Five Essential Steps to Taking Care of Your Kids in Singapore! Are You Familiar With These Steps?

With the rising cost, increased competitiveness and stress levels in our city life, Singapore is not the easiest place to raise our children and as parents, we strive to provide them with everything we can. Due to our competitive environment and academically driven education system, an increasing number of children are getting stressed out from school, as they attempt to keep up with school work and outscore their peers in examinations. Some parents are also overly "kiasu", monitoring their children's studies strictly and signing them up for tuition to not only pass but to maintain their A grade.

However, simply focusing on grades is not the most important aspect of raising a child. What else can we do as parents to help our kids grow healthily, both physically and mentally? Mothernest Singapore has 5 essential tips for you!

Singapore loves to be on top of various rankings. Did you know Singapore has one of the highest ownership percentage of mobile devices and usage of the Internet? It is no wonder even toddlers have an iPad playing cartoons wherever they go. 

However, the increasing usage of digital devices is actually detrimental to our children’s health! Studies have shown that children with too much screen time are more likely to stay home, choosing to watch videos instead of exercising. In fact, while adults in Singapore are getting fitter and more health conscious, children are increasingly becoming overweight! The lack of exercise and poor diet would lead to an unhealthy body weight which is likely to stick with them as they grow up, increasing their risk of health problems such as heart diseases. 

Encourage your children to take up a sport CCA in school or bring them out to exercise together with you or as a family! The World Health Organization recommends that children aged 5 - 17 should have at least 60 minutes of physical activity daily. Exercising in a group makes it more fun for children and helps them to look forward to exercising!

Step 2: Let them fail and learn from these failures

There is a rising trend in younger parents being overly protective and competitive, resulting in common terms such as “Tiger Mums” – where mothers put excessive pressure on their children’s academic progress or “Helicopter Parents” – where parents hover closely over their children’s lives.

Such parenting behaviour stem from parents’ unwillingness to allow their children to fail. 

However, failure is important! Failure is part of the growing process and children learn best from their failures. Students here suffer from an increasingly level of anxiety because they do not want to fare poorly in their studies, which may be in fear of letting their parents down. 

Teach your children to embrace their failures, rather than to avoid them. Each failure comes with its learning experience that cannot be taught by anyone in the world. As parents, we should point out the important learning lessons and encourage our children to try again.

Have you heard of Mr Lim Tow Yong? He is one classic example of a Singaporean bouncing back from failures. Mr Lim used to run the Emporium Group Holdings in the 1960s, the biggest supermarket chain in Singapore. At its peak, the company’s annual revenue was up to $300 million. However, the recession in the mid 80s and severe competition resulted in the company chalking up debts of over $100 million. This caused Mr Lim to declare bankrupt at the age of 72. 

At this point in time, how many of us would have thrown in the towel, given up and just enjoy retirement? 

However, he was able to make a comeback through grit and smart business acumen. His failures taught him valuable lessons about taking too much unnecessary risk. At the age of 82, he became a millionaire again by selling 17 stores and supermarkets for $4.2 million. Talk about an impressive comeback story.

Thus, failing from young has its merits. Learning and adapting through these failures will inculcate grit into your children.

Back to the issue of being academically focused, teachers and parents are spending more time to ensure the young students are getting good grades in school. However, most of them tend to neglect the emotional and mental development. Although grades are important, social and emotional learning are key life skills that everyone needs to have. Knowing how to communicate and understand their fellow peers are as crucial as having good grades, if not more.  

Emotional Intelligence is described as the ability to recognize, understand and manage our own emotions. While parents are placing huge emphasis on their children’s IQ, they should not ignore their EQ. As Business Insider reported, Singapore is ranked one of the worst in the world for expressing their emotions.

As Dr Timothy Chan, director of SIM’s Global Education academic division, rightfully pointed out, "IQ scores have limited use today, [...] and can hardly predict life outcomes." This is true in the work environment. A survey conducted has revealed that 71% of hiring managers value emotional intelligence over IQ in choosing an employee. 

Remember the last time that you had a very unpleasant colleague, how did that make you feel? It was not because of his/her lack of IQ, but the lack of EQ that made the experience unpleasant. Of course, no parents want their children to grow up as an unpleasant person.

Here are some important tips to improve the emotional intelligence in your children.

a)     Allow your children to spend time with their friends to build their character and emotional intelligence.

b)     Teach them to be respectful of their elderlies and be well mannered.

c)     Teach them to manage their feelings. There are uncontrollable outcomes in our lives. However, what differentiates someone with high emotional intelligence from low one is their response to these outcomes.

For instance, it is natural for your son to feel angry when his brother breaks his favourite toy. However, it is wrong to respond by hitting the brother in anger. Parents can teach their children to express their anger through words instead.

Step 4: Support your children’s activities

Did you have that feeling where you regret not spending more time on your hobbies or CCAs when you were younger, before you entered the working world?

As children, they are a fresh, open and blank book. It is important to allow them to try new and different activities, as well as being given the opportunity to pursue these interests. You never know that they may have certain talents that would help them achieve success in the future. 

Some remarkable examples include Singapore’s famous pop band - The Sam Willows. If your son told you that he wants to be a musician or rock star in Singapore, you would probably dismiss the idea and forced him to change his dream. However, this was not the case with the Sam Willows. In an interview, they expressed their extreme gratitude for the support they received from their parents. In fact, for Ben and Narelle (members of the Sam Willows), their parents were the catalyst for their growth and passion for music. Due to the support from their parents, they achieved great success, getting Gold Status and racking up over 10 million streams from their 4 hit singles. 

It is important to train your kid’s perseverance and always support them in what they love doing! Who knows, they might grow up to be the next star of their generation.

Above all else, diet is the central factor in raising a healthy child. Children can be very picky eaters, but it is vital for them to have a balanced diet. The Health Promotion Board always has the simple guideline of 2+2 – taking 2 servings of fruits and vegetables daily. Without a balanced diet, there will be a lack of nutrition, resulting in various health conditions for your children.

But we understand that it is impossible to force them to eat their greens. Here’s where Mothernest Singapore can help support your children’s healthy diet and growth!

Mothernest has a range of products catered to support your children’s growth, including our popular line of gummies that are more palatable for children to consume

A) Probiotics Gummy Bear 

Mothernest Probiotics Gummy is one of the few high-quality probiotics gummy in the market, suitable and easy for children to consume, with natural fruit flavours and less sugar. 

Probiotics are beneficial bacteria that help maintain the natural balance of organisms in the intestines, to help reduce the growth of harmful bacterial, promote a healthy digestive system and reduce gastrointestinal problems. This will help improve our overall immune system and increase absorption of nutrients in the gut.

B) Vitamin C Gummy Bear

Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant and an essential vitamin for our daily lives. It is involved in many biological processes, helping to heal wounds and creating collagen in the body to help keep the skin, joints and bones strong. More importantly, it supports the immune system by maintaining activity of white blood cells. 

As the most commonly known vitamin, there are many similar products in the market. Mothernest Gummy Bear Vitamin C is not only attractive and easy for kids to consume, but it has one of the highest concentration of Vitamin C per gummy in the market, with raspberry and blackcurrant flavours

C) Calcium, Magnesium and Vitamin D Gummy Bear

Calcium, magnesium and Vitamin D are crucial elements during children’s development process. Calcium help our kids develop strong bones and teeth; while Vitamin D will help calcium absorption. Kids who spend more time indoor study or playing may lack of Vitamin D. Vitamin D deficiency may cause significant health effects such as muscle pain and weakened bones in children

Mothernest Calcium + Vitamin D3 Gummy provides a fun way for children to get their daily intake of Calcium and Vitamin D3, in a baby bear shape and natural vanilla flavour, with no artificial colouring, flavours and no added sugar!

There you have it. These are 5 essential parental steps that can guide you in taking care of your children. Are you sure that your children are properly taken care of?

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