Mrs May Thong, 52, self-employed, Mr Raymond Thong, 52, business consultant, and daughter Thong Peiqin, a marketing executive, born in 1986 year of the Tiger
Mrs Thong is rather unlike her peers. Twenty-three years ago, while many people warned her that having a girl in the year of the Tiger was not a good idea, she thought otherwise.
'Having children is a blessing, why care about such beliefs? It's all about how you teach, love and educate your child,' she says.
When Ms Thong was younger, her relatives used to scare her by saying that Tiger girls in China were abandoned. But her parents constantly reassured her that this is Singapore, not China.
Does she think that she has 'tiger' qualities?
She says with a laugh: 'People close to me will know that I do not get angry easily, but when I really do, that is when I will flash my 'tiger claws' and my innate bestial qualities will show.
'Usually, I'm a sleepy, affectionate and happy- go-lucky tiger.'
In any case, for Mrs Thong, giving birth to her daughter in a Year of the Tiger turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because fewer Tiger children mean more opportunities.
She recalls: 'We managed to get Peiqin enrolled in Maha Bodhi Primary School, which is quite popular.
'Peiqin's younger brother, who was born in 1988, a year of the Dragon, would not have been able to get a place in the school if she was not already a student there.'
This article was first published in The Sunday Times.
