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SRI Temasek is the official residence of the Prime Minister and when Mr Lee Kuan Yew assumed the post 50 years ago, he and his wife took their three young children there to play.
The bungalow in the Istana is on high ground, and the ball their sons and daughter were playing with rolled down the slope.
'The butler ran 50 or 60 yards to pick up the ball and bring it back,' recalled the Minister Mentor last night.
'My wife and I watched that and said, 'No, no, if we stay here for five years, my children will grow up believing that life is like that, that somebody will always pick up balls for them,' he said. 'So we stayed at home (in Oxley Road) and I think that's been good for them.'
Mr Lee related this anecdote at a university forum, to show how he and Mrs Lee made sure their children grew up self-reliant.
However, his grandchildren were growing up much more comfortably, MM said. 'That is the problem we face today' - many parents understand what it is to be poor, but their children do not, he added.
Read the full story in Tuesday's edition of The Straits Times.
