Helping children to bloom in their own time

Give a late bloomer time and support, so that he or she can flourish eventually

- Michael Han

In October, our daughter came to us and said that she might have to retake her GCE A levels.

Although she is now taking her examinations and will complete them by the end of November, she wanted to temper our expectations. She expects to do JC3.

I guess she respects my wife and me enough not to raise our hopes too high. This second-born of ours is a straight shooter who speaks her mind.

Our consolation is that she still shares freely with us. She is honest and open, and trusts that we will not overreact.

That said, this is a new path for us. We follow different roads with our three children. We have to deal with things as they come and take them in our stride, and calibrate our responses based on the individual.

That day, we sat our girl down and had an honest talk with her. I asked her what comes after JC3. She said she wanted to go to university. She explained that she just needed a longer runway to take flight.

Her mum reminded her to do her best, and not to think too much about what comes after. She understood the stress and assured her that, as parents, we would not be adding to it.

Our daughter nodded, pensive.