Nope, Daddy is not going to talk about the act itself, as we are a family blog :p
Rather, the lack of babies and and how pro-family policies can be enhanced.
Money is always important (钱不是万能，..fill in the blank..不能), for childcare, medical, enrichment, education, food and other living costs. However, Daddy suspects that having a baby has become a “Lifestyle” choice.
A couple can travel anywhere, indulge in luxurious comfort but somehow along the way, having a baby becomes a liability. Career advancement will be affected, lifestyle will be curtailed, nobody likes to Sacrifice !
Naively, Daddy still choose to believe that “if a family is Happy“, more babies will come naturally. If we have to lower our lifestyle expectations, so be it.
In Singapore’s lack-of-babies context (or most urban cities), “Happy” is not a feeling, but the “assurance” that we have less things to worry about, when we decide to Ignore Durex have a baby.
“We wish to have a child, because we love to start a family.”. The last reason should be “I want a baby because of Incentive #A, or Bonus #B!”
Daddy’s wishlist are “More flexi-hours, pro-rate childcare leave aka the more kids the merrier, and paternity leaves”. It is way overdue for the Man to standup and be recognized as an equal partner, when it comes to parenting.
Ok, Men cannot breastfeed, but a strong Mummy and Daddy team will likely yield a stronger family.
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26Aug 10PM National Day Rally– our Prime Minister Lee gave us a peep into which policies will be tweaked so that (maybe) we will keep the storks busy.
1) Work life balance
2) Employer attitude – ok to go home early (not OT everyday)
3) Housing – priority for couple with young kids
4) Paternity Leave – PM admits it is time for society to stand up for Daddies
5) Medical – more affordable
6) Pre-school availability – nearer to home and workplaces, raising standard
7) Baby Bonus – Social ethos is more important than incentives
Hooray !! Bravo !!
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We keep hearing words like work-life balance, easier access to flats, paternity leave, easier access to good quality pre-schools. What is being discussed in Forums and workgroups ?
1) From PAP Woman’s wing
2) www.Population.sg is conducting a survey. Daddy would like to pro-rate childcare leaves, extra two days for every additional child. More Daddies can then have more opportunities to participate in kids’ school activities.
3) Mummy Ai Sakura is helping to encourage more Daddies to be active parents too. She is asking a few daddy bloggers to add a voice in her “Celebrate Fatherhood” article.
Daddy will be talking about how a couples get “promoted” to parents, and whether a Dad’s user-manual does exist :p
Stay tune for our article next Sun.
..disclaimer.. It does not mean only bloggers are good Daddies.
4) ChannelNewsAsia fanpage was fishing for some comments. Daddy wants local-attraction prices to be made more affordable. We are fortunate and grateful that our blog gives SengkangBabies a lot of freebies and privileges, but we sincerely hope more families can enjoy the Zoo, the BirdPark more often.
It is ridiculous to pay $100 for a family of four at the Zoo !
Our Zoo is good, but how many can afford?
5) PA has a dialogue too. Read their findings.
6) 早安您好 did it too, with Daddy as a guest, talking about how Dads can be more involved in parenting.
If all fails, remove the cinemas, iphones and internet access. When couples are in love, and they have lesser distractions, they do the “natural” thing.
Daddy hope Singapore does not have to come to this stage !
I didn’t know that having babies is such a difficult choice these days. I have 2 grown up children. When my wife and I decided to have children we didn’t even think of government assistance, etc. We wanted the babies because we wanted them, that’s all.
Yes, bringing up babies can have its difficulties at times, but then again they’re yours to have, to love and to labour for.
Having said all that, I do not agree that the “stop-at-two” policy did not affect people wanting to have children at that time. Oh yes…it affected us because when registering for Primary One for my first child, we were categorized as 2C. Quite disheartening, isn’t it? Ten years later when registering our second child for primary one we were again categorized as 2C. We were disadvantaged, so to speak.
What I am trying to drive at is this……….it’s a good thing that the government is giving assistance to people to have babies or more babies, but even if the assistance is not there at least the government should not put up barriers to obstruct people trying to raise children. In our case, we felt that the government did put up barriers. If they can’t help, they should not hinder – should be the motto of the day!
Even when they have a change of hearts later because they found that we are not having enough babies, they came up with half-baked ideas (graduate mother scheme, etc) to redress the situation. It’s a case of the government trying to play God.
I think they should find ways to slow down the economy so that we don’t need so much foreigners. The people will therefore not be so stressed and will have time to think of bringing up children. Please don’t get me wrong – I’m not saying growing the economy is bad, but perhaps we have been pushing too hard to be world no 1, and the economy has grown too fast so much so that we have been hurt by it.
And if slowing the economy can be done, more problems will be solved – prices of housing, cars, transport, etc would have moderated. Children will have time to enjoy their childhood and grow up gracefully (yes, emphasize on quality!), parents will have more time with their families. After all not everyone can be scholars nor do they care to be scholars if they can have a better life without the breakneck competition! I don’t think Singapore will sink because our GDP dropped a couple of percentage. Rather I think the government is always giving us the “scare tactics” just like the insurance salesman telling us the whole family will suffer if anything happens to the breadwinner (during my time, they never told you that life insurance in itself is a good investment for the future). Although what they say may have some truth in it, it is not the whole truth. I would go for quality of life than to go for the 5Cs, whatever that means…..
wll said Fred 🙂
Economy and rat-race is one thing, raising aspirations is another.
Young couples want to pursue their dreams (careers, condos, luxurious) before they are willing to settle down. Times have changed, and some view kids as liabilities.
This is an interesting time, when we young people got to decide what we wish to do.
In my humble opinion, I believe grants should be directed at people who wish to have more kids (from 1 to 2, or from 2 to 3 etc). We are likely to see “faster” results this way.
When young couples (no kids but wish to have) see more “happy families”, rather than more complains about $,education,competition, maybe the babies will come.
I am clueless when work-life balance (aka quality of life) will come to Singapore haha.
cheers,
Andy