Probably the first Australian American Singaporean you have met.
This was the Whatsapp status update from my eldest son the day he arrived in Melbourne, Australia. It aptly sums up our experience & context of what I will be sharing here.
My family mostly grew up & lived in Singapore most of our lives. I was born & grew up in the late 1970s, what I would describe as a pre-aircon, pre-Internet Singapore. I met my wife in church whilst we were preparing for a short-term cross-cultural mission trip. We eventually got married in 2007, & our kids came along past the 2010s.
Some time later, as God led me towards doctoral studies, we went to the U.S. with a 5-year visa hopeful that we would be spending at least 4-5 years in Deerfield, Illinois as I worked on my studies. We arrived in the States in August 2019, less than 6 months before the Covid-19 pandemic rocked the world for the next 2-3 years. Stuck in the States during the 1st half of Covid was one of the most challenging times for us as a family. 1.5 years of lockdown mode, self-imposed quarantine & social distancing, foreigners without healthcare, in a global pandemic with massive fatalities. After 2 years, we decided to bite the bullet & returned to Singapore in mid-2021 (still in quarantine phase). Literally no one was on the flights back, we each had an aisle to lie/sleep on. Arriving at the airport was surreal, it was like the movie “Outbreak,” airport & medical staff were in full PPE gear, we went through full PCT swabs, & though there were only 2 families (us & another), we each had our own commercial bus ushering us to separate quarantine hotels. For the next 2 weeks, we were quarantined, isolated, & spent Singapore’s birthday (National Day 2021) in lockdown.
Returning back to Singapore was bitter-sweet. Our main reluctance, resistance was reintegrating our children back into the Singapore MOE education system. Our eldest returned end of Primary 4, & had to catch up after a 2-year hiatus to prepare for the upcoming major examinations (PSLE) at the end of Primary 6. The rest started pre-school mid-way, & we had to go through the challenges & hassles of applying for primary school, & managing kids in 3 schools for another 2-3 years. We also rented for 2 years, whilst our family home was rented out to tenants & eventually renovated before we moved back.
Fast-forward to end-2025, my wife applied & got offered sort of an internal transfer from her company in Singapore to the Australian office, but it still took 3-4 months before everything was settled & approved; we received our visas a day after Christmas. My wife went ahead first as she had to transition/start work & also to settle housing before we joined her 2 months later in March. I took a sabbatical of sorts to settle family & hopefully work on/finish my doctoral studies. Our eldest decided to stay on until mid-year & only joined us around the June school holidays. It was especially challenging for him as he had to uproot from his secondary school (which he got into after years of hard work/effort), leaving his friends & CCA (symphonic band) after 2 years.
It has been a year plus since we moved over. It’s been 2 overseas moves in less than 4 years for us as a family. As we slowly integrate into life here, schooling, work, church, neighbourhood, we are praying that it builds resilience & adaptability amongst our children, & more sensitivity & appreciation of cross-, inter-cultural dynamics & challenges/issues.
