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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.
What you’ll take away
- 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
About Greg Wilde
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.
Learn more about Sir Manasseh Meyer International School
Growing Pains is HoneyKids Asia’s podcast for the conversations you want to have after the kids go to bed.
If this one moved you, share it with a parent who needs to hear it. Or send your feedback and topic suggestions to podcast@honeykidsasia.com — we’d love to hear what you’d like us to talk about next.
Growing Pains is produced in partnership with Poddster, Singapore’s podcast studio.
