Melissa Seow with Marissa, Kimmie and Arianna Tan W

hen we step into Melissa Seow’s household, the ambience is positively chirpy. The six-year-old triplets—marissa, Kimmie and Arianna—are bouncing from foot to foot, thrilled to show every guest their most prized possessions. As they babble on about shiny princess tiaras and My Little Pony, as well as the many masterpieces Kimmie, ‘the artist’ among the three, has drawn, we cannot help but to imagine how much fun (and mayhem) it must be to be a mother of multiples. “They sure have inherited their daddy’s love for talking. He is an entrepreneurial speaker,” Melissa laughs by way of explaining. The trio had been conceived with the help of IVF technology, and while her husband Vince Tan and herself had anticipated a chance of a multiple births, they figured it would be twins, not triplets. “We got extremely excited but at the same time, anxious and worried,” she recalls. Nevertheless, being the optimists that they are, they decided to take it all in their stride. Ample homework was done in preparation of this high-risk pregnancy, as they tracked down as many triplet parents as they could locally. “All of them were very kind enough to let us interview them. Besides that, we also did a lot of reading through books and online. Technology is really amazing in the 21st century, helping us to communicate and learn more efficiently.” But they soon realised that no amount of groundwork could have fully equipped them for the day when they are finally outnumbered. Despite all the measures taken, the early months of (triplet-style) parenthood still caught them off-guard. “One word: zombified,” Melissa describes. “There was me, my husband, the confinement lady and both our mothers, yet it still felt like we didn’t have enough hands to go around. And the feeding sessions were seemingly neverending, as the first baby would get hungry again after I was done feeding the third. The cycle just went on and on.” Naturally, it was a messy process but Melissa would not have it any other way. The winner of Mrs Borneo World 2017 asserts that ‘mother’ is the best title she has ever carried. The immense responsibilities that come with it have only widened her horizon and spurred her on to be so much more. “The girls taught me to multitask: being a nutritionist, cook, doctor, financial provider, educator... the list goes on. These are what mothers do.” And Melissa is taking it one step further this year, launching her eponymous digital coaching and consultancy service platform. In all she does, she hopes to empower women worldwide and ultimately her own daughters. “As parents, we hope that they will be able to happily pursue their passions, live to the fullest and contribute to society. And it is our role to teach them that nothing is impossible.”