What Happens When You Stop Asking Permission?

What Happens When You Stop Asking Permission?

The suffocating pressure that hums in the background of modern parenting can be felt everywhere.  In the worried way people ask, “So what curriculum are you using?” or “What grade is your kid in now?” It’s in the awkward silence that follows when you say your child is...
Off Track, On Purpose

Off Track, On Purpose

You can tell a lot about a society by how it reacts to a child who doesn’t do well in school. And so, there’s a mental script most parents and their kids subsequently inherit: study hard, get good grades, go to university, get a “real” job, live a stable life. It’s...
Unlearning The Fear of More

Unlearning The Fear of More

We know of this quiet, invisible script that runs in the back of so many parents’ minds: a set of inherited beliefs about success, safety, and what it means to raise a “good” child.  The same voice subconsciously tells us, “Don’t aim too high. Don’t take up too much...
The Sensory Gap

The Sensory Gap

Here’s a little secret most of us didn’t get told when we became parents, educators, or therapists: You and your child are not wired the same way. When you first hold your child, there’s an unspoken assumption that they are, in some fundamental way, an extension of...
Reforming The UNreformable

Reforming The UNreformable

Every few years, the conversation around education reform resurfaces.  Particularly in Singapore, where academic achievement is deeply embedded in our national identity. Calls for change like smaller class sizes, curriculum updates, and less focus on standardised...
What If ‘Normal’ Is the Problem?

What If ‘Normal’ Is the Problem?

We love a neat, predictable timeline. First words by this age, walking by that one, social skills unfolding in predictable, measurable increments.  We love “normal.” We crave it, and the sense of approval it brings so long as we abide by it. We measure against it. We...