DJ Gerald Wong's biggest worry as a dad is Singapore's competitive education system

Life has always been hectic for Symphony 924 DJ Gerald Wong and his wife, who are raising three kids together. But the couple has gotten the hang of becoming parents and are now excited to welcome another baby by the end of this year. 

But despite the experience of raising his kids, the celeb dad till has his own set of worries as a parent, one of which is the “competitive educational landscape in Singapore”.

Opening up to theAsianparent, Gerald shared the most challenging part of being a dad, as well as how he manages to take care of his kids while working in the radio industry. 

What type of parent is he?

Speaking in an exclusive interview with theAsianparent, Gerald revealed that he’s an impatient and strict, yet loving parent to his kids.

He shares, “I am an impatient person by nature and would always want to get things done efficiently and in perfect order, but sometimes that is just really difficult to achieve especially with children.”

“So with the help and the constant reminders given by my patient wife, I’m learning to let go a little and not be so uptight over small little things. I’m not there yet but I’m slowly and certainly getting there,” adds the DJ. 

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One of the many parenting challenges Gerald and his wife face include managing their own emotions when their children throw tantrums.

“It is not easy because it is a natural reaction to be angry when a child is being unreasonable and making a lot of noise, but we realised that whenever we talk to our children in a calm manner, they’d calm [down] much quicker and understand things better,” he explains. 

Meanwhile, when his children “are not getting on his nerves”, Gerald becomes their playmate — he has had experience role-playing as a lion, shark, crocodile, police and more!

Life as a famous DJ and a father

“I was actually working full time as a radio producer/presenter and studying full time in a university when my wife and I had our first child in 2017, and then in 2018 we had our second one when I was busy working on my final year dissertation,” Gerald talks about his dual role as a dad and a professional. 

“It wasn’t easy, but my wife was really my pillar of support during that time and even now, always being there for me and the family. I wouldn’t know what I’d do without her,” continues the celeb dad. 

ALSO READ: 'I took it out on myself': Actress Julie Tan shares her mental health journey as a young star

In addition to this, Wong believes that he and his wife are also very fortunate to have a lot of help from both their families. He shares that they would help the couple take care of the kids whenever they need some time to themselves or when both are busy with work. 

“The phrase ‘it takes a village to raise a child’, in our case three-coming-to-four children, is really true especially in terms of manpower,” says Wong. 

His worries about his children’s education and mental health

When asked about the issues that trouble him the most as a parent, Gerald Wong says that competitive educational system in Singapore worries him.

He says, “I feel that the educational system in Singapore can be quite competitive and pressurising, but I feel that that is something that’d be hard to change and even it were to change, it’d take a long time.”

He continues to explain, “As parents, we do not want to pressurise our children to be top performers, especially since I wasn’t one myself, but it does worry me sometimes when I see how capable some children are in subjects like math or even knowing how to write in sentences before they even reach primary school.”

“The worry stems from whether or not our children would be able to keep up with the system,” adds Wong.

Although, he says he is thankful to his wife who is a teacher herself and helps in keeping the kids on track academically.

On the topic of mental health in students and how schools can help, Gerald believes that the “strengthening of mental health starts from home”.

Children’s mental health must be looked after

As much as schools can encourage children to speak up about the issue and organise talks on it, the DJ dad believes that it is important for him to always check in with his own children. This helps him know how they are feeling on a daily basis. 

“I believe that mental health is certainly something that is of concern right now especially with all the recent cases of children causing harm to themselves and others because of poor mental health,” responds Gerald.

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On how he approaches the issue with his kids, Wong also shares, “We try to make the effort to sit all of them down before bed time and just share a little about our day and how we feel, and whenever one of our child says he feels sad, we would address that and get him to share more on it and if necessary find a way to address the issue.”

“I believe that if we take the extra effort to connect with our children and be their pillars of support, they would feel secure and in turn it would help to strengthen them mentally as well and emotionally,” he says. 

Gerald makes sure to add, “I believe that our children’s educational journey can be made easier if we as parents do not overly pressurise our children in academic matters as different children have different strengths. My philosophy is to just do your best in whatever that you do.”

What to expect from the dad and DJ in the future

Gerald has just launched a brand new podcast called Symphony Uncensored. This is a duo show presented by the Symphony 924 DJ and his colleague from the breakfast show, Andrew Lim. 

“In this podcast, we talk about classical music in a very un-classy and funny way and explore some of the controversial topics surrounding it as well! Do support us by listening to it! You can find it either on our meListen app and website or on Spotify!” Wong shares with theAsianparent.

This article was first published in theAsianparent.