The Happiness Scientist Who Stopped Pretending to Be Happy

Sha-En Yeo is Singapore's first happiness scientist, a two-time TEDx speaker, and author of the upcoming Penguin book I Miss Feeling Like Me. She holds a master's in positive psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, where she studied under Martin Seligman, Angela Duckworth, and Adam Grant, and has reached over 25,000 people across APAC.

• Social media: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaenyeomapp/ https://www.instagram.com/shaenyeo/
• Website: https://happinessscientists.com/
• Book: I Miss Feeling Like Me (Penguin, forthcoming)

• Why "tomorrow will be a better day" is one of the worst things you can say to a struggling parent
• The difference between happiness and joy, and why only one of them actually lasts
• The CALM framework: a four-step tool for responding to a child's big emotions without toxic positivity
• Why gratitude journaling can backfire, and what has to come first before any strategy will work
• What standing on a stage in a red dress on one of the hardest days of her life taught her about authenticity
• Why self-compassion, not gratitude, is the bridge when you're too miserable for strategies to land
• The five-step path back to yourself when you've lost track of who that actually is

• 00:00 — Cold open
• 01:10 — Bullied, pessimistic, and asking "is this it?"
• 03:30 — The teacher who changed everything with a note
• 06:00 — Fear of becoming a parent, and why she almost didn't
• 09:00 — How she ended up at UPenn with a 10-month-old
• 12:00 — Happiness versus joy: why the distinction matters
• 14:00 — What toxic positivity actually does to people
• 16:30 — The CALM framework for parents who snap
• 20:00 — Emotions are data: how to regulate before you react
• 23:00 — Pain is inevitable. Suffering is what we add.
• 25:00 — Her father's illness and the labels we carry from childhood
• 29:00 — Self-compassion as the bridge
• 32:00 — The stage, the red dress, and the Chinese New Year dinner
• 36:00 — The five-step path back to yourself
• 40:00 — The hedonic treadmill and the $2,000 prom dress test
• 43:30 — When the system does not fit your child (PSLE, and being honest about it)
• 47:00 — Quick fire

Growing Pains is HoneyKids Asia's podcast for the conversations you want to have after the kids go to bed.

• YouTube: @growingpains.honeykids
• Instagram: @honeykidsasia
• Website: honeykidsasia.com

Hit subscribe so you don't miss an episode. If this one resonated, share it with a parent who needs to hear it.

Growing Pains is produced in partnership with Poddster, Singapore's podcast studio.

#ShaEnYeo #GrowingPains #HoneyKidsAsia #PositivePsychology #Joy #Happiness #Parenting #ToxicPositivity #SelfCompassion #CALM #ParentingAdvice #MentalHealth #Singapore #Wellbeing

Maggie Dumra films her family for content and after over 78,000 followers later, she still won't let her own daughters near social media. The contradiction sits at the centre of this episode.

She spent twenty years in marketing, watched K-pop idols starve themselves to be on camera, and knows exactly what the algorithm does to a girl's body image before it happens to her own kids. Ange and Maggie go inside Sephora Kids trend, the one that put ten-year-olds on a retinol routine and racked up 331 million views on one hashtag.

Maggie opens up about what happens at the dinner table when the comments turn nasty, shares the strange Sunday-night ritual that keeps her girls from ever needing a credit card, and the one brain-development analogy that finally got her tween to back off the begging.

If you're raising a daughter anywhere near a smartphone, you need to hear what Maggie does differently.

Maggie Dumra is the founder of Jaedals, a Singapore footwear brand that works with underprivileged women to make comfort-driven sandals. Before that she spent twenty years in marketing and advertising, and now in between business and family, she creates family content online with over 78,000 followers. She is a mum of two daughters, 8 and 13, neither of whom has her own social media account.

Keep up with Maggie and Jaedals on:

• TikTok: @mrsdumra
• Instagram: @shopjaedals

• Why Maggie's daughters aren't allowed on TikTok even though she’s a content creator with over 78,000 followers herself
• What actually happens when a someone recognises her daughter in public
• The Sephora Kids trend explained, and the uncomfortable question it raises about who's footing the bill
• The Sunday-night ritual that keeps her girls from ever touching a credit card
• The brain analogy Maggie uses to explain "you're not ready yet" without a single lecture
• How Maggie gets her point across without turning into a naggy mum, and why it works better than any rule she's set
• What her 13-year-old would say to parents who post their kids online

IN THIS EPISODE

00:00 | Your Child Watched How Many TikToks?

01:11 | Why This Creator Bans Social Media

02:22 | Raising Kids Inside The Algorithm

04:41 | The Duality of Working Mom And Content Creator

05:17 | The Surprising Rule In Her House

07:04 | Before Posting Kids Online, Hear This

09:27 | The Internet's Dark Side Up Close

12:16 | What TikTok Is Doing To Girls

15:12 | The Skill Every Child Needs Online

18:00 | The Influence Parents Can't Control

20:20 | When Every Other Kid Has TikTok

22:06 | Is Your Child's Brain Ready Yet?

23:04 | Why 13 Is Still Too Young

24:54 | What Most Parents Don't Realize

25:57 | The Truth About Sephora Kids

28:45 | Why Her Kids Can't Buy Whatever They Want

29:57 | The Unexpected Good Side Of Screens

32:46 | The Real Problem Isn't TikTok

Growing Pains is HoneyKids Asia's podcast for the conversations you want to have after the kids go to bed.

• YouTube: @growingpains.honeykids
• Instagram: @honeykidsasia
• Website: honeykidsasia.com

Hit subscribe so you don't miss an episode. If this one hits a nerve, send it to a parent who needs to hear it.

Growing Pains is produced in partnership with Poddster, Singapore's podcast studio.

#Parenting #SocialMediaKids #ScreenTime #DigitalParenting #RaisingDaughters #TikTokKids #SephoraKids #ParentingTips #OnlineSafety #FamilyPodcast #Motherhood #ParentingAdvice #KidsAndTechnology #DigitalWellbeing #GrowingPainsPodcast

Every parent in Singapore thinks about it. Not everyone says it out loud.

The pressure our kids are under to perform, to get the grade, to stay ahead, starts earlier than most of us realise and shows up in ways we don't always recognise. A child reaching for the eraser to hide a mistake. A kid who looks fine on paper but is quietly falling apart inside.

Greg Wilde is Head of Primary at Sir Manasseh Meyer International School in Singapore, and before that led schools across China, Vietnam, the Philippines, and the UK. He's spent his career watching how pressure builds in children, and what actually helps.

In this conversation he gets specific: the language that quietly destroys confidence, why failure is a skill, and what you can change at home this week. This one is for the parent who wants their child to do well but isn't sure where encouragement ends and pressure begins.

Practical, honest, and genuinely useful. Press play.

Greg Wilde is Head of Primary at Sir Manasseh Meyer International School (SMMIS) in Singapore. He has led schools across the UK, China, Vietnam, and the Philippines and has spent his career building learning environments where mistakes are part of the process, not something to hide.

• Sir Manasseh Meyer International School: smmis.edu.sg

• Why the kids who look like they're coping are sometimes the ones who aren't
• The age pressure starts showing up in classrooms (it's younger than you think)
• Green for growth, pink for think: why Greg's school replaced red pen entirely
• The Power of Yet
• What to say when your child comes home with a bad grade (and what not to say)
• Why "you didn't try hard enough" quietly destroys confidence
• The one thing Greg would tell every Singapore parent to do this week

• 00:00 — Cold open
• 01:00 — Welcome to Growing Pains
• 02:00 — What fear of failure actually looks like in primary school
• 04:00 — The telltale signs parents should watch for at home
• 06:30 — Where the pressure is really coming from
• 09:00 — When pressure helps and when it starts doing damage
• 12:00 — The Power of Yet
• 14:30 — Green for growth, pink for think
• 17:30 — Participation awards: helpful or harmful?
• 20:00 — Is Singapore more high-pressure than other countries?
• 23:00 — How schools support anxious kids
• 26:00 — Social media and academic pressure
• 29:30 — AI in schools: where the line is
• 34:00 — The language that helps and the language that hurts
• 37:00 — Teaching failure as a skill
• 39:30 — Actionable things parents can do this week
• 42:00 — Quick fire
• 46:00 — Steph's three takeaways

Growing Pains is HoneyKids Asia's podcast for the conversations you want to have after the kids go to bed.

• YouTube: @growingpains.honeykids
• Instagram: @honeykidsasia
• Website: honeykidsasia.com

Hit subscribe so you don't miss an episode. If this one hit a nerve, send it to a parent who needs to hear it.

Growing Pains is produced in partnership with Poddster, Singapore's podcast studio.

Why Women Become Angry in Their 40s — And Why That's Not A Bad Thing

46% of women aged 40 to 54 face the highest burnout risk of any age group. More than half screen positive for depression and anxiety. Over 60% of later-life divorces are initiated by women.

In this conversation, Ange sits down with Amanda Lim and Jasmin Dhillon, hosts of The Forties Formula, who’ve had the conversations about “midlife” that most people still aren't having. Amanda is a Harvard-certified health coach and mum of three who had her third child at 41. Jasmin, is an Integrated Health Strategist who hit perimenopause at 36 after giving birth to her twins.

Together, they’ve spent years collecting stories and what they keep hearing, from hundreds of women, is the same thing: everyone thinks their experience is unique, everyone thinks something is wrong. The rage, the shame, the loneliness. Everyone thinks they're the only one. And the good news is, they're not.

They get down to raw and real emotions, talking about the anger that arrives in your 40s and what it's actually telling you. The rage is real, and it's not the same as stress. And it's not a breakdown either. They share stories of identity crisis, the fear that no one talks about, and what doctors don’t tell you about the changes in the body. Is it just age and can we do anything about it?

This is not the fabulous-at-forty version talk, but it might be the most useful conversation you’ll need in your 40s. Press play.

IN THIS EPISODE:

00:00 | Why Am I So Angry?

01:15 | The Conversation Every Mum Needs

02:17 | Meet the 40s Experts

03:24 | Nobody Warned Us: It’s Not Age!

04:13 | The Problem With "Midlife"

05:24 | Perimenopause at 36?!

06:28 | The Symptoms That Are Usually Missed

07:46 | Is Your Rage Actually Hormonal?

10:08 | The Identity Crisis No One Talks About

12:00 | Identity Synthesis vs Identity Replacement vs Identity Dissonance

13:49 | The Life-Changing Stove Analogy

14:40 | Why Women Leave Relationships After 20 Years

16:08 | Don't Wait Until It's Too Late

16:50 | Geriatric Pregnancy: Myth vs Reality

18:13 | The Fear Nobody Talks About

19:24 | Stop Surviving. Start Thriving.

21:35 | Your Kids Will Leave One Day

22:44 | What Your Doctor Isn’t Telling You

24:59 | The Impossible Standard for Women

27:02 | How to Find Your People Again

29:52 | The Truth Women Whisper In Safety

31:17 | Hot Takes on Aging & Menopause

33:07 | What Every Woman Should Remember

The Forties Formula is an award-winning podcast named Best Health and Wellness Podcast in Asia 2025 and featured by CNA as one of Singapore's best podcasts for women. It's hosted by Amanda Lim and Jasmin Dhillon, two health coaches and mothers who bring both personal experience and science-led insight to the conversations most people still aren't having about midlife. Amanda is a Harvard-certified health coach and Director of Singapore's first metabolic health clinic, where she and her physician husband co-manage patients through fitness and nutrition. Jasmin is an Integrated Health Strategist specialising in gut health, hormone balance, and sustainable nutrition for women in their 40s.

The Forties Formula: https://www.youtube.com/@thefortiesformula

Jasmin Dhillon: Eat with Jasmin

Amanda Lim: Lift Clinic

• Perimenopause can start at 36. Jasmin thought her symptoms (wrist pain, anxiety, heart palpitations, no sleep) were just because of her newborn twins. They weren't.
• The rage is hormonal, but not in the way you think. Dropping estrogen doesn't create new anger. It removes your ability to keep masking the feelings that were already there.
• Identity in your 40s doesn't have to mean replacement. Amanda's framework: synthesis, not dissonance. The burner analogy will stay with you.
• The mental load doesn't explode because women suddenly become unreasonable. It explodes because the hormones that helped us stay quiet stop doing that.
• Muscle will save you. Skeletal muscle and the functional strength to use it. Your GP probably hasn't said this clearly enough.
• Making friends in your 40s starts with knowing who you are first. Show up in places that reflect who you want to be, and stay long enough to become part of it.
• What you think is weird, shameful, or too lonely to say out loud, everyone else is feeling too. That's the whole point of this conversation.

Growing Pains is HoneyKids Asia's podcast for the conversations you want to have after the kids go to bed.

• YouTube: @growingpains.honeykids
• Instagram: @honeykidsasia
• Website: honeykidsasia.com

Hit subscribe so you don't miss an episode. If this one moved you, share it with a parent who needs to hear it.

Growing Pains is produced in partnership with Poddster, Singapore's podcast studio.

Dr. Elaine Kim spent years in palliative care sitting with people in the last days of their lives. What her patients kept saying at the end changed everything about how she thinks about the beginning.

By age seven, a child's trajectory is already largely set. 90% of brain development happens in the first five years. And 250 million children around the world never get access to quality early education during that window.

Elaine left medicine to do something about it. She built Trehaus, a preschool redefining early education in Singapore and Jakarta, and Little Lab, an AI powered platform bringing that same education to communities that have never had access to it, including 10,000 children in rural Pakistan. She is also a mum of four.

In this conversation we dive into the science of early brain development, what AI actually means for the skills our kids need, why empathy is not just a feeling but something that can be taught, and what it means to raise children for a world being reshaped by forces neither of us fully understand yet.

This one will stay with you. Press play.

Dr. Elaine Kim is a medical doctor, former palliative care physician, co-founder of Trehaus (Singapore and Jakarta) and Little Lab, an AI powered early education platform. She is a mum of four and a former UN ambassador for initiatives against the oppression of women.

• Treehaus: https://trehaus.co/
• Little Lab: littlelab.com

• Why a child's trajectory is largely predictable by age seven (and what that means for the years before school)
• The Nobel Prize winning economist's finding on early education RO
• What 250 million children not having access to a classroom actually costs the rest of the world
• Why empathy is a skill, not a sentiment, and how it can be deliberately taught
• The one question we should stop asking children (and what to ask instead)
• What dying patients kept wishing for at the end, and what Elaine decided to do with that
• Why female empowerment, to Elaine, now means something deeper than it used to

• 00:00 — Cold open
• 01:00 — Welcome to Growing Pains
• 02:40 — From palliative care to preschool: connecting the dots
• 04:50 — What the dying taught her about what matters
• 06:30 — Why a child's future is largely decided by age seven
• 09:10 — 250 million children, one window, and why it closes fast
• 11:00 — What Little Lab actually does (and why it is not replacing teachers)
• 16:50 — Raising kids for an AI world: what skills actually matter
• 23:10 — Why empathy is the most important thing above everything else
• 25:00 — The question we should stop asking children
• 27:55 — Climate, AI, and what they talk about at the dinner table
• 29:00 — How to hold the heaviness of the world for your kids without breaking
• 32:55 — What Elaine wants her daughter to know about being a woman
• 35:20 — Quick fire
• 37:28 — The reconciliation moment that got Steph in tears

Growing Pains is HoneyKids Asia's podcast for the conversations you want to have after the kids go to bed.

• YouTube: @growingpains.honeykids
• Instagram: @honeykidsasia
• Website: honeykidsasia.com

Hit subscribe so you don't miss an episode. If this one moved you, share it with a parent who needs to hear it.

Growing Pains is produced in partnership with Poddster, Singapore's podcast studio.

#EarlyChildhoodEducation #ParentingPodcast #BrainDevelopment #ChildDevelopment #EarlyLearning #AIinEducation #Empathy #ParentingTips #EducationInnovation #FutureOfEducation #RaisingKids #PreschoolEducation #DrElaineKim #Trehaus #LittleLab #GrowingPainsPodcast #HoneyKidsAsia #ParentingJourney #EducationForAll #Podcast

Most parents wait for belonging to happen. James Sweeney says that's exactly the problem.

James is the head of One World International School's Nanyang Campus, with students from over 70 nationalities. He's also spent his whole career watching children walk into rooms where they don't know anyone and figuring out how to make that okay.

In this conversation, he unpacks what schools that get this right actually do differently, what parents say on the hard nights that help versus hurt, and how to tell the difference between a rough week and something that needs action.

He also goes on record, carefully, about what school is actually for. And it is more than just grades.

"I don't think I fit in." Few things hit a parent harder than those words. This episode is the conversation to have before, during, or after your child says them.

James Sweeney has led schools across the UK, South Korea, China, and Singapore. He knows what belonging looks like when it's working, what it looks like when it isn't, and what the difference usually comes down to. Spoiler: it isn't luck, personality, or finding the right buddy on day one.

Steph brings her own experience too, moving to Singapore at 13, crying every day for months, and the buddy assigned to her who she didn't connect with at all.

James Sweeney is Head of One World International School, Nanyang Campus, Singapore, a school of over 70 nationalities built around a single core value: kindness. He began his career as an early years and primary school teacher in Birmingham and has since led schools in South Korea, China, and Singapore.

• One World International School: owis.org

• 00:00 — Cold open
• 02:30 — Belonging is by design, not luck
• 04:40 — How schools spot the child who is struggling
• 07:20 — What to say to your child that night
• 09:00 — Kindness across 70 nationalities: defining it when it means different things
• 12:00 — The quiet child who sang Japanese rock on stage
• 13:00 — When a best friend leaves: friendship grief is real
• 16:00 — The difference between a hard day and bullying
• 18:20 — What school is actually for (a Singapore school head goes on record)
• 22:00 — Rapid fire

Growing Pains is HoneyKids Asia's podcast for the conversations you want to have after the kids go to bed.

• YouTube: @growingpains.honeykids
• Instagram: @honeykidsasia
• Website: honeykidsasia.com

Hit subscribe so you don't miss an episode. If this one helped, send it to a parent in their first few weeks of new school fog. It might be exactly what they need.

Growing Pains is produced in partnership with Poddster, Singapore's podcast studio.

#GrowingPains #HoneyKidsAsia #JamesSweeney #OneWorldInternationalSchool #Parenting #ExpatParenting #SingaporeParenting #BelongingByDesign #SchoolTransition #ChildWellbeing #ParentingTips #KidsAndFriendships #SchoolLife #BackToSchool #RaisingKids

What do you do when everything falls apart at once and nobody's coming to save you?

Shireen Jones has lived a version of that question most of us can't imagine. She was one of Singapore's first 200 COVID-19 cases. She lost a nine-year teaching career weeks after discharge, for a reason that has to be heard to be believed. Then came a pregnancy that broke her, a baby who wouldn't stop crying for three months, and a comeback story she didn't see coming.

Chris sits down with the mum-of-one, content creator, and host of the Rawmama podcast for a conversation about survival, mom rage, broken systems, and the kind of advice every new parent actually needs but rarely gets.

Some weeks, motherhood is hard. Some weeks, life piles on so much that you genuinely wonder if you'll come out the other side. Shireen Jones has had a lot of those weeks and this conversation is what happens when you talk to someone who's lived through several at once and is willing to share the raw truth outloud.

She and Chris cover what it was actually like inside NCID as Singapore's COVID case #200, how systems and communities fail the people they're supposed to protect, the mental toll of a colicky newborn, and what helped her crawl back to herself.

(In partnership with Poddster)

Shireen Jones is a Singapore-based content creator, mum of one, and host of the Rawmama podcast. A teacher of nine years before motherhood, she now uses her platform to talk about parenting without a filter, the rage, the recovery, the dark comedy of it all.

• Instagram: @shireenbruha

• What 26 days inside NCID was actually like as one of Singapore's earliest COVID cases
• The real story behind Shireen's termination, and the ten months of job-hunting that followed
• Why community failure (not just system failure) is happening
• What infant colic genuinely looks like from the inside, and why most "quick fixes" don't work
• Shireen's 50,000-view rule for protecting her mental health from comment sections
• The postpartum symptoms nobody warned her about, including 18 months of night sweats she mistook for early menopause
• Why "trauma bonding" with other new mums creates friendships that last decades

00:00 | When everything falls apart

02:39 | 26 days trapped in a COVID hospital as Singapore's case #200

03:47 | Fired after COVID

06:15 | Broken systems

10:11 | Bedridden for nine months

12:11 | How a million-view Instagram started out of pure boredom

14:06 | Three months of colic

16:14 | When your husband goes back to work

17:05 | Trauma-bonding over newborns

18:51 | The postpartum symptom that nobody warns

20:18 | Advice for parents in their own crazy storm

23:26 | Any mom can be a content creator

25:06 | The one thing to whisper to yourself

26:07 | Three things to take away

Growing Pains is HoneyKids Asia's podcast for the conversations you want to have after the kids go to bed.

• YouTube: @growingpains.honeykids
• Instagram: @growingpains.honeykids
• Website: https://honeykidsasia.com/podcast/

Subscribe and hit the notification bell so you don't miss an episode.

If this one resonates, share it with a parent who needs to hear it.

Growing Pains is produced in partnership with Poddster, Singapore's podcast studio.

#ShireenRawMamaPodcast, #GrowingPainsPodcast, #HoneyKidsAsia, #SingaporeCOVIDStory, #InfantColic, #Postpartumdepression, #Traumabondingmotherhood, #NewMomMentalHealth, #ParentingPodcastSingapore, #MomBurnout, #MaternalRegret, #Momsbeinghonest

Welcome to Growing Pains by Honey Kids Asia! I'm Steph Dickson, a mother of one with another on the way, and this is the podcast for the conversations parents actually want to have.

We're diving into things like:

Am I accidentally gaslighting myself with my own beliefs?

Is telling my kids to "think positively" actually making things worse?

Why does my partner suddenly forget how the washing machine works?

And where exactly did I stop feeling like me? (And which kid is my favourite? Just kidding!)

This season, we've lined up incredible guests: a New York Times bestselling author who teaches us how to be indestructible, a psychologist who calls "happy wife, happy life" an emotional cage, an entrepreneur who puts 'woman first, mother second,' and a happiness scientist who will be the first to tell you that she's not happy all the time.

This podcast is no judgment, no fluff, just the real stuff. New episodes are coming weekly, so subscribe wherever you listen or watch, and we'll look forward to seeing you again soon.

#GrowingPainsPodcast #HoneyKidsAsia #ParentingConversations #ModernParenting #MotherhoodUnfiltered #MentalHealthInParenting #RealParentingTalks #WorkLifeBalance #ParentingJourney

From the workplace to our children’s schools, AI is gradually becoming the norm in our daily lives. But how young is too young for children to be using AI? Our latest episode of Parenting Playbook discusses the use of AI in preschool classrooms with Wu Jing, CEO and co-founder of House on the Hill. Jing will touch on the pros and cons of using AI in early childhood education, share best practices for doing so, and explore how AI can enhance rather than replace hands-on learning at this young age. She will provide insights from early childhood education and discuss how AI is connected to our daily lives, showing how we can better support children’s healthy growth and development.

Featured voices

• Syazana Hishamuddin, Editor, HoneyKids Asia and mother of three.
• Wu Jing, CEO and co-founder of House on the Hill and mother of two.

Visit the HoneyKids Asia website for more information on all things family fun, and join in on the conversation on Facebook or follow us on Instagram to keep up-to-date on our latest discussions.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas — and gift panic season is here! In this episode, Syaz and Andrina unwrap their favourite Christmas gift ideas for the whole family. From DIY craft kits and cuddly toys for the little ones, to gadgets and gift cards for teens, and spa-day treats and festive sleepwear for parents, they’ve got every name on your list covered (even dads!). Tune in to this fun chat with practical ideas, and a sprinkle of holiday humour with “Mini Mouth Moment”. Grab your hot chocolate and let the holiday shopping begin — merry, bright, and stress-free!

Time Codes:

03:35 - Gift ideas for children

05:00 - Gift ideas for teens

07:20 - Gift ideas for Mum or any tired parent!

09:25 - Gift ideas for Dad

10:10 - Gift ideas for the entire family

10:51 - Mini Mouth Moments of the week

Check out our full Christmas gift guide for the whole family and 40 of our favourite toy stores in Singapore!

Featured voices

• Syazana Hishamuddin, Editor, HoneyKids Asia and mother of three.
• Andrina Loo, lifestyle writer at HoneyKids Asia and mother of one.

Visit the HoneyKids Asia website for more information on all things family fun, and join in on the conversation on Facebook or follow us on Instagram to keep up-to-date on our latest discussions.