By Playeum It began with a doorstep conversation. In May last year, during an evening house visit at Sin Ming Garden, Elysa Chen, Member of Parliament for Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC, met a stay-home mum who spoke about indoor parent-child centres she had seen in Taiwan, places where families could simply show up and let their children play in a safe, welcoming environment.  Then came a hopeful question: could something like that exist in Bishan? The idea lingered. Soon after, Elysa

By Playeum In the time it takes a child to build a tower with blocks, a toddler today can scroll through dozens of videos on a tablet. In Singapore, young children spend an average of 2.5 hours daily on screens (Chen et al., 2020), while teenagers can spend up to 8.5 hours immersed in digital worlds (Anand & Tang, 2025). Screens may entertain, but they cannot replicate the sensory, physical, and social experiences that hands-on play offers. Research shows that excessive scree