by Melody Tan | 15 May 2025 | The camera operator turned to me. “This, right here, is church,” he declared. We were sitting at the outside area of a shopping mall, watching a group of women interact. Among them was a recent immigrant who had her first child not long after arriving, without any […]
by Melody Tan | 16 April 2025 | I heard the story of a Rwandan pastor who survived his country’s genocide back in 1994. He and some of his church members were having a small group meeting at home when they were rounded up by the Hutus. Forced on their knees in the front yard, […]
by Melody Tan | 13 March 2025 | My son used to take offense to Cyndi Lauper’s 1980s hit, “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.” This, coming from a then-four- or five-year-old: “Are girls the only ones who can have fun? What about the boys?” he would say. As he got older and exposed to […]
by Melody Tan | 12 February 2025 | There is a lot of control involved when it comes to parenting. Born as helpless babes, parents have full control over how our children live, what they wear, what they eat, the toys they play with . . . . the list goes on. Sure, at around […]
by Melody Tan | 8 January 2025 | Created more than 10 years ago, the subreddit abbreviated to AITA has some 23 million members at the time of writing. I won’t explain precisely what AITA stands for, due to its questionable language, but it could be paraphrased to say, “Am I The Jerk?” The AITA […]
by Melody Tan | 12 December 2024 | Growing up, Enid Blyton was my favorite author. The Faraway Tree series will forever hold a special place in my heart. I loved good-natured Moon-Face, sweet Silky, and even silly old Saucepan Man. I dreamed of being the children’s cousin, entering the Enchanted Forest with its trees […]
by Melody Tan | 13 November 2024 | There’s a lot happening in the world right now that isn’t right. Russia. Ukraine. Israel. Palestine. Lebanon. Cost of living. (To name a few.) I first started writing about parenting issues back around 2016 when I, well, gave birth to my qualifications. While I only had a […]
The Pleasant Valley Seventh-day Adventist Church has revolutionized its ministry to young parents by introducing a groundbreaking “Parent Sermon Summary Service” (PSSS), designed specifically for adults who spend their Sabbath mornings in a complex dance of child management rather than sermon absorption. “We realized that most parents haven’t heard a complete sermon since their firstborn’s […]
by Melody Tan | 23 October 2024 | Saturday—Sabbath—mornings are often chaotic in our household. Sure, we all get to enjoy a little bit of a sleep-in because we don’t have to leave the house as early as we normally do on a weekday, but it’s all systems go, shortly after waking. After a leisurely […]
by Melody Tan | 11 September 2024 | Humankind wanting to know “why?” is the reason we know about things such as gravitational forces (“Why does an apple fall to the ground and not up?”) and the structure of the atom (“Why do materials have different properties?”). Our natural curiosity has led us to make […]
by Melody Tan | 12 June 2024 | As a Seventh-day Adventist Christian, married to a Seventh-day Adventist husband, we are raising our child exposed to Seventh-day Adventist beliefs and practices. My seven-year-old son currently believes in Jesus, regularly attends church with us, and always says a prayer before tucking into his vegetarian meal. I […]
by: Melody Tan | 8 May 2024 | We all love labels. Labels help us categorize things, help us make sense of things, help us put things neatly into a box. Extroverts, introverts. Shy, confident. Athletic, nerdy. Just some of the labels we use to describe ourselves or others. Then there are generational labels. Baby […]