These Photos Of Shaun Chen And His Daughter Will Make You Wanna Hug Your Dad

Believe it or not, Nellie is a total pro in front of the camera - she smiles whenever Shaun and Celine tell her to, which apparently is a talent she has had since she was a baby. So what would Shaun say if Nellie wants to follow in his footsteps and give showbiz a shot in the future? "I won’t object if she wants to do that ’cos you know you can’t control kids these days. They’ll do what they want," he says. "So all we can do is to support them and just hope they can contribute to society and do something that is meaningful. But if she really wants to go into showbiz, I’ll tell her it’s going to be a hard path to walk and I’ll relate to her all the worst case scenarios. And if she still insists on it, so be it."

Shaun's wife. Celine, seems a tad wary of us when we talk to her, but that could be due to shyness from meeting the media for the first time. The former beautician-turned-full-time-mum, who at the time of the shoot was seven months pregnant with their second kid ("80 per cent chance it's a girl," she tells us), also declines to take a family photo. “She doesn’t want to because she’s not ready,” Shaun says. But after much coercing from the crew, she finally relents, not before asking Shaun to switch sides. “She can only show her right profile,” laughs Shaun.

If Celine seems cautious of us, little Nellie, on the other hand, seems to be throwing all caution to the wind. “She's not afraid of strangers. It would be good if she was a little scared because now, everyone can [be friends with her],” laughs Celine, as Nellie beckons us, a complete stranger, to hand her one of the balloons we’ve filled the room with. “She likes to be around people and she gets more cooperative when there are more people around,” says Shaun about his daughter, who he jokingly calls his ‘xiao san’, or ‘mistress’ in Mandarin. When we ask him if he has loved anyone more than his daughter, he laughs, “You can say that… But you know lah, if my wife hears that, she won’t be happy.”

If you ever get the chance to attend one of Nellie's birthday parties and you're scratching your head wondering what gift to get her, just stop. "Since she turned one, we’ve been telling people that we only accept cash and not presents for her birthday (laughs)," says Shaun. "We have too many toys at home now and she just plays with them for a short while only."

In case you're wondering what's Shaun's stance on keeping a kid occupied with an iPad, here goes: "It’s good for when you are feeding her. Well, at least for me lah (laughs). It’s not something we want to do but let’s say we are out for meals and she starts throwing tantrums… that’s when the iPad works. But I don’t encourage letting her watch it all the time. I don’t want it to get to a point when she gets home and she needs to have her iPad immediately." So can he entertain her without resorting to the iPad? "I can," he beams. "I’m good at reading stories. I’ll act it out, you know, with a lot of pattern and she’ll laugh at me (laughs). But sometimes when I read her bedtime stories, she gets more awake so it’s better if I don’t.

There's no doubt that Shaun and Nellie are as close as two coats of paint so we couldn't help but wonder if he and Celine have a competition to see who gets the bulk of their daughter's affection. "Not really but Celine gets jealous when she sees how close I am to Nellie, especially when I hug or kiss her," smiles Shaun. "[My wife] will say, “Eeyer, now you only kiss [your daughter] lah. Never kiss me lor.” Standard lah (laughs). So occasionally must kiss your wife also (laughs)."

I’m actually afraid of spoiling her," says Shaun when we ask if he's guilty of pampering Nellie too much. "I don’t want to give her too good a life. An okay life is good enough. I don’t have to buy the best bed for her to sleep on or the best clothes to wear. The same for food too. Only this way will she know that she’s actually from a very average family and that she will understand the meaning of being content. Hopefully, this way, she will fight for what she wants in the future."