Hi Chasingjelly,


Before you rush out to the nearest enrichment lessons, I think you need to do some evaluation on your child first. I've to give credit to the school that they really teach the kids rather than encouraging parents to send their kids to external classes so teachers have a \"easier job\". If the kids have some weakness, teachers will conduct tuition for the child. Eg. my P2 attended chinese compo class that was conducted by his chinese teacher. We are hoping that the teacher continues this term.

But there are some basic things that you need to ensure before P1 :
1) the ability to read/ recognise words. The child should be able to spell.
2) HYPY

I am a enrichment craze mum but that's also because I felt that I do not have so much time to teach them personally and I am a strong believer if kids does well, they will gain self esteem and confidence,etc... so I let the experts do it. I also observed that there is a mix of parents. Some more kiasu than others :lol: Eg. my son's class IMO is rather competitive. With his results that I thot is not bad only came in 15/30. But my girl during P1 had 2 points lower than him managed to come in 6/30..... This is really interesting as it shows that her class is probably less competitive.

Online dating is very popular these days. My dd1 whose friends are turning 23 this year and does not have a bf /gf yet are turning to online dating to get to know more people. I also know of quite a couple of people who married the people they met online.


My dd1 is very focus in school and such relationship concerns never pop up in secondary (all girls school) or JC. I used to wonder if she will eventually find someone especially when her friends/ my same age niece started dating, etc... She is on the tall side so finding taller guys can also be challenging. She eventually met her bf in the same cca in uni, he was 1 batch her junior and i think it's good so that they can observe each other in such school setting before going into a relationship. As parents, it was clear that the bf's mum and I are definitely very happy they found each other so we are just hoping they progress forward. She is graduating this year and has gotten a job. He is graduating next year and we have faith in his abilities.

Before she found someone, i would always sell the idea and encourage - basically pro family. So much so that my dh would comment that am I trying to \"sell off\" my dd1 so fast??? I personally believe that there is time for certain things. Once they start work, they will probably be too busy with work and sometimes those in work settings are taken so there are limited supply.... After observing what her friends are going through with online app, she recently told me that she felt lucky to find him. :xedfingers: :xedfingers: :xedfingers:

Interesting topic. My personal belief is the definition of success is very wide and it is defined by ourselves. Was having this career conversation with someone more senior in terms of hierarchy. She is single, maybe 2 years younger than me and pretty senior. But do I envy her or think she is successful just because she earns alot more? Never envied her and will never… So long as she is happy and I am happy with what I have, that’s more important.


At work, I would always encourage my team members in their late 20s and 30s to get married and have kids. I count our blessings that we had kids in our 20s so as we are hitting 50s, the kids are fairly grown up and retirement by 55 seems viable. Spoke to friends who got married/ had kids later and they are like… i need 10 more years than you before I can even think of retirement.

One thing that my bil said when my niece got married in her mid 20s which resonated with me was 成家立业 (First build your family followed by career) though this seems to be done in a reverse mode these days. While it sounds traditional, there’s a lot of logic in it too. So I’ve been encouraging my kids to find the right one in uni (fingers crossed as depends on fate but alot are resorting to online dating app), build their career and don’t settle down too late after they graduate. I was also wondering how we can help them with child minding (not every day as I think it’s good to have our own me/ self-care time but maybe few days a week). It’s sort of like giving back the benefits of what we’ve gotten from our parents when the kids were growing up. Would be more than happy to help support them where we can and i believed it’s a win win situation.

MyPillow\" post_id=\"2126643\" time=\"1704780223\" user_id=\"70594:

Estee, the sunday means the country we are in at the point or refer to Sg Sunday?
I din take note, had been using revoult in italy last month
Thanks

Revolut charges admin fee for usage on weekends. While we were in Europe in November, we bought swiss franc and Euro on our revolut and youtrip card to sort of hedge our currency exposure. Back then there was a cap of S$5K per card but they recently lifted the limit on youtrip. For those paid using local currency (euro/ sfr) in our wallet, there is no fee for weekends. Nowadays, our preference is to buy local currency in the card prior to the trip unfortunately there are some currencies that cannot be bought (eg. ringgit or taiwan dollar) Personally prefer this mode vs changing cash though i think some cash is still required just in case.

My dd just returned from 5 months exchange in Spain and she leveraged her youtrip and revolut for her expenses.

starlight1968sg\" post_id=\"2126432\" time=\"1704427820\" user_id=\"14025:

I dread on clearing the customs.

We too. Hence must choose the right time to go.

But it's worth it and enable us to self-care (massage and eat) Quite a number of my younger team members (with kids entering primary school) start to appreciate it alot more when they have more kids so they end up stocking up on diapers as well. Looking at the Singapore prices sometimes make me :roll:

Personally, going to johor actually brings us alot of enjoyment. Don’t recall that we used to be such regular before covid. We usually stock up on household, gardening, medication, medical supplies, massage, etc… whenever we are there.

lee_yl\" post_id=\"2125864\" time=\"1703829902\" user_id=\"17023:

Exactly!!

In fact, many of my friends feedback that the G anyhow gives out ang baos.

I would think such ang baos should be given to those really in need. Those staying in 5room flat and above may not find $200 as useful as those staying in 2rm rental flat.

Give us chicken wings later recoup from the higher property tax and income tax. Not to mention the 1% increase in GST in a few days’ time!

Agree that if it goes to those in need, it's the right thing to do.

But if you are using my hard earned money to buy popularity votes... then of course I am feeling upset.

MrsKiasu\" post_id=\"2125855\" time=\"1703827661\" user_id=\"43981:

I wanted to post this morning but holding back..I would prefer our G to be stingy a bit also in terms of giving back as vouchers/grants etc.

I agree and personally i also try to avoid threading on such topics or comments. But it's quite atrocious when you see the hawker center/ coffeeshop noodles going at $7.50 becoming the norm.... or maybe we are the sandwich class where we've elderly parents and school going kids to support that while we cannot complain about our income as we are still getting decent increase but we also start to feel the pinch. At the same time, there are more actions soon that is not just a pinch but maybe a bruise .. Maybe that's how i felt at this point.

starlight1968sg\" post_id=\"2125846\" time=\"1703824714\" user_id=\"14025:

Govt will give $500 but look at the things which will be increased.

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/gas-electricity-prices-to-rise-next-quarter-with-higher-gst-carbon-tax-and-energy-costs

Not just that.... property taxes set to increase, coe is still at crazy high level, 1% gst that seems to translate into higher than 1% increase at hawker center... Is it age? didn't seem to bother me previously but this time round it's getting to me like this is really bad... everything is just going up.

Personally don’t like the feeling of given $200 but has to give back so much more everywhere…

Zeal mummy\" post_id=\"2105406\" time=\"1681402613\" user_id=\"58173:[quote=\"Zeal mummy\" post_id=2105406 time=1681402613 user_id=58173]
Good points! Thanks for putting up a contrary opinion.. we can learn more this way. And also such information would allow the younger kids to make informed decisions.

I think what my friend meant to say was that the accounting/audit circle is pretty small, so she prefers to have more doors opened.. especially in the banking and finance sector. She also added that being good at math doesn’t equate to being good at accounting. It’s a different game. I agree with you that it boils down to the individual’s aspirations.[/quote]

Just another perspective. My dd was offered highly sought after internships with 3 companies (2 banks and 1 non bank). We discussed and after much consideration, she chose the non bank. Her thinking is with the non bank option she could eventually branch out to many other industries such as fmcg, pharmaceuticals, healthcare and the list goes on.