raising kids these days just arent the same as back in the kampong days, when food source could be plucked from the fruit bearing tree, dug from the ground for roots like potato/tapioca..etc
cost of living rising, combined income still bearly making ends meet to sustain; the housing loans, the domestic helper (cos husband n wife working), utilities, co-financing aged working parents (retirement is a myth), perhaps co-subsidizing siblings' educations (aged working parent insufficient CPF for siblings studies)... n plenty more financial liabilities...
utilities tariff gone up, consumption of aircon cant go down much, cos the new HDBs r all high-rise greenhouses (full glass panelling).
no matter wat incentives the gahmen intends to throw at ppl who're found to be pregnant, there's no telling when n where crisis will hit this island. especially in the current times when the econ has taken snail speed... nobody really knows when they'd be offloaded by their employers too.
given the 20~25 or maybe 30yr financial toll on hand just to afford a roof & bed, not knowing when the last day of work will be... uncertainties lingering... even if couples r in the mood for rodent routine nightly (for the sake of exercise & stress relief), we're quite sure plenty out there just arent financially prepared for a kid to come along.
it takes merely minutes to make convert a woman to be an expecting mom, the trimesteral mths of check-up already stretches the pocket, 9mths later, after the kid is born... the pocket strings just simply fray n snap.
4mths of paid maternity leave? so wat? some1 else in the office has to dbl up on the colleague's absence, company productivity may have a shortage if 2 or more staff goes on maternity at the same time.
knowing that the term work-life balance is just a jargon in sg, lets nt 4get, the new fathers too have their duty to spouse & newborn, n shouldnt he too be entitled paid paternity leave?
the monetary incentives given by far r merely scratching the surface of the financial iceberg for new parents, there's plenty more in the days, mths, yrs to come in raising/educating the child.
