Nonetheless, for the following couple of years, Ong continued to be in a state of burnout. “At work, I found myself staring at my computer screen, questioning what I was carrying out. Sometimes, I would feel overwhelmed and cry quietly at my cubicle, ” she said.
Ong did not suspect postnatal depression at that point. It had been only on hindsight that she recognised many of its signs and symptoms.
The girl gut instincts told her that she needed a fresh start doing something different. So when the girl found out that the proprietor of her children’s preschool wanted to stop working and was looking for a successor, she leaped at the opportunity.
“I love the family-like ambience at Children and Kins, plus always had an curiosity about nurturing young children, ” she explained. “But when I met who owns the centre and we started coming down to dollars and pennies, I almost backed out because I used to be worried I might not need the financial means and practical experience to pull it off, ” she admitted.
Because of her close relationship with the school as a parent, the proprietor unexpectedly gave Ong a 50 % discount off the original sale price and taught her tips on how to run the business. This particular emboldened Ong to resign from her job as senior scientist and plunge into early child years education in 2019.
RECLAIMING A PIECE OF HER CHILDHOOD
Ong and her husband emptied their own savings to buy over the business and Ong took a huge pay out cut.
When she first took over, enrolment on the centre was from 30 per cent of full capacity, with only 20 to 30 children in total. A year later, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Ong worried the business enterprise would fold.