Hi parents, Just wanted to check if anyone else has a child in SST? My son is currently in Sec 1, and honestly, I’m starting to feel quite worried about the academic pace. It’s already been about four months since school started, but the progress feels really slow. I’m not just saying this for the sake of it — I compared with my older son’s materials from a few years ago (he was from another school), and the difference is quite obvious. The amount covered and the depth are really not on the same level. I’ve also casually checked with relatives whose kids are in other schools, and they seem to be moving much faster. Also wondering — does SST mainly focus on Math and Science? Because for Chinese, it almost feels like… nothing much is happening? There’s barely any homework, very little teaching content, and after almost half a year, the progress in both the textbook and other materials is quite minimal. At this point, I’m even wondering if I should get my son to apply for Higher Chinese (HCL) instead. I’m quite concerned that if this continues, he might end up graduating with very weak Chinese, which is really not what I want. Would really appreciate hearing from other SST parents — is this normal? Or should I be concerned? Thanks in advance!

@rinsider said: What compelled you to get married and have babies? Rose-tinted glasses or a genuine feeling to have and grow a family? Although I hardly dated before university, I think I always assumed that I would get married one day, though I was uncertain about having kids (I’ve never been interested in babies!). It just seemed preferable to have someone to share life with. It turned out that I met my husband in our first year in university, started dating, and married a year after graduation. It was 3 yrs later that I finally made up my mind that I wanted kids (my husband said either with/without kids was OK by him), and then it took 4 yrs of infertility treatment plus a couple of years after giving up before I got pregnant. I can’t really explain why I wanted kids - A desire to create something uniquely ours? Having the opportunity to nurture and care for new humans? Biological urge? We have made it clear to our girls that we don’t assume that they will marry, or have kids, and we are fine either way. We don’t believe that either is necessary for happiness, and we only want them to marry and have kids if they actually want them. Having kids “for the sake of society” is too big an idea to cope with! One daughter is now married, and I’m fairly sure she will want to have kids eventually (she’s 26). I think she enjoyed growing up in a family with a sibling, and she is willing to reduce or stop work for a time if need be. I think that the lack of interest in having kids is partly due to the pressure to do well in career, earn more, etc, coupled with the materialism that equates happiness with having more and indulging self. Nurturing and caring for kids, especially in the early years, is costly in time, effort, emotions, opportunity cost, and of course, money. Our govt is trying to fix the problem with money, but really, no amount of money is going to tip the scales from “no kids” to “yes kids”; it may change “1 kid” to “2 kids”. It’s only if our young people consider the sacrifice worth it that they are likely to have kids. How to “fix” that is a tougher issue and has to be dealt with in families, and not by social policy. How many of us raise our kids to do housework and chores, and to put others before self? If kids are used to putting themselves first, then it’s less likely they will willingly have kids that will take precedence in their homes. Just my thoughts.

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@sharonkhoo said: As far as I know, only the surviving parent becomes the guardian automatically. Oh! I was not aware, thank you for highlighting this! I’ll update when I have some proper processes in place, and in the meantime, we can share useful info here!

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@rinsider said: @sharonkhoo my daughter is 20. Nearly a legal adult! 🤭 My kids have closed their doors for years, but in recent months, she has been locking her door. She’s had a phone since 16. So I can’t understand this recent behaviour. She said she wants to “isolate” herself. Have been feeling bad and At 20, you can’t really dictate her behaviour without a strong reason. On the other hand, if this is a recent change, I think you should try to find out more. Try to find out why she’s changed? Why the need to isolate? Has something happened in school/uni/whatever she’s doing at the moment outside the home? You probably need to find a good time to ask gently. It could be something to do with friends/boy friend, or studies/work etc. A reason you could give for not wanting internal doors locked for long periods is for safety reasons. Privacy can be assured if everyone knocks and waits when the door is closed; in emergencies, a locked door makes response time longer. This is a perfectly reasonable request as you are ultimately responsible for safety of all the residents. You could start with this and see if it opens up more info about why she wants to lock her door.