While being an at-home parent isn’t for everyone, studies found that the benefits of having a parent at home extend beyond the early years of a child’s life. An increase in school performance is found amongst children all the way to high school-aged children. We see why Stay-at-Home Mom, Anne Seow had resigned her career in teaching and chose to devote her time and energy on her child!
Tell me more about you and your family.
We are a family of 3 with a wonderful 8-year- old daughter. My husband and I are hands-on parents and believe in joint-parenting. As a stay-at- home mum, I get to spend a lot of time with my daughter and guide her in her school work. At least once a week after school, I make it a point to bring her out to do something fun like visiting museums, different places of interest or simply going to an arcade to play games. Most of the time, we try to prioritise what my days and we plan to do fun things together as a family
What are some of the fun things you have done together with your child recently?
As a family we like to coordinate our dressing. Sometimes we get “awarded” for our efforts. For example, we submitted a photo of us dressed in DIY family costumes for the recent photo competition organised by KiasuParents. We came in 2nd! Such activities make our parenting journey extra fun because we have photos and memories of us engaging in activities together.
Recently, we also participated in a young entrepreneur event through Flying Cape. Our daughter had a great time learning marketing strategies and good service standards and came in first place by generating the greatest revenue in this entrepreneur event. Such activities are invaluable learning experiences that cannot simply be learnt by reading or in a classroom. My daughter enjoys running for leisure and she joins races both competitive and non-competitive. I think she enjoys collecting medals.
Most recently, she took part in the Safra Bay Run and POSB Passion Kids Run and did pretty well. It motivates her to continue running and she is considering going for proper training. She also likes adventure sports such as obstacle courses, rock climbing and high elements ropes. We try to seize opportunities to go whenever such events as the red-X games and Spartan races are in town since the courses are professionally set up for us. We are fortunate that there are several rock climbing and high elements facilities in Singapore and we make plans to go on weekdays to avoid the crowd. We look forward to checking out new and different facilities real soon.
What is your philosophy of parenting? Major challenges? Major achievements?
When we had Kyra, my husband was very supportive of my choice to become a stay-at- home mum. It isn’t easy being a single-income family and we have had to give up a lot of luxuries we could otherwise have had. As husband and wife, we have many shared values and parenting style. We believe that the values and character of a child are largely developed during their formative years and as parents we not only have the responsibility but are also the best people to lay a strong foundation.
As part of my journey during her early childhood, I home-schooled Kyra and did hands-on experiential learning with her on a regular basis. We also played a lot and went to many interesting places. I did a lot of research on both traditional and modern methods before coming up with my own style of parenting, as well as studied and obtained early childhood education certificates to better equip myself to educate her. As husband and wife, we have many shared values and beliefs which made it easy to have aligned and complementary discipline and parenting style. We are glad that Kyra has never given us any grief and we are proud of her in so many
ways.
We take part in many activities together and rather than just watch or coach on the side, I like to do them with her whenever possible. For example, I rock climb beside her so that she can see it can be done. I also believe in life-long learning and show her that I enjoy learning. Doing things together is a huge part of our parenting style and we do our best to engage in fun and meaningful activities together. For example, my daughter and I do rock climbing together and this motivates and encourages her because I don’t just say but do. I also believe in teaching her by example.
I took up a gemmology certification when she was 6 years old and I’d tell her what I had learnt after every class. I hope this shows her that I enjoy learning and inculcates in her the importance of life-long learning. I like to challenge Kyra to push her limits and I show her by example. Like the saying goes, we need to walk the talk.
What do you do to help your child develop skills?
My daughter doesn’t attend tuition classes and we hope she will learn the skill of being independent and being intrinsically motivated. As her parent and mentor, I am always on the lookout for interesting activities and workshops that can more efficiently equip her with the skills she will need in this challenging 21st century. In this regard, Flying Cape has been a great service provider as they have a wide range of enrichment and educational courses on their portal and my daughter can attend trial classes for a nominal fee under their All You Can Learn Package. This is important because not every course is suitable for every child. So far, my daughter has attended multiple trial classes and I think she is enjoying that because each class is different and the learning is not mundane. After each class, I’d find out whether she liked the teacher and whether she learnt anything useful. This way, I can make a more informed choice before signing up for a longer period.
