Honouring your parents doesn’t mean abandoning yourself. “You should be grateful for your parents.” “They uprooted their entire lives for you. “They did the best they could.” “They didn’t know any better.” “They sacrificed everything for you.” I’ve heard those phrases more times than I can count. And while yes, Read more…
There’s more to education than straight A’s and gold stars. I was raised to believe that education was everything. Get good grades. Go to a good school. Land a good job. I was set to live a good life. And if you weren’t at the top of your class?Well… you were Read more…
When caring too much about what others think becomes a form of self-abandonment. I used to think that if people didn’t like me, I was doing something wrong. I needed to do everything in my power to get them to like me…to right my wrongs and prove to them I Read more…
I grew up thinking gossip meant power. I was wrong. I’ll be honest — I used to think gossip made me special. And gossip, I mean information that is juicy, nasty, and exaggerated. It’s the truth bent for the sake of being dramatic, not for the intention of supporting the person being gossiped Read more…
I wasn’t raised to know my worth - I was raised to rank it. Perfectionism doesn’t just show up in how we treat ourselves — it shows up in how we compare ourselves to others. As a recovering perfectionist, I know what it feels like to spiral when I think someone else is “doing better.” Read more…
Survival doesn’t equal thriving, and our kids deserve more than that. Not long ago, another mom asked if I was planning to enroll my kid in math tutoring, French classes, music lessons, martial arts, soccer…you know — the full litany of extracurriculars. I smiled politely and said, “Actually, I was that kid.” The Read more…
Age doesn’t automatically come with insight. Let’s talk about that. “Respect your elders.”We all heard that growing up. “They survived this long — they must know something.”“They’ve seen more than you.”“Don’t talk back.”“Don’t be disrespectful.” And listen, I get it.The idea behind it — honoring the people who came before us — isn’t a bad one.But let’s Read more…
Real talk about Asian parents and power dynamics If you haven’t grabbed your copy of my How to Deal with Asian Parents Workbook yet, I wanted to share another reason why I created it: To help us unpack the power dynamics that often go unspoken — but are deeply felt. One of the Read more…
“What if I don’t wanna deal with them?” Here’s my honest answer. I’m excited (and a little nervous!) to share that the How to Deal with Asian Parents Workbook is officially published! This workbook is a deeply personal follow-up to my original book, built around the same five-step framework — but now with Read more…
Helping my parents with one form almost made me lose my cool… but I didn’t. Recently, I was helping my mom fill out some medical paperwork. Simple task, right? Wrong. Because the form was in my dad’s email. And they use his email address even though she has one because she Read more…