Parenting on Purpose

What would you do? You live a fairly comfortable life. You work very hard, and you get to live in a fairly comfortable house. But it does not belong to you. And it never will. That’s the law. It’s been that way, and that’s the way it’ll always be. Then you hear about an opportunity to go away to a distant land. You know it’ll likely be very hard; and you may not live as comfortably as you’re living now. But you know that the land will be yours. For you and your descendants. Forever. When the Irish left for America in the 1700s, that was the dilemma that they faced. And a number of them chose to leave their fairly comfortable life in Ireland in hope of a better life in the newly discovered land of America. Life was hard, and the immigrants had to build their houses from scratch, but if they succeeded, they would be able to live in a place that they could call their own. That was what we learnt from the Frontier Culture Museum, an excellent museum which chronicles the life of early...

50.39 seconds. The (less than) one minute of time that made history for the small island nation of Singapore. Millions in Singapore and around the world watched as 21-year-old Joseph Schooling defeated his long-time idol and heavily-decorated Olympian Michael Phelps, the man described as "the most-decorated Olympian of all time". Indeed most of the international news footage had been previously focussed on Phelps, given that the American is expected to retire at this year's Rio Olympics. The New York Times even ran an article with the headline: " Somebody (His Name’s Joseph Schooling) Finally Beats Michael Phelps"! For Joseph Schooling, it could not have been a prouder moment, as he not only bagged Singapore's first and only Olympic Gold, it was also a race that proved he had not only matched, but also beaten his childhood idol. Indeed a 2008 photograph of 13-year-old Schooling standing side by side with Michael Phelps has been spreading like wildfire o...

"My mother is the wind; my father is the frost," says the Snow Child, as she dances into the lives of a childless couple living at the edge of a deep dark forest. Hungry with the longing and desire for a child, and in pain from years of continuous criticism from the other villagers, the couple desperately welcomes the Snow Child into their lives, and they yearn for her to find a home in their family. But the Snow Child insists she is different from the Other Children, and persists in behaviours peculiar to the village as a whole. What happens when she wanders off back into the wild? Will there ever be love and warmth in the home once again? UK-based tutti frutti productions presents an enchanting tale of love and hope. Written by Emma Reeves, the 2016 KidsFest play was a delight for the children, who warmed up to the Snow Child the moment she appeared on stage. "Is she real?" they chorused, as the girl seemed to come alive and wear the winter clothing of her ne...

Suppose you go to bed tonight as usual, and while you are asleep a miracle happens, and the problems that you have are solved. But you are asleep and do not know that the miracle has happened; what will be the first small signs when you wake up in the morning that the miracle has happened and that the problem is solved? I am coming to the end of my first year of part-time studies for my Graduate Diploma in Counselling. The past few weeks have been about writing term papers; about transcribing client interviews for analysis and coming up with a personal model of counselling that I could use on myself as a client. It has been hard work. But I feel I have learnt so much; and much of my reflection has been about my own life - how my childhood affects the way I relate to my family, and how it affects the way I relate to my children as their parent. The Lim Family. My counselling studies have made me think of how I relate to my family, and I have been very thankful for their role in...