundry, pack the house some, start writing again. You can do a lot of things you want…
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The Silence of the Dads
We’re actually quite a quiet bunch, fathers. You’d think we have lots to say, like how the mums’ WhatsApp chat groups will drop 453 messages just during lunchtime alone. We experience as many parenting issues as mums do, albeit often from quite different perspectives. And that’s what I thought when we started Daddy Matters back in 2013. “Let’s start a group,” I said. “We can all share experiences with each other,” I said. “There’ll be so many dads that want to join,” I said. 5 years and a little over 600 members later, if there’s one thing I’ve learned about the fathers I’ve gotten to know through our group, the…
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Coffee, Tea or MOE (or Oops, I Overdid It Again)
I may have gone a little overboard on what I thought about one of our Education Ministers.
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That’s Not How You Make a Better World, Kid
This went viral on 9GAG back in February last year—exactly one year ago, in fact. And I'm going to say straight out, I really didn't agree with this back then, and I really don't agree with it now.
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Ten Years of Us: A Love Letter
The Blogfather and the Mother of Xander and Yvie celebrate 10 years together—13 if you count the dating years, but that'd be a different anniversary date altogether.
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Please Stop Teaching Us How to Raise Successful Children
This is an appeal to any person, group or organisation that plans parenting talks, seminars, workshops, forums and conferences. Since I’ve started blogging as a parent, I’ve received invitations to attend (and a couple of times, sit in the panel of) quite a few of these parenting events. It wasn’t until recently that the messages some of these events organisers are using to market their events started to concern me. Back in 2012, I attended a half-day seminar called “Raising a Successful Child”. The content served isn’t nearly as overbearing as their promotional copy makes them out to be. In fact, one talk I attended actually used case studies of so-called…
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Life After Suicide: How to Live with a Permanently Broken Heart
As progressive a nation as we have become in the last 50 years, our failure to accept failure also happens to be our biggest failure. And no, I'm not just talking about parents.
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The Significance of Not Dreaming
I first decided to write this thinking it would help answer the question about the dreams with my dad and my apparent lack of participation in them (like I can bloody control these things, pffft). But as I finish this second last sentence, I realise I needed to write this for myself and my siblings more than anyone else.
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Showing Some Respect
Happy New Year, Ms Tan Moi. May your online spur of the moment be a lesson for us all to show some respect.
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The Value of Eating Rubbish
My father’s best friend once told me a story about his formative years. He grew up in a neighbourhood with a bunch of kids from two distinct families; one was rich, and the other poor. The rich kids never got to go out and play, and they were extremely picky with their food (silver spoons, golden mouths). The poor ones though, they ran everywhere, played every time, and ate everything… most usually scraps from trash and leftovers from other people’s plates. That was the first time I heard of the Hokkien term 垃圾吃, 垃圾大, or “rubbish eat, rubbish grow” (the saying that sparked the food blog of the same name)…
