Brit becomes S'pore PR to save on school fees, son tells him: 'Dad, I hate you, you made me do NS'
A British father became a Singapore permanent resident (PR) to save on school fees for his three children, forcing his eldest son to do national service (NS) and resenting him for it.
But the young man would be grateful for the experience later.
Mr Brian Kennett, who moved to Singapore 17 years ago, revealed this about his son in a video posted by Singapore-based Russian YouTuber Max Chernov on Nov 16, 2023.
On Sept 18, 2025, the content creator posted a re-edited shorter eight-minute version of his interview with Mr Kennett with the title: "My son hated me for making him Singapore PR (Brit POV)."
In the video, Mr Kennett, who has a Filipina wife, said he applied for Singapore permanent residence for his family so that his kids can go a local school instead of an international school.
"My eldest was like 'Dad, I hate you. You made me do national service'," recounted the Brit.
"So I had to donate my firstborn son to the Singaporean Government to save money on schooling. But you know, three kids here, $90,000 (for international school). Sorry, I don't have that. Not going to happen.
"So we move or we stay? If we stay, sorry, mate you're doing two years' national service."
But there was a twist.
His son was posted to the Music and Drama Company during NS from 2020 to 2022, starting out as an emcee artiste before becoming an artiste trainer and manager.
Mr Kennet continued: "Funny enough, you know, he came out of national service going, 'You know, you were right. I learnt a lot.'
"He went to Sota (School of the Arts Singapore). That was his local school. He's a bit of an actor. He did a feature film...
"He goes into the army and they put him into a unit which was all around public speaking.. That's kind of what he learnt at Sota and then he took that into the army and has now taken it into his future business career which is organisational change through people management-type thing."
"So now he's actually saying, 'Thanks, dad, you were right.'
"When we were like boom, boom, boom for a while, you know, like 'Why you've done this to me. I hate you.'
"Now he's thanking me."
Later in the video, the father praised local schools as "exceptional" and said that many teachers in the international school system were "here on a two-year holiday".
He noticed that local schools gave a lot more homework than international schools.
Mr Kennett said: "There's much more diligence associated to learning and and homework...
"Whereas in international school, it was kind of like the teachers are on holiday as much as you are. So they don't want to be marking stuff."
