Well, I've personally always found "maternity leave" to be an iffy incentive. I mean, perhaps it's because I'm not a woman, but is it really THAT necessary to take 3-4 months of maternity leave just because I gave birth to a child?
I understand the need for confinement, but in such an era, I wonder if confinement is still needed. After all, confinement is more or less an old wives' tale, right? Unless, of course, there's some scientific proof for this. But still, women from America/Europe don't seem to be doing confinement ala Maternity Leave as intensely and enthusiastically as we Singaporeans do.
What purpose does maternity leave serve? I would like to ask all women who have taken maternity leave in the past, what do you guys do during that few months? If it's just time spent watching TV and looking after the baby, then I suppose... it's a waste of time?
I DON'T regard taking care of the baby as an unimportant matter. It's just that, really, there's no necessity to stare at your baby 24/7. Besides, you can always ask your parents/in-laws for help, and in this way, it bonds the three generations together.
Anyway, if it were to be up to me, I would let Maternity Leave be a maximum of 2 months. Why? Isn't 4 months an OVERKILL? I fully empathize with the SMEs for wanting to sack women who take too much maternity leave and all that jazz, not forgetting that there are other types of leave too.
Ultimately, the one thing that I'm most afraid of is that if the 4-month maternity leave is to be implemented, then what would be the purpose of giving birth? For the sake of the leave, or because you really want a (or more) child? I feel that the basis for wanting to give birth should be because you want it, and not because for the maternity leave.
PM Lee was right, that it's kind of sad and disappointing to see a dismal birth rate in Singapore (and also hilarious when he highlighted the years that have higher birth rates), but what should be the solution? Dangling a carrot in front of women to get pregnant seems kind of low, in my humble opinion.
In conclusion, I would just like to say that the 4-month maternity leave is a big no-no, and it's a waste of time, manpower and resources. One thing that I foresee is that if the 4-month maternity leave is implemented, the birth rate would momentarily increase. Next year, when it drops again, what's the government going to do? Increase it to 6 months? I don't think increasing the length of the maternity leave is the solution; but rather it makes things worse in the long run. The basis of giving birth should be love and want, and not because of the incentives. It's like I'm going to study hard because the school will treat me to lollipops if I score straight As... it's just wrong morally, in my opinion. I'm sure all mothers would want to look back 10-20 years later and remember, 'I gave birth to my sons/daughters because I wanted a family." and not because "Because I want the super duper long maternity leave!"
Therefore, I think that for mothers like Mrs Tan, Ms Yvonne Chin, Mrs Mandy Tan, etc, gave birth to their kids because they want to have one, right? ;) I would passionately wait for Ms Joanna Lee's reply to this topic! =D
P.S: Mrs Tan, that's REALLY sadistic!
5 comments:
Hi Jun Xiang,
I think one needs to give birth to a baby before one can understand the purpose of maternity leave. I never did until I gave birth to my first child. While pregnant with my first child, I was eagerly looking forward to maternity leave as a time of rest. And when my son appeared, I realised it was easier to work than to stay at home to take care of him.
Minding an infant is a 24/7 business but not 24/7 to stare at the child. Rather, newborns need to feed every couple of hours - take for instance, a baby takes 15-30min drinking his milk. After that, you take 10-30min to burp him. After that, you have to change his diaper to clear his shit. By the time all that is done, you probably have about 30min before he starts crying for his next feed. Imagine this happening in 24 hours for the next weeks? And if the mom is breastfeeding, she must be present to feed the baby all the time. Basically, there isn't much time to even sleep. For my first child, I ended up sleeping an average of 4 hours for the first few weeks. I remembered wishing I was back at work every dawn as I could not sleep as I had to carry and feed the baby. If I put him down, he would wail continuously. Basically, it was exhausting.
Depending on the temperament of the baby, the first 3 months can exhaust the mother. And I am not talking about confinement. I dont believe in all that and refused to follow the practices (something my mom tells me that I will suffer in later life).
But why a 4th month or more? Because if a parent really wants to give the best to the child, the bonding is done in the first 6 months. Also, experts recommend that breastfeeding be done exclusively for the first 6 months. If a mom has to return back to work after couple of months, it becomes very difficult to continue breastfeeding.
I have gone through two children and I have suffered the opportunity cost (as mentioned by PM) except in the opposite direction. I chose to put my career before my children. As a result, my children are not that close to me. In the family, I am ranked 3rd. First is the children's grandmother, followed by the maid.
Hence, if we truly want to give the best to our children, for a start, give generous maternity leave. These days, people want quality in everything we do. Hence for quality family relationships, work will have to suffer somewhat.
And having put across such a daunting picture of motherhood, I would still encourage parent to have at least 2 children. I have no regrets having my children and they do bring me joy in ways that cannot always be defined.
wowz... hahaha what an insight :D
Just being really stupid here, are mothers getting paid for all 4 months? Anyway, read about it in newpaper that a mother of 2 exploited the tax rebates in Singapore's polices and ended up paying no taxes!
Yes, mothers are paid for all 4 months.
I dont know what tax exploitation you are talking about. But my husband and I have not been paying taxes for the last few years due to the tax rebates I received for having my second child. This was under the older set of pro-birth policies. I am pretty sure that if your parents had a 2nd child when you mom was young, they too received this same rebate.
And it is not an exploitation. The government gave it out because it felt that children were important enough.
Yeah, it appears that increasing the population is becoming an important and serious issue...
I hope every Marist could at least give birth to one child when they get married. That'll be 1400+ new children in a decade's time!
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