Tell us a little about yourself and what you do.
I'm Gordon Ng and I co-founded Talenox with my awesome partner, Edwin Feng. We are fortunate to be working with our great team in helping thousands of SMEs with payroll and leave management in the HR compliance space. Talenox is a cloud-based hr software that focuses on simplifying payroll and leave management so companies can easily meet their payroll compliance requirements. We do our best to deliver a great user experience through design and superb customer support in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong.
How old are your kid(s)?
Just my dear daughter who's 2 years old.
Who is the primary caregiver in the household, and what are you and your partner’s parenting philosophy?
Before our helper arrived in Singapore, both of me and my wife had been doing our best to share the load of taking care of our daughter and settling household chores, despite our busy schedule. I feel that my wife has been the one showering this little girl with a lot more love. She's a really awesome mother who can juggle her work and family life well. It was really tough before Covid-19, as we took turns to travel for business. I am glad that we recently managed to get our helper relocated to Singapore. This provided us with a lot more breathing space and allowed us to spend more quality time with our baby girl.
What's your favourite moment in the day with your kid(s)?
Happy to see her learning how to walk, feeding herself and learing to talk. She's a really cheeky and cheerful girl bringing smiles to everyone (when her mood is good).
How do you keep yourself sane?
Less is more, prioritise better., focus on important matters - she taught me so much more about life. Although I am enjoying building Talenox with my team, there are other joys in life like spending quality time with family and friends.
Also, sleep training our daughter really kept us sane, thanks to my wife's persistence.
Best tech tip on parenting. This can be apps / hardware / gear you use, and how you use them.
We used BabyTime to keep track of her feeding times and to keep a schedule, for the first year or so (thanks for introducing the app to me, Tiang!). UV steriliser also saves up a lot of time.
When she was nearing 2 years old, we started to expose her to videos (reluctantly) and Cocomelon videos have been working well (I believe most parents know about this). I feel that kids will change their preferences over time and it'll take trial and error to know their upcoming seasonal "favourites".
Most helpful advice you've received as a parent.
I think sleep training is really important. I cannot emphasise enough. You'll need enough rest and to sleep through the night eventually as a parent, and you'll need to train your kid to do so. There will be regression on and off, but you would not want to continuously be sleep-deprived.
Also don't overfeed your child. I did it without realising till I looked back at her old photos. Haha.
What lessons do you not want your kid(s) to learn?
I would want my kid to learn as much as possible from her failures in life, though if possible, I would really hope such lessons will not affect her health in any way or cause her any long term trauma. Let's leave that to fate.
What was the best lesson you learned from your child?
Life is not just about working and helping others. At times, happiness is right in front of you.
What is your proudest dad moment?
I'm a Dad who always feels that I can solve most of the issues related to my daughter as I'm quite hands-on, though that's just me being ridiculous as my daughter's preference will change over time and she's a lot closer to my wife now. I'm quite proud that we helped her to learn how to walk during the lockdown period in Singapore. :)
If you could ask anyone, dead or alive, for their best parenting tip, who and what would that be?
I don't think parenting tips apply universally to every kid, since every kid is very different. You'll need to discover and grow with your kid to get to know him or her better.
There are many mysteries to understanding infants though. What I would like to learn is that, not related to parenting tip, is sleep training a myth or a fact (though it worked on my daughter most of the time)? What's the success rate?
How do you manage technology exposure for your child/children. For eg, thoughts on screen time etc.
No screen time till she was near 2 years old. We usually read her books, play with physical toys and bring her out. When we started to expose online videos to her, we limit it to 30 minutes at a time. She has been doing well so far, without any addiction issues. She prefers more physical activities and to head out more too.
What hobbies do you and your children share?
Flapping our lips. :p
Finally, your best dad joke!
I'm a really bad at telling jokes, but i’d share one of the funniest expression of hers: