SINGAPORE: Being a single parent isn’t easy anywhere in the world, at any time in history. Today, while technology has advanced, it has given us advantages to help us in our parenting, as one young Malaysian mother discovered when she worked in Korea.
In a recent Facebook post, the young mum, Lai Yi, became very vulnerable about her struggles when it came to her son, though happily, things are better now.
You see, for a recent job posting, Ms Lai brought her then three-year-old son to South Korea, where the income is better.
And while she found a nanny in the area who could care for her son on weekdays, the woman did not work on weekends. Unfortunately, Lai’s work extended to Saturdays. Therefore, she had to find a way.
“Not every company in South Korea allows staff to bring their children to work, and with no one else to rely on, I had to make this really difficult decision, even though it was really hard,” she told Malaysia’s Shin Chew Daily.
Fortunately, her little boy did not cry often at all. He had learned to be independent from the age of three.
“Given a choice, no one would want to leave a three-year-old child alone at home from morning until evening,” Lai Yi told Guang Ming.
On the days that she had to leave him alone at home, she parented remotely as she watched him carefully via CCTV cameras, and during her lunch break, she would have lunch with him over a video call, in an effort to make up for the time she could not be with him.
She added that it was her son who gave her strength in the toughest of times when she wanted to give up.
“My child had to grow strong with me. Many people can’t believe such a young child could be so independent. To put him at ease, I would prepare his meals before leaving for work every day,” she added to Sin Chew Daily.
Things have improved for mother and son over the years, and her deepest desire is to make up for the time she lost with her boy, who is now six years old, and today, she prefers to stay with him on weekends rather than going out at all. /TISG
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