An interview with Mothercare Extraordinaire Shuxin Pang

Parenting through normal life has seen some wonderful yet frustrating times, however parenting through the uncertainty of COVID-19 has taken everything to a new level! Mothercare Extraordinaire Shuxin Pang shares her experience of how she is making the best use of her time with her children learning and enjoying life with all the amazing twists and turns…

Shuxin is the Executive Director of Mothercare Singapore and a mother to four adorable children. Mothercare opened its store in 1984 and has since grown to many stores island wide. It boasts one of the largest range of baby equipment in Singapore and has a growing online presence. We are excited to hear from Shuxin and her endeavours on being a working mum during this busy season in her life.

What does your role encompass as the Executive Director of Mothercare?
I oversee the part of the business that does the creation of private labels that include loveamme, mimosa and snapkis.

What do you love about your work?
There are so many things to love and appreciate about my work but I will keep it to first three that come to mind.
1. Working with my siblings and my father (it’s got its pros and cons but ultimately we all have a shared passion for the business)
2. Working with my team where many have become like family
3. It gives me another focus other than being a wife and a mother to my kids

How do you juggle having a young family of four children while working?
My role allows me to have flexible work hours. Besides that, my husband is very hands on and we live with his parents so we have their occasional help. Plus I have 2 live-in helpers. All this helps me be more successful in the various roles that I play.

What does your family do for fun (prior to covid-19)?
We used to hang out a lot with our church friends (Saturdays and Sundays!) and do life together. The adults fellowship and the kids play, and we have meals together. That used to form a big bulk of our family time.

You have recently purchased 10 DWB learning resources – how have you found them?  Have you seen a difference in the way your children are learning with the guided materials? 
I loved the material and it allowed me insight into how to make otherwise boring and mundane topics be more interesting.
I particularly enjoy that each topic is explained with videos, followed by a craft to reinforce the learning and than a problem is posed where they need to come up with a solution. During the circuit breaker in Singapore when I had to homeschool them, I took this methodology of teaching to extend it to other topics that I wanted them to learn. I find this 3 step approach of teaching on each topic useful in helping them make sense of the topic on how it applies to themselves or in real life scenarios.

Do you have any advice for families wanting to create fun learning activities together?
I would advise them to purchase the DWB resources 🙂
It’s a great spring board to allow your kids a broader perspective on current topics.