Radio deejay Shan Wee and his entrepreneur wife, Artika Sulaiman, may have different personalities, but the 32-year-olds share a common style of parenting.

YOU'VE BEEN MARRIED FOR THREE YEARS. HOW HAS YOUR RELATIONSHIP DEVELOPED FROM THE TIME YOU WERE DATING?

Artika: We've been through a lot, especially after having our son, Ciaran, about a year and a half ago.

When you have a baby, you don't think about your relationship so much.

You just try to survive from one day to the next. There were a lot more chores and bickering about whose turn it was to care for the baby.

Shan: We were also trying to find a new home at that time so we were driving from place to place every day, often with a screaming baby in the car. It was stressful.

DID YOU EXPECT PARENTHOOD TO BE THAT HARD?

Artika: I never thought much about motherhood when I found out I was pregnant. I was just freaking out about how to give birth.

Nobody told me how my life would never be mine, ever again.

Shan: During pregnancy, all that you read is about how to stay healthy and what the birth will be like.

You don't read as much as you should on the first year of parenting, which of course is longer and more important.

DO YOU GET PARENTING TIPS FROM OTHERS?

Artika: In the beginning, I was more sensitive and would judge myself as a mother each time someone said something about my parenting skills.

Take hygiene, for example. Some parents wash their children's hands 70 times a day and don't allow them to touch the floor.

If they do, the parents wipe their hands clean straightaway.

But Shan and I are quite lax about that - if Ciaran wants to crawl around on the floor, we let him. And he has turned out to be a really funloving kid. I don't think we can adopt anybody else's parenting style.

Shan: Ciaran's barely two years old but he's already good at running and climbing, partly because we don't pick him up at once when he falls.

He's very well-developed physically.

Artika: A lot of people baby-proof their apartments. When a child crawls under the table, they place their hands on the child's head so that he won't bump it against the table.

But we never did that with Ciaran, so he has built some spatial awareness.

He can go in and out of any space without bumping his head because he learnt early on not to do that.

IS CIARAN SHOWING ANY OF YOUR TRAITS? MAYBE HE'LL GROW AS TALL AS SHAN?

Artika: No! My mum always said that I had to marry someone who's taller, with a better nose, to improve the next generation. Did I not do that?

But Ciaran's in the 25th percentile growth-wise, according to our doctor.

Shan: Yeah, he's small for his age but I think he'll end up fine. I'm not worried about it.

His looks and personality are mostly from Tika's side, so I expect him to be quite like her when he grows up - resourceful and outgoing.

Artika: That's because Shan's genes are super-lazy and super-relaxed.

Shan: That's true. My genes are going, "Ah, we'll be there in a minute" and hers are going, "Now, now, now!". (Laughs)

Read the full interview here.