There is simply no lack of places or activities for us parents to bring our children to in Singapore, the only problem would be finding the time, energy or motivation to bring the family out. Almost every town would have well-maintained public parks with exercise corners, outdoor playgrounds and maybe even wet play areas for families to spend a full day. While for those who prefers less sun, shopping malls these days go all the way out to please families with facilities such as indoor areas for the young ones and family rooms for the infants and toddlers. Some even have water playground on the rooftops! So now you no excuses for not bringing the kiddos out of the house for some gadgets-free family-bonding time correct?
Many organizations, both public and private recognize the importance of engaging the entire family and so not surprisingly, will plan marketing activities around them. Just last weekend, our family visited My Family Fiesta- Making Singapore a Great Place for Families at SAFRA Punggol, that was jointly-organized by HeyBaby SG and SAFRA Punggol. This was part of the My Family Weekend celebrations that took place over the long weekend. We made our way down to the fiesta from neighboring Ang Mo Kio town and met a couple of friends at who happened to be Punggolians too. I am pretty sure the many families present were from all over Singapore, with many of their babies vying for the top position in the SAFRA Punggol Diaper Dash 2017 as well.
The entire place had a carnival-like atmosphere, with stalls offering games, food and crafting scattered throughout the clubhouse. The kiddos especially loved the Nerf Gun booths where they could practice their shots without the look of death from yours truly when they play in our apartment and risk hitting decorations off the shelves, as well as the inflatable bouncing castle and slide. In fact, ALL the kids present were so overly enthusiastic with their jumping on the inflatable slide that their collective weight brought the slide down and caused it to be out of action for quite a while! Anyway some physical activity is surely good for the kiddos and you also get a free goodie bag if you complete 5 out of the 8 game stations indicated in the carnival passport!
We chanced upon the canvas painting sessions by Hwahwah by Artary, which I thought would be fun participating together with my kiddos, but the slots were fully signed up online prior to the event and we could only watch other parent-child pair painting their very own masterpieces. Sometimes, it really pays to register beforehand and not leave everything to chance. Speaking about chance, it was purely coincidental that I found out about the free Taekwondo trials by Taekwondonomics while walking pass the school, and we promptly dropped the two girls off for some “fighting” fun after knowing that the next session was about to start! While waiting to pick them up, I happened to overhear a couple telling a friend that the waffles and ice-popsicles were very nice, and were all FREE too! That sure explained the long queues we saw at those booths!
While we didn’t manage to check out the free parenting talks because we were basically too busy checking out the rest of the stalls with the kiddos, the talks on “child nutrition” and “effective communications with my child” would have been really useful, especially for first time parents. As if the above-mentioned activities were not enough, there are also free karaoke and bowling sessions for those who present their carnival passport for redemption. There were simply too many activities and so little time! I shall be really honest about this, I actually fear bringing the kids out to fun-fairs sometimes because I find that the food and games tend to be a little expensive at times. But before you judge me, do note that whatever the kids want, I will need to pay 4 times the usual amount okay!
However this My Family Fiesta thingy is just like one big open house, where one can visit without even bringing your wallet along, and yet still get to fully enjoy all the food, refreshments, activities and entertainment available without any worries! Hats off to the organizing committee for putting together this all-inclusive event for the community, for all families. I am sure as parents, we all know that being there for the kids, and for the family is more important than the material possessions one can provide. But how many of us can truly do that before time slips us by and our kids start to reject us? For me, family time is indeed precious time, so what about you?
This post is brought to you in partnership with HeyBaby SG!
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