How Having Kids Can Change Your Life For Better?

To celebrate Mother’s Day, The Weekly catches up with three celebrity mums to find out how having kids has changed their life’s perspectives.

- Sylvia Ong

DIANA SER

Diana Ser is most famous for being a former news presenter and TV actress which may be where the mum-of-three gets some of her hands-on, articulate and no-nonsense parenting style. She has three children with former actor turned-banker James Lye: Jake, nine, Christy, seven, and Jaymee, five. Besides filming TV documentaries and hosting gigs, Diana also runs an online portal, Crazy About Chinese (www.dianaser. com), launched last November where she shares her own experience to help parents teach their children the Chinese language through daily activities.

On how priorities changed

“I think about myself less. In my household, the best parts of a chicken or fish go to my kids, followed by my husband, and my helper; then I’ll eat whatever’s left.”

On raising her daughters

“I raise my kids like I was raised. I’d nag at Christy and Jaymee the way my teachers used to, like, ‘Girls, sit with your legs shut tight. I can see the colour of your underwear!’.”

On the perks of parenthood

“I feel like I’m reliving my childhood again. James and I love to tell stories to our kids. These could be events that happened in our youth, silly things we did. One of their favourite stories is hearing about me peeing in the sink of a budget motel room in Rome because I was too scared to go out and use the communal toilet.”

I think I'm a tiger-ish sort of mummy

“Not in terms of academic achievements, but rather with their attitudes. For example, I believe children are the most energetic in the morning so I make it a rule to complete their homework before doing anything else. Christy is the most disciplined among the three. She does her homework the first thing she wakes up, even before brushing her teeth!”