LATE last year, after arriving home from a working trip, Kee Jon-Tjin was looking forward to some much needed sleep, when his wife, Jeanine Liew, 30, surprised him with the news that she was pregnant.
After that, sleep never came for Kee, 30.
“We’ve been married for three-and-a-half years, and were planning to start a family. But I didn’t expect it to happen so soon! To be honest I was in shock, and then denial.
“My mind was racing and the image of my brand new Mini Cooper S (which he’d bought just a month earlier) came to mind. I thought, that’s definitely not a family car. Later, I found out that it is equipped for a baby seat in the back!”
Kee, senior consultant for a digital marketing solutions company, says the number one thing he keeps hearing from friends who have children is sleep deprivation. They good-naturedly advise him to enjoy the honeymoon years, as “everything changes when a child arrives”.
To date, his only interaction with children has been through church activities. “I love children between two and three, when they are so receptive. But whenever they start bawling, I hand them back to their parents. Now, that’s not something I can do with my own kid!
“Being a father basically means having to grow up. All this while I’m just looking after my wife and myself. Now there is another little human being in my care, so that is scary,” says Kee, the oldest of three offspring.
His father, Datuk Kee Sue Sing, 59,was director-general of the Chemistry Department He was also a non-salaried pastor for his church.
Kee points out that his dad never knew his own father as the latter died when he was only seven. “It’s remarkable how he turned out to be a great role model for us when he didn’t have someone to learn from.”
“Dad used to do marriage counselling at church, so we learnt a lot about the realities of marriage and what it takes for it to nose-dive or thrive.
“I believe that I married young, at 26, because I learnt to be confident and comfortable, having seen my parents’ marriage as a role model.”
With dad a civil servant, the family wasn’t financially well off, but “dad sacrificed a lot and wasn’t a spendthrift”. That enabled him and his siblings to study abroad.
Apart from making sacrifices, Kee says one of the things he would like to do with his own family is to observe certain traditions.
“Something like having dinner with the family regularly – without watching TV or other distractions – and making time to go on family holidays to connect with each other. Like what my parents did for us.”.
Being the typical Asian father, “dad wanted me to excel in what he thought was best – something in the science field. But I’m more of an arts person.”
Now that he is going to be a dad himself, Kee says he “won’t force something that is not right on my kids. I will find out what their passions are or what makes them truly happy.
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