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Electric New PaperI was a runaway kid!Jaime didn't return home for 8 years.
Mum sets 11pm curfew. She rebels by running away.
By Tan Mae Lynn
October 09, 2005 
WHENEVER former Miss Singapore Universe 2001 Jaime Teo reads or hears of runaway teens, she reacts with a mix of sadness and regret.
And she has been feeling that way more frequently lately because of the spate of runaway teens in the news.
Their stories bring back memories of the days when she, too, was a runaway kid.
Her escapade was no fun.
She can't help but think to herself when an appeal goes out for a runaway to return: 'If only they know what they're getting themselves into.'
As a teenager, she had a strained relationship with her mother. Quarrels were frequent.
It all came to a head when, at 17, she ran away from home.
She stayed away for almost eight years.
Fortunately though, Jaime, whose parents divorced before she was a year old, managed to reconcile with her mother after about a year.
But she stayed away from her mother even though their relationship slowly improved.
Now 28, she's back home with her and their relationship has never been better.
NOT WORTH IT Jaime said the experience of being away from home was not pleasant. It could easily have been avoided.
Jaime, who has an elder sister, told The New Paper: 'My mum was very strict with us and she imposed curfew... At that time, it was all about me wanting to go out and have fun and she wanting me to be home.
'I wanted to be out partying. When you're out partying so much, you can't get up for school.'
One of her favourite hangouts was Zouk, where she'd dance the night away with her secondary school friends from St Anthony's Canossian Convent.
Even though her playful ways had affected her school-work, she didn't think it was a serious matter. She then went on to Serangoon Junior College.
Jaime recalled: 'Once, my mum set a curfew and said I must be home by 11pm. I came home exactly at 11pm, only to see her angry. She said: 'Why must you come back precisely at the last minute?'
'I think it was after that I just decided to leave home.'
Jaime ran over to her friend's flat in a neighbouring block where she was to stay for almost two years.
She said her friend's family did not mind because it was better than having her run away again.
She switched from JC to complete her studies at Ngee Ann Polytechnic. She then got a job as a sales executive and found a place of her own.
While she refused to speak to her mother for a year after leaving home, Jaime kept in contact with her elder sister, Angie, and some relatives.
IGNORED MUM AT BUS-STOPThrough them, her mother knew where she was staying and how she was doing.
Her grandmother also showed up at her friend's place once, to try and persuade her to go home. But, still unhappy with having to live with her mother's rules, Jaime refused.
One day, she bumped into her mother at the bus-stop.
'I was walking to the MRT station past the bus-stop and my mum was there. I saw her and she saw me,' she said.
'Both of us knew we saw each other, but I just ignored her... At that time, I think both of us were still very angry with each other, and we're both very headstrong.'
When Jaime left home, she was still studying computer science at Ngee Ann. She worked as a waitress after school to make ends meet.
Reconciliation with her mother was a slow process.
After a year away from home, Jaime visited her mum during Chinese New Year. From then, she made peace and slowly began the process of mending the relationship.
Jaime said she didn't want to move back home so soon because the wounds were only beginning to heal. She felt it would be better to take things slowly.
On hindsight and with wisdom that comes with growing up, she said she understands now why her mother was strict.
She said: 'Our relationship now has moved to a different level. I didn't see this side of her when I was younger.
'And she couldn't show this side of herself too because she's a single parent, she had to take on both roles as mother and father while trying to make ends meet.'
HEARTACHE Jaime believes that their close relationship now could have been achieved without all the stress and heartache she put her family and herself through.
'It's an experience that's still painful when I think about it... I still could have got to where I am now without all of that,' she said.
Tough for mum: I blamed myself Tough for runaway: I had to juggle school and workSHE ran away to be free. Free from her mother's restrictive rules.
But what Jaime Teo found out was that life away from home was no bed of roses. She hardly had any time for herself and had to struggle with studies and a part-time job to keep body and soul together.
After school, she would rush to work in a restaurant in Clark Quay. She needed the job to pay for food and transport.
The job, which paid $7 an hour, barely covered her daily expenses. She worked about four to five hours a night, knocking off at midnight. She said: 'I remember being very tired all the time.'
During the school holidays, she would work full-time as a receptionist at an architectural firm and earn about $1,500 a month to pay her school fees.
While her schoolmates and friends were enjoying their school holidays, Jaime worked through the vacation period.
'It was very hard trying to manage studying full-time and working part-time,' she said. 'My attendance in school was really bad, I nearly dropped out of the poly in the final year.'
But, Jaime said, with help and encouragement from her friends, she managed to pull through school. After working late nights she often couldn't wake up in time for school.
Her friends pushed her, even making wake-up phonecalls.
Tough for mum: I blamed myself Tough for runaway: I had to juggle school and work
SHE ran away to be free. Free from her mother's restrictive rules.
But what Jaime Teo found out was that life away from home was no bed of roses. She hardly had any time for herself and had to struggle with studies and a part-time job to keep body and soul together.
After school, she would rush to work in a restaurant in Clark Quay. She needed the job to pay for food and transport.
The job, which paid $7 an hour, barely covered her daily expenses. She worked about four to five hours a night, knocking off at midnight. She said: 'I remember being very tired all the time.'
During the school holidays, she would work full-time as a receptionist at an architectural firm and earn about $1,500 a month to pay her school fees.
While her schoolmates and friends were enjoying their school holidays, Jaime worked through the vacation period.
'It was very hard trying to manage studying full-time and working part-time,' she said. 'My attendance in school was really bad, I nearly dropped out of the poly in the final year.'
But, Jaime said, with help and encouragement from her friends, she managed to pull through school. After working late nights she often couldn't wake up in time for school.
Her friends pushed her, even making wake-up phonecalls.
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