KiasuParent Mum Trolled By Internet Reveals Her Side of the Story |
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#ICYMI, the internet had a field day trolling a mum for not getting a Nintendo DS for her son after he scored 229 points for his PSLE results, short of his target of 250 points. Ms Soon Lee Yong faced criticism for having unrealistic expectations and was lambasted as a “terrible parent”. There were a few people who stood up for her and pointed out that she was right to deny her son the Nintendo DS.  The following quotes some excerpts from her side of the story, particularly where the situation was taken out of context by the reporter, Wong Pei Ting. To be fair to Today, I did say “You can forget about your Nintendo DS,” as was reported in the story. But it was not in response to my son’s text message sent to me, to check if I was angry. It was part of a longer private face-to-face conversation with my son, which I was trying to have while a reporter stood next to me. I didn’t expect our private conversation to be fodder for a newspaper article. For those who have offered to purchase a Nintendo DS for my son, my family appreciates your generosity, but my son already owns a set. I had confiscated it because he couldn’t control his screen time according to our agreement—30 minutes per session. I then used the return of the Nintendo DS as an incentive, hoping to motivate him to work harder and better his score for the PSLE. For those who deplore my son’s joyless existence, rest assured that we are intent on celebrating life. We had a post-PSLE treat right after the exams, where we went out for a good meal and my message to my son was: “What is done, is done. The hard part is over.” For those who accuse us of unrealistic expectations, I had predicted that my son’s score would be around 230 (wrongly reported as 250), based on previous performance and my knowledge of his weak spots. His actual score fell short of my prediction by one mark, as was reported in the story. For those who question why I wasn’t more media savvy and cautious in my dealings with the reporter, I did request that she not reveal personal information such as my son’s score, but that request was not honoured. I have wondered if there was more I could have done to protect my son’s privacy. I never thought we would be thrust in the spotlight and I admit I feel betrayed. I’m a private person by nature too. For the most important person in all of this, my son, I want to tell you that your results are satisfactory. I have not explicitly said “Mummy will love you no matter how your results turn out,” but I hope you know this for a fact. Don’t be troubled by what people are saying about me, because I’m not affected. I won’t be brought down by others’ comments as I know who I am and why I do what I do. I hope to show you by example that other people’s comments about us don’t matter, especially if they don’t know us. And because you’ve gone through this, you will understand why you should never jump to conclusions based on a snapshot of information, and why you can’t believe everything you see or read online. You can read her full article here. It’s a lesson for the internet to not believe every single thing (including what is reported on the news) and keep in mind that there is another side of the story. This article first appeared on Five Stars And A Moon. It is reproduced with permission. |
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