It is almost a genetic code written into humankind. That mother-in-law and daughter-in-law never shall coexist harmoniously, for as long as they both shall live. To be a superwife, supermom AND a super daughter-in-law – now that is just pushing it. Yet surely, there must be a way to ensure that the man caught in the drama of it all – your husband, her son – is spared the trauma of being sandwiched between the two women he loves? Nanz Inc takes a stab at navigating this age-old minefield. By: Audra Lim The stories are plentiful. One mother-in-law...

Many Singaporean families rely on domestic helpers to care for the elderly and young, as well as handling the housekeeping chores. As an employer of a foreign domestic worker, are you doing your part to ensure a pleasant working relationship with her and helping her adjust to her work life and environment? NanzInc explores how to be a better boss. By Lianne Ong In Singapore, there are about 170,000 foreign domestic workers, or domestic helpers, and these numbers have steadily risen year on year. That amounts to one domestic worker in every six...

Taking a roadtrip with friends while on a holiday is an adventurous and exciting concept – windows down, wind in your hair, discovering new, unexpected terrain in your own terms. However, roadtrips can also severely test a friendship – arguments about directions and what music to play are just the beginning. How do you ensure that your relationships make it though to the end of the journey? By: Sharlene Tan It’s been said that you don’t really know someone until you travel with them. So before you hop into the cramped confines of a car...

Thinking of having dinner with your ex? Or is being a virtual “friend” more than enough? Or is it best to have nothing to do with him? Take stock of your own feelings and those of your present partner before making plans to keep in touch with the past. By: Ng Lin-Li   There are differing schools of thought when it comes to keeping in touch with your past loves of your life. After all, not all ex-relationships are horror stories. Some come to an end in a mature fashion with little fighting or sobbing, for example, the scenario where there...

It is 3am in the morning and the baby is crying. Chances are, Mummy would be the one to have to wake up and coax baby back to sleep. Because Daddy has to work the next day. Do mothers always have to do more than fathers? By: Audra Lim The to-do list for the day is already spilling off the page: wash the baby’s clothes, make her porridge, reply to client’s email, change baby’s diapers, potty train her, write proposal, mop the floor, read to baby, put her to nap twice, soothe her when she cries, call up friend to postpone meet-up for the umpteenth...

In Singapore, the practice of co-sleeping with the kids – in this case, letting kids sleep in the parents’ bed, or in their bedroom, is more common than one would think, and not always due to space constraints. It may be common for Asian parents but it may not be the healthiest thing for parents or child. Nanz Inc speaks to parents to understand their sleep habits and how some parents have successfully transitioned their kids to their own room. By Lianne Ong When a couple has their first child, they are often unsure about the sleeping arrangements...

Have you hooked up with an old flame on Facebook? Deleting spicy emails from your colleague? Or is your husband addicted to internet pornography? It’s not “just an online thing”. Internet indiscretions can cause severe problems in your marriage. By: Melanie Lee Surfing pornographic websites or flirting with strangers in chat rooms may not be a big deal to many men – after all, such interactions aren’t “real”. However, Chong Cheh Hoon, Certified Counsellor from Focus on the Family , states that this seemingly harmless...

  With piles of laundry, screaming kids and office politics to deal with, a date may be the last thing on your mind – after all, don’t passionate candlelit dinners go extinct after a few years of marriage? Absolutely not, according to psychologist Daniel Koh of Insights Mind Centre, who believes that “married dating” is important for survival of the relationship. We get Anna Lim, who has been married to her husband Eric for 34 years, to show that dating for a lifetime is entirely possible. By: Melanie Lee “If a marriage becomes stagnant...

The heat (or lack thereof) in the bedroom has sometimes been said to be one of the key performance indicators of how healthy a marriage is. Is sexual intimacy really that vital in protecting your marriage? By: Audra Lim For many married couples, sex used to be great … until the first child came along and problems with the in-laws slowly but surely drove a wedge between them. Serene*, then 30, was getting frustrated at the lack of support from her husband, their lackluster sex life, and was disappointed with how her life had turned out. The...

EPISODE 3: So you’ve had that fairytale wedding and a fabulous honeymoon, but now reality hits hard as you make that transition from boyfriend and girlfriend to husband and wife. Can you make it work? By: Sharlene Tan It’s been said that the first year of marriage is the hardest to get through. In the UK, 10% of divorces occurred during the second year of marriage, according to a report from The Telegraph in late 2008. Miriam Arond, author of The First Year of Marriage: What to Expect, What to Accept, and What You Can Change, observed that...