Raising Kids is really challenging in Singapore

You don't really know how hard it is , until you have it yourself. And sorry, owning a pet doesn't come close. The truth is that parenthood is both quite rewarding  and terrible at the same time. What makes rewarding is looking at the child & knowing that she’s yours & all the things people tell you. What makes it terrible , however, isn't quite  clear.  There’s the tantrums, crying, and lifestyle changes & a hundred  other things :

1. They have a whole different set of  schedule. They find dirt fun and want to play with it while you're trying to get them to eat!!  They don't want to sleep or eat (you'd think evolution would have thought to program that differently).  The older ones  want  you to tell the same stories , listen to the same song, and watch the same cartoons  over and over and over again.

Having a child is like having one of your  hands  suddenly develop a mind of its own with desires and interests that are different from yours. You're quite attached to it, obviously cant get rid of it. Life becomes a  challenge everyday,  & becomes a constant reminder that any control we think we have in life is an illusion.

2. We want to do everything for them. This is sometimes because of #1 above: children often move so slowly that impatience gets the best of us and we start putting on their shirts, their pants, and their shoes when they're perfectly capable of doing it themselves.

3.We don’t ever want them to get hurt either physically or emotionally. When my baby  was born, I  loved her immediately, but I was  surprise by the strength of the urge I felt to protect her.  However we all know ,lessons had to be learnt one way or other & sometimes pain is necessary.

You have to protect them from genuine threats but also allow them to experience what pain you think they can handle so that when you're no longer around to make it better, they can make it better themselves. But it is painful & exhausting to see them hurt.

Point is  nothing in life is only wonderful (or terrible ), even having children. Some may insist that it is the most wonderful experience. But our experiences never occur in the abstract and thinking of them as if they do, expecting them to be entirely black or entirely white, will only yield unrealistic expectations and thus predispose us to suffer through something that, in the end, really is quite wonderful.