Wah lan eh, just now I fetch this family from tuition centre. Throughout the whole ride, the mother kept nagging the son: “Ah Boy, you score good results for PSLE, Mummy buy you the new iPhone 17 Pro Max ok? If you get pass results only, only base model.”
I was driving and I literally rolled my eyes so hard I almost missed the PIE exit.
Seriously, what is wrong with Singaporean parents nowadays? Since when is doing your basic duty as a student something you need to be bribed for with a $1.5k tech gadget? PSLE is just Primary 6 leh! Twelve years old only!
In the first place, are children even supposed to own smartphones at that age? Last time during my era, we only get Nokia brick phone when we enter Secondary school, and that was purely so our parents can call us to buy soy sauce on the way home. Now, these primary school kids all walking around with phones bigger than their faces, head down, scrolling TikTok and playing Mobile Legends until their eyes cross.
This kind of transactional parenting is damn toxic. You are literally teaching the kid that knowledge has no intrinsic value. Education becomes a slot machine—put in effort, get a shiny toy. Next time when he goes to secondary school, you want him to pass O-Levels, you need to buy him a Honda Civic is it? When he goes university, must give him a condo downpayment just to get a Second Upper?
No wonder nowadays the younger generation so entitled. Everything also must have a reward. If they don’t get what they want, they pull face and throw tantrum. The parents think they are “motivating” the kid, but actually they are just outsourcing their parenting to Apple and Samsung.
Give them a basic phone with data limit if you really need to track their location for safety. But promising top-tier flagship phones just for passing a national exam? Real facepalm.
Any other drivers or parents here notice this trend? Or am I just an old uncle who is out of touch? Tell me down below, because my blood pressure is still high from that ride.