Israel has a 3 year (boys, 2 year for girls) mandatory army service for permanent residents and citizens; I don't know how the Singaporean regime compares, but it is generally possible for an Israeli soldier to take a "leave of absence" to visit family during said mandatory service. If their parents are not permanent residents, they actually get help with the airfare and other stuff.
From talking to Israelis and Germans (former still has mandatory service, latter used to have) - it's a part of the culture that isn't as intimidating as it sounds to outsiders. In fact, in Israel it is (or at least was) called "the fusion plant", and looked at as the great equalizer the binds rich and poor equally into society - and avoiding it for a long time had a social stigma with dire consequences. Mileage May Vary.
Eh, I also know quite a few people who've done mandatory military service, and opinions range from "it was ok", to extremely negative. The Germans mostly fall into the "ok" to "meh" camp. One who opted out and chose to do the civil service instead did think that was valuable; it was basically social-worker type stuff in poor suburbs.
The most consistently negative about it, at least of the small group of people I know, are the South Koreans, who see it as a hazing ritual. The Greeks (who still have it) and Italians (who used to) that I know are also pretty negative, but more in a "wow, that was a waste of N months of my life" sense, while the South Koreans are negative to another level. (I don't know if the Singaporean conscription experience is more like the South Korean, German, Greek, or Italian one.)
We technically have mandatory military service here (Denmark), but there is a test of mental/physical/etc. fitness to qualify, and it is more or less accepted that if you want to fail it you will be allowed to fail it. The military doesn't want to bother with people who don't want to be in it, and doesn't really need many conscripts these days anyway (what they do need more of are highly trained career soldiers, which they're having trouble recruiting enough of, but conscripts don't help them with that).
The big difference between Singapore and Israel is motivation. Israelis will probably stay and fight to the death (in fact, they have, during the Yom Kippur war, where Golda Meir forced the US to act by arming nuclear weapons). Ask a Singaporean, particularly if middle class or wealthier, what he'd do if the PLA turned up in large numbers to conquer the territory. Most will admit they'll take the next flight to Australia or the US, although they're happy to fight battles they're willing to win (such as the historical skirmishes with Indonesia, who is happy to stir up fires every so often for political gains).
This is a non trivial point, since if you reside in Singapore, you're basically betting that the only threat the place will face (if not covered by Pax Americana, which is not a given for the next 30 years, as Singaporeans know since their country was effectively founded following events started by the British retiring warships 2 years early to pay for welfare housing; and since when Japan invaded, the Brits ran and it was the locals who took up guns and tried to defend their homes) is the comparatively easy to fight one from the north and south, against which SAF is large and well trained enough to provide a great deterrent. And as Singaporeans will say, those won't attack anyway since all of their politicians have stashed their money here.
Israel has a 3 year (boys, 2 year for girls) mandatory army service for permanent residents and citizens; I don't know how the Singaporean regime compares, but it is generally possible for an Israeli soldier to take a "leave of absence" to visit family during said mandatory service. If their parents are not permanent residents, they actually get help with the airfare and other stuff.
From talking to Israelis and Germans (former still has mandatory service, latter used to have) - it's a part of the culture that isn't as intimidating as it sounds to outsiders. In fact, in Israel it is (or at least was) called "the fusion plant", and looked at as the great equalizer the binds rich and poor equally into society - and avoiding it for a long time had a social stigma with dire consequences. Mileage May Vary.