The first time both our boys came down with Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease (HFMD) was when the older one was about 3 years old and the younger one, just under a year old. I had heard of HFMD, but had never imagined it would happen to my own kids. It was my older boy who developed it first, followed by the baby.

During the first episode, both boys had fever for a few days accompanied by a slight runny nose. The rash came a day later and it was mainly on the palms and feet, although our baby had some on his arms and legs too. The rashes were not itchy or painful and they were hardly bothered by them. However, they were not quite their usual cheery selves and the baby, especially, lost his appetite.

It all started with our pre-schooler. Just 3 years old, he came home from the child care centre one day with a slight fever. We thought he probably had  viral flu. It was July, not even the usual ‘HFMD season’. But being a kiasu parent, I checked his hands and saw just two little red bumps on his right palm. There was nothing on his feet and he did not complain of any pain in the mouth.

The age of the Generation Y is all about staying connected - wherever and whenever.

Exactly how significant is digital communication to teens these days? Confiscate your teenage daughter’s mobile phone as a punishment for staying out late may make her as miserable as grounding her in her room for a week (or probably worse); not having a Facebook account may brand a teenage as a dinosaur; losing access to Internet Messenger (IM) to chat with friends may be as bad as being stranded on a deserted island. You get the picture.

No generation has more money at their disposal, with more pressure to spend it than those born into the 21st century. The challenge for you as a parent is to educate your children about money; its value and the values of restraint and responsibility that must come with it.

If parents do not step in, your child's peers and the media will. And they will learn the worst things about money: That clothes and gadgets are who they are, video games and allowances are their birthright, and credit cards will satisfy all their whims and fancies.

In short, if your children grow up not knowing the value of money, they will lose control and spiral into money troubles as an adult.

So what should your child know about money?

The early years are crucial. You’ll be amazed how quick kids as young as four can pick up rudimentary money recognition skills. They will if you let them, because before the age of 8, they should grasp:

Whether you are a working or stay at home mum, the safety of your child will always be your top piority. You may worry when your daughter is making her way to and from school every day? Or if your son has reached the library safely?

SingTel Locator might just be the solution for you to give you that peace of mind in always knowing where your loved ones are anytime, anywhere.

Locator is a Value-Added Service (VAS) by SingTel Mobile that lets you know the vicinity of where your loved ones are, without the need to call them.  It is an innovative service that conveniently allows you to locate your child via your mobile phone. Information about your child’s location will then be displayed on a map on your mobile phone with accuracy from 50m to 500m. Best of all, this service is made even more affordable with $0 data charge!

For only $5.35/month, you can enjoy the following entitlements:

What is creativity? What does it have to do with our behaviour and how we live? How does it affect us?

By the very nature of our existence, we are creative. Picture creativity as a current—similar to electricity, and that current is wired up and connected to each and every one of us. It is an enormous current, but because we don’t feel it, we are mostly unaware of its existence.

When we make something e.g. a painting, a cake, a house—even a sandcastle–we are told we are being creative. Most of us believe that some people are more creative than others, and become artists of some kind, but that is confusing talent with creativity. The current of creativity is the same in all of us. The child gives us the perfect example of this creativity in their play. Play is the tool by which the child learns of themselves and the world. The child’s play is always creative, as they need, in some way, to invent what it is they wish to comprehend.

They say our children are our precious gems and for parents, playing a significant part in our children’s growing-up years is a priceless experience that can’t be traded for the world.

But as much as you want to spend more time with them, you know you can’t. You’re at work, they’re at school; you want them to come home for dinner, they want to go out and play with friends – life’s commitments and social activities are increasingly keeping parent and children away from each other.

Thanks to SingTel’s RedPAC Supplementary Plan, staying in touch with your children is all but a call or SMS away. RedPAC is specially designed for parent-child usage, and is the first mobile plan in Singapore that lets you share talktime and SMSes with your loved one.