Would you move to Singapore with teens/tweens?

[Anonymous]

How old is your child, pp? My older two have all those freedoms in NYC where we currently live. The older has been taking the subway alone since she was 12 and goes out with her friends all the time. Even my 8yo goes to the park across the street from our home alone to play with other kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hell yes!! My college roommate was in Singapore for high school (her Dad worked for ExxonMobil). She LOVED it

Did she move back to high school in US or for college? That's the difference.

She moved back for college, her parents were still in Singapore.

What's the difference? She missed it a lot in college but just like most of us that had an adjustment to life in a city without our parents.

[Anonymous]

The new President is awesome.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How old is your child, pp? My older two have all those freedoms in NYC where we currently live. The older has been taking the subway alone since she was 12 and goes out with her friends all the time. Even my 8yo goes to the park across the street from our home alone to play with other kids.

Look it’s not just a question of age. My kids are now in high school but it’s also zoning. Where we live now you need wheels to have real freedom.

To answer your real question: my kids were on public transit, alone, at 7 and 5 in Germany. (But super safe and common).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How old is your child, pp? My older two have all those freedoms in NYC where we currently live. The older has been taking the subway alone since she was 12 and goes out with her friends all the time. Even my 8yo goes to the park across the street from our home alone to play with other kids.

I posted about enjoying the freedom my 8 year old experienced when visiting friends in Singapore. We lived in NYC before our current city and still have many friends there. She was 7 on our last trip to Singapore, which is definitely WAY younger than the age at which I would let her do any of those solo things in NYC.

To me, the biggest differences in safety between Singapore and NYC is that you simply don’t have the random crazies, nor people who intimidate for fun and sport on streets/transit, and neighborhoods are less variable, so you can be a visitor in a modest or shabby Singapore neighborhood that you’re unfamiliar with and still be safe. It takes way more thought (and/or money!) to stay safe as a kid or woman in NYC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Singapore is a fascinating place but it is deeply illiberal. Depending on your personality, this could be a bit irritating after a while. It is very conformist and low-key repressive. These might not be things you would notice in short visits.

That said, the opportunities for exploring the region are fantastic.

Be careful about schools etc. Singapore has seen a huge influx in the last couple of years as Hong Kong has declined in attractiveness, so things like housing and schools are much more difficult to find than hithertofore.

It is a tremendous experience for the kids. But also tremendously disruptive, particularly for the eldest one. Only you and your family can decide if that is worth it. I moved country when I was 9 and was fine with it. My brother was 11 and had a much rougher time of it.

This post is spot on. We just moved kids those ages to Singapore and don’t regret it. But it is complicated from a civil Liberty/ free speech perspective. And there are deep inequalities with foreign domestic workers on display constantly.

You should verify tuition reimbursement, admission status and salary that compensates for spouse not working. Many employers are rightfully skittish about Singapore remote employment.

[Anonymous]

Indeed. Double taxation is also no fun but a real threat if both of you want/will need dual income. Good luck with decision! Exciting to be in such an enviable position!

[Anonymous]

we've been doing this since our kids were little so differnt scenario. one piece of advice: figure out the high school continuity plan - if you are there only a couple years would you senior need to finish hs somewhere else?

[Anonymous]

I would definitely go!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not with a 14 year old. If this were something you had to do, I’d give the oldest the option of boarding school in the U.S. or an international school there. However,
I wouldn’t uproot my child at that age if it could be avoided at all.

Boarding school could be a great idea if your oldest is up to it!

[Anonymous]

The age spreads aren't good for this. For oldest to graduate HS there, middle will have to start HS there and return to the US in 10th/11th grade. That's really hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kids are in a k-12 private and would see if possible to get them back there so they would be back with familiar friends after the time away. I guess it does make some sense to stay abroad until oldest graduates from hs and move back between 9th & 10th grades for middle.
And no, we haven’t decided anything, just very preliminary exploring options.
Dh would probably have a lot of control over how long he goes, as he would be the one establishing the office there and could set parameters but of course it’s impossible to know how much we’d all like it.

I suspect you would have to pay tuition to hold their spots, and I would not do this.

We moved around a lot when I was a kid, and I found it much harder to return to a school I'd been at before than to go to an entirely new school. I had changed, and other kids seemed to take it personally (and badly) that I wasn't the same kid who had left three years before. And of course they had changed, too, and it was harder to find my place than it was when I started fresh.

Also, if your kids are at an IB school, they may well want to try to continue with an IB program.

All of that amounts to, I would not plan that they would necessarily return to the same school. When the time comes to return, look at all the options from scratch and see what the best fit for the kids you have at the time is, v. what the best fit was for the kids you had when you first chose the school.

[Anonymous]

Heaaaaaaaaiiiiillll no.

[Anonymous]

Only if the 9th grader was both enthusiastically on board and I thought they were likely to thrive based on my knowledge of their temperament.

[Anonymous]

We just told our oldest about the possibility. She’s (understandably) surprised and a bit shaken but she seems to be considering it with a lot of maturity.
We will make sure our other kids know before we pursue any further.
If I work for a nonprofit that’s based in the US and I c a work remotely I’ll have to look into the implications of living abroad.