S'porean girl granted protection order against mother who called her 'f*king stupid,' threatened to stab her in eye during writing exercise

A young girl in Singapore has been granted a personal protection order (PPO) against her mother after a court found she had been subjected to repeated verbal abuse and emotional harm during writing exercises.

According to a Family Court judgment, the girl's father applied for the PPO on her behalf and submitted audio recordings of the incidents.

The case comes after changes to domestic violence laws that took effect in January 2025 expanded the definition of family violence to expressly include emotional and psychological abuse.

Audio recordings captured repeated vulgar tirades

According to court documents, one recording from February 2025 captured the mother correcting her daughter's writing while repeatedly shouting vulgarities and insults.

According to CNA, the girl was around seven years old at the time.

The mother could be heard calling her daughter “f***ing stupid,” “gundu,” and threatening to stab her in the eye while correcting spelling mistakes.

The child could also reportedly be heard crying during parts of the recordings.

Magistrate Soh Kian Peng said:

“It was abundantly clear to me that [she] was tormented and distressed by the Mother’s verbal lashings.”

The judge also noted the daughter’s young age and said the words of parents carry significant emotional weight.

“It must also be remembered that [she] is a young girl – at her tender age, the views and opinions of her parents must weigh greatly in her mind.”

He added:

“One can therefore only imagine the torment and distress that she must have felt at being labelled ‘useless’, and at the vulgarities hurled at her, in her mother’s relentless scoldings.”

The court ultimately found that the mother's actions had crossed the line and amounted to emotional or psychological abuse.

Judge says mother capable of change

The court granted a PPO for three years until November 2028 instead of an indefinite order.

Magistrate Soh said he believed the mother recognised that her actions had gone too far and was willing to change.

He also found evidence that the daughter still shared a bond with her mother.

Both parents were ordered to attend counselling.

The judge also ordered the father to attend counselling so he could “equip himself with the necessary skills to support the mother.”

The mother had also filed a separate application seeking PPOs for herself and the couple’s two children against the father, but the court later dismissed it.

The judge said the mother had not established that her accounts of the father's abuse of her and the child were true.

The judge said that the fact that the mother can be heard, during some of the recordings, "yelling and berating" the father, spoke volumes as to the "true dynamics within the family".

Magistrate Soh said, “The PPO regime must not be used as leverage in parenting disputes.”