Forging Family Ties, Accompanying Your Child Grow
– Talk for Jr1I ~ Jr1P Parents

Jointly reported by:
Ng Yan Wen Sr1ScF 17188
Ng Choon Hau Sr2A 16066

To help the parents of the freshly enrolled Junior 1 students cope with the changes happening in their children’s lives, on the 18th of January 2020 the Counselling Department arranged a talk on family dynamics and parenting.

The speaker of this talk was our very own esteemed and much beloved Mr. Tan Yong Chin, Head of Counselling Department. He started off the talk with a delightful icebreaker that brought parents into the shoes of their children. Throughout the talk, Mr. Tan shared several of his personal familial and parenting experiences which earned lots of good-natured laughs as well as captivated the audience.

The talk covered four subjects, the influence a family has on a child, the differences between high school life and primary school life, the forging of family culture and changing parent-child communication, and resources for parental growth.

For the first segment, Mr. Tan invited 8 members of the audience onstage to visualize the concepts that make up a family, the ties between the family members represented by ribbons linking the volunteers together. In this segment packed with well-mannered comedy, Mr. Tan walked the parents through an analysis of family dynamics, responsibility and authority.

In the next segment, Mr. Tan talked about the stress of children such as peer pressure, the need to re-adapt to changes in daily routine, puberty, conflict with parents, parental over care, and stress from studies. This segment also covered the differences between high school and primary school life, and the normal expectations of parents versus rational expectations, so that parents better understand what their children are going through.

The third segment was carried out with a reflection of the survey results collected from the participating parents before the talk. The survey on what parents did at home, what time they arrived home from work, and how they spent their weekends revealed the families’ culture, serving to remind parents of the impact and influence they have.

Lastly, the talk closed with a pyramid of how family culture lays the foundation for rules and communication. The talk ended just before the bell rang, leaving time for parents to find their children and fetch them home. Thanks to the wonderful talk by Mr. Tan; the parents must surely have walked away from this talk newly enlightened on building strong family relationships and a new culture.