How things can get scary for a nine-year-old in Primary 3

Pupils will finally have to go through the harsh reality of graded assessments, on top of learning a new subject

- Raymond Goh

Happy New Year, fellow parents. Whether you have been cradling your baby, reining in a restless primary schooler or hopelessly commandeering an apathetic teen, you have made it through another year of semi-successful parenting.

They don't give out annual parenting awards - mainly because we have all bought into the silly belief that a happy and healthy child is its own reward but if they did, we should all get a prize. Or 22.

After all, we have endured yet another year of slo-mo dinner dawdling. We have survived 12 months of constant and inexplicable coughing. And we have suffered for two whole semesters the chronic condition known as Math PTSD (Parent Teach Sure Die).

And not once did we think of giving up. No, not once.

Because we actually thought of giving up many, many times. In fact, we wanted to call it quits at least “6-7” times in 2025.

We could've just accepted the “brain rot” and sat on our “gyatts”.

But instead, we powered through those “skibidi” storms and we didn’t stop trying to “slay”.

In short, we remained impervious to our children’s moans of “Ohio”, and stoutly reminded ourselves that - “no cap!” - we are the adults here.

And then we proceeded to hide in the toilet looking up the definitions of this newfangled nonsense while waiting for the year to end.

So, here we are in 2026 older, wiser and already knackered in January.

PRIMARY 3 HITS DIFFERENT

Our kids, too, have grown another year older. My wife frequently looks at our now-nine-year-old daughter, JJ, and laments that she has grown up all too quickly. “Where has my baby gone?!” she'd cry.

To which I would chime enthusiastically: “I’m right here, darling!”