The Boy Who Loved Hiding Under His Mom's Skirt

Friday 29th August 2025

Today, it's back to making a tribute to the string-pulling, super-protective mom of mine.

I recall that sometime in 1987, a girl from Paya Lebar's Methodist Youth Fellowship asked me this question, "If you had to choose between a girl and your mom, whom would you choose." I answered matter-of-factly, "My mom." In other words, my mom would have to approve of the girl I would eventually marry.

When I was in Sec 4, my cousin Bernard introduced me to a friend of his who was only 13 years old. She claimed to have a boyfriend who was 21 years old,  yet she would call me practically every afternoon. 

Initially, I was flattered but after about two weeks or so, I was getting a bit weary but was too polite to know how to hang up on her. My mom came to my rescue by picking up the landline extension and shouted to her, "Hello, can you stop calling my son? He needs to study for his exams!"

That was the last time she called, haha.

Anyway, back to that girl from the MYF.  She would subsequently accuse me of being a "mummy's boy" who enjoyed "hiding under his mom's skirt". Although she meant it as an insult, I took it to be the best compliment ever. Anytime I needed to get out of a sticky situation, all I needed to do was to play the Mummy card :-)

Which brings me to another incident where my mom took matters into her own hands.  I had joined the PLMC Choir just before going to university, and discovered that a fellow choir-mate was also going to study Accountancy, so we agreed to be hostel roommates and applied together (first-year freshies are guaranteed a place in a hostel).

A week before term started, we arranged a day to move our stuff in. Mom kindly allowed me to borrow her car to use and I offered to give my roommate a ride to campus too.  He was staying somewhere near Punggol and I was fine to go to his house to pick him up.

However, my mom was not. I know not how but she called him on his landline to tell him in no uncertain terms that he was taking advantage of her precious son!!! She said I was already doing him a favour to fetch him all the way to NTU, and that he should not expect me to chauffeur him from his doorstep!!!

The compromise? She asked him to find his way to PLMC for me to pick him. In the car, my roommate told me, "Wah lau eh. Your mom scolded me. A church leader's wife should not behave like that."

Needless to say, he no longer was my roommate in our 2nd and 3rd years, and my mom was only too happy to see the back of him. I got to know this other course mate in NTU's Christian Fellowship and we became roommates. He happened to drive to campus and stayed in Seletar Hills, so I ended up being on the receiving end of free rides home every weekend haha.

I have also mentioned in an earlier post how I backslid very badly in my early teens and re-dedicated myself to God during a joint Sunday School-MYF camp in 1987. I told God that I would "make it up to Him" so the only CCA I took seriously on campus was the Christian Fellowship. In fact, during Freshmen's Orientation, it was the only booth that I specifically looked out for.

A glance at my CCA transcript bears that out.

Unlike Students Union, Sports or JCRC activities, religious organisations like the CF was considered "non-core", so even being a Committee member earned one very few points.  Needless to say, I did not garner enough CCA points to qualify to get into any Hall of Residence.

And that's when my string-pulling mom saved the day again. Through her Methodist connections, she knew the LCEC Chairman of Ang Mo Kio Methodist Church, Mr Ling Sing Wong.

Mr Ling happened to be the Registrar of NTU back then. He told my mom to ask me to write a letter of appeal, saying that I stay very far from campus etc etc. And as it turned out, my appeal letters for the 2nd and 3rd years happened to both be successful and I secured a place in Hall 3 accordingly :-)

So how did this mummy's boy finally manage to cut the proverbial apron strings, one might ask? 

Looking back, all credit has to go to God alone. With Him all things are possible. It has to do with His perfect timing and plan.

In 1999, the Handover of Hong Kong from UK to China took place.

7 years before that, a more significant handover took place. Mine. From the woman who gave birth to me, to the woman who gave birth to our kids.

Stay tuned as I uncover the events leading up to 21 November 1992.