Diane Ong, owner of Chipta11a and Awesome Canteen
OVER 10 years ago, Diane Ong opened her first restaurant Awesome Canteen on a whim, having worked in a design firm before that. As she was both the chef and owner, her time was limited and she says that her two children were immediately affected by her absence on the home front.
“I went into the industry not knowing the nature of F&B. It was very, very long hours and my kids were 11 and 12 at the time. So they were very young and suddenly I was really stripped of the time I was spending with them. Every day, my day started at 8am and ended at 12am so it was a horrendous time as a mother.
“The only day I had free was Monday when the restaurant was closed but my kids were at school so I barely had any time with them. So what happened was my children had to come to the restaurant and have their meals there so they could spend time with me and watch me work in the kitchen.
“It was exhilarating to be involved in F&B and very fulfilling to feed people but also emotionally draining not to have much time for my kids,” says Ong.
Fast forward 10 years later and things are drastically different. Ong is now remarried to Chipta11a’s chef-owner Jack Weldie, which means she no longer needs to be in the kitchen and has instead taken on a more managerial role.
This – in turn – has given her more time with her kids. Except they are no longer kids now. Her special needs son Ryan Kobe Chang Kai Wen is now 22 while her daughter Hayley Chang Wei Yi is now 20 and studying overseas.
“Many years later, I wanted to assume a lesser role so I started doing more management work. This opened up so much more time for me, and I now enjoy more flexibility so I have made up for lost time with my kids, but they have already grown up, so those vital years have gone and they are very independent,” she says.
Ong says the silver lining to those years that she didn’t get to spend as much time with her kids is that her daughter especially is very independent and self-sufficient and has even developed a strong business sense from watching her at work. “There were downsides to starting a restaurant – my kids wanted attention and were perpetually on the phone asking wheni was coming home. At one point, I was constantly on video calls with them.
“But the high side of things is that they actually learnt good traits just by watching their mother work so hard. When my daughter was 11, she volunteered to be a cashier or wash plates so she could have more time with me.
“By the time she was 16, she had started her own secondhand clothes business. It was mind-boggling to me at first but then I realised she had already been exposed to this at a very young age and wasn’t afraid of strangers or dealing with money. So these are things we can impart if we allow our children to work alongside us,” says Ong.
On the flip side though, Ong says she does have some regrets about not spending enough time with her children when they were younger, but believes this is something all working mothers face on a daily basis.
“Yes, I think honestly, nothing is ever worth your time with your kids. If I could turn back the clock, I would have opted for something else. I think for a lot of working mothers, it is a battle in their heads – do I choose my career or children?” she says.