In a recent Facebook post, Andrea Poon reportedly experienced a situation that has led her to question Singaporean parenting styles.
A daughter allegedly took the utensils from a food stall without purchasing any food prior to taking, nor asking for permission. In the post, Andrea stated that when confronted with the act by the stall's aunty, Andrea's mum, the child was said to have broke down in tears.
The father of the child was reported to have stated that "It's alright, I will cause trouble for this stall and tell NEA there were cockroaches in the stall" in response to the confrontation.
The post included 2 photos of the man in question.
The post has since been shared over 28 thousand times.
Dr. Leslie Tay of ieatishootipost raised the view that, "I think that trying to shame the man by posting his photo online is also not the right thing to do. Should at least blur the face."
"The whole exercise is supposed to help us to develop a more gracious society, is it not? The ramifications for the man may surpass the punishment for the crime."
Before we judge the participants of the incident, we should consider various aspects of the incident, especially as fellow parents.
Read on to see what parenting considerations there are to this reported incident.
As parents, when we lash out in anger in what can be seen as in defence of our child, what else do our actions entail?
While the actions reported have the dad standing up for his daughter, the act does not appear to be a morally justified one. Here are some nuggets of parenting tips that we can learn from this incident if true:
#1 As parents, we should consider our words and actions when our children are around us.
After all, they easily emulate us and learn through imitation. What exactly are the life lessons we are teaching our child if we were to lash out?
#2 Despite the reported incident, we should not judge others so harshly as well.
Parents naturally do make mistakes and sometimes exercise poor judgement as well, for we are human after all.
Ultimately, we as a society need to be more conscious of the fact that everything we say and do affects these little lives around us, so let us be very careful before we lash out unnecessarily and let's put our ego aside and learn how to apologise and be the bigger person when things go wrong.
Tell us what you think of this incident below!
