Here's how a typical Singaporean mum defines 'happiness'

Her values are entirely different from the rest of the world.

Here's an excerpt from a recent study by McCann titled "Truth About Asian Women".

Sometimes, the stereotypes are just true. When asked what it takes to be a good mother, nearly 30% of Chinese mothers agree with “she pushes her children to be the best they can be” compared with just 9% of mums globally. Indian mothers were the most likely to say that “she wants to give her children a better life than she had” and Japanese mothers were the most likely to say “she always puts her children before herself”.

It is also true that mothers want their children to be happy. We asked mums around the world to trade off what was more important for their children, the factors being ‘happy’, ‘successful’ or ‘rich’. The global average was 83% saying ‘happy’ mattered most. But in China and India, that number fell to 75% and 50% respectively as the importance of ‘successful’ rose. As one Indian mum put it, ‘you can’t be really happy without some success’. The challenge for today’s Asian mum is ensuring that they are doing everything they can to see their family succeed in an aggressive world.
 

In Singapore, mums also wish happiness for their children. But their definition of ‘happiness’ is slightly different. While global mums wish to instill their children with values such as ‘respectful’, ‘honest’ and ‘smart’ to become happy, Singaporean mums value “happiness through success” as one of the most important factors.

The reason why Singaporean mums have values that are different from the rest of the world is an
economic one. When the global recession hit the world in 2008, Singapore stayed almost unaffected
by the global recession. While the rest of the world had difficulty recovering, Singaporean mums
continued living in a resilient economy which maintained strong aspirations for financial success
driven by the belief in the 5 Cs (Car, Cash, Credit Card, Condominium and Country Club).
 

In Asia, the ‘tiger mum’ stereotype certainly holds true. When we asked mums what their dream
app would be, the most popular globally was a ‘time traveller’ that would help sort busy schedules.
Chinese mums liked that but their preferred app would be one that acted as a taxi to get their child
to all after-school activities efficiently and more.