New Incentives to Boost Birth Rate

I thank all for their patience (esp Jun Xiang) in waiting for my reponse on this topic as I was very busy with Common Test marking. Now that that is out of the way, it is time for me to give my 2 cent's worth again...

4 months maternity leave is a great idea if you ask me. I think leaving your baby and going back to work is a tough thing for new mothers, especially if you do not have strong support from family (like your parents to help look after). It gives the mum more time to spend with the newborn and afterall, if you have a baby, you don't solely want to leave the parenting to someone else right? Other measures introduced have been lauded by the mums and mums to be but let me share what I think can be further improved:

1. More subsidy should be given for IVF treatments.
Let's face it - no couple, if they had a choice, would want to go through IVF to conceive a child. The injections, multiple visits to the doctor and hefty cost is really no fun. Worst of all, there is no guarantee you'll succeed. With the new measures introduced, the government is only subidising 30% of the first 2 treatments which I think is too little. 50% should be better, in my opinion as this could really encourage more couples to go for IVF.

2. Incentives for stay home / single mums
In case you're not aware, single and stay home mums do not get any of the incentives the government is introducing. My heart goes out most to the single mums who still work and contribute to the economy but get nothing. The government's rhetoric is that they want to encourage a pro family environment but I quote a single mum who said, "If i could marry my baby's dad, I would have done so a long time ago." There are also others who get a divorce due to adultery and other personal reasons then render them in their current situation. Being single parents, are they not the ones who deserve the most help? And I also do not think that if we give them these incentives, it will encourage more women to be single parents. Stay home mums also deserve something at least - for sacrificing their careers to nurture and bring up their children. The government obviously wants to reward mums who contribute to the economy but maybe we can give these hero mummys a share of the pie too?

3. I'm still fighting for more paternity leave. At least 2 weeks, Mr Wong Kan Seng..This will send a signal that we want more dads to be involved in parenting!

My response to the National Day Rally 08

I decided that it is time for a closure on all the speculations about whether I should have a third child, especially since the PM has now announced further measures to encourage birth. So to all the Marists out there who have nothing better to do than to cheer me on for a third child, read on.

Firstly, I mentioned that if maternity is extended to 6 months, I will want a 3rd child. But now, it is only extended to 4 months... that makes it a borderline decision. To have or not to have? That is the question. While the government has dished out more generous carrots to lure parents, these are still generally conservative and not as liberal as those in Sweden or the Scandinavian countries. But one can also understand why we might not go the Swedish way - our country is too small and competition is too keen for us to be able to afford such generous incentives to promote birth. Take for instance my husband who owns a SME and works gruelling hours and sleeps 5 hours every night. He has stated very clearly that he will not employ any female who might want to take maternity leave. Is that discrimination? In a way yes. But if you see it from his perspective, his company simply cannot afford to pay for 2 months of maternity leave and yet have to employ an additional person to cover the job. Perhaps this is possible for a MNC/ Civil Service etc. But not for SMEs as their profit margins are slim and its a thin line between profitability and survival. So the government can do more to help our SMEs support pro-birth policies.

By the way, I have ever asked my husband: would he employ me to do administrative work? He says of course! But I will only be paid $500 a month. I told him to forget it, as I do believe that my market value (even if it is just to teach lifeless Marists) is higher than that.

So back to the new incentives. Do they attract me? No, not enough for a 3rd child. But if I only had 1 child or no children, I will be very attracted and will definitely take them on. And as one ex-Marist advised me, don't have more children unless you love children. Well, I do love to terrorise my children, so does that count as loving them?

Will I have a 3rd kid?

In response to Ms Lee's post on "Increasing Birth Rates", here is my personal take.

I have been well brought up with the notion of "Stop At Two" since young. I was an accidental 3rd child - my parents never planned for me and life was perfect for them with a son and a daughter, that was until I was created. And then all hell broke loose. Firstly, my mom had to return to work immediately after she gave birth to me (no maternity leave for the 3rd child) unless she underwent immediate sterilisation. Secondly, they had problems getting me into the same Primary school as my siblings because of my status as a 3rd child. And then a whole hosts of other disincentives to follow.

Whether its the government's influence or my own personal belief system, having two children seemed a perfect formula. One child for each parent. And so I had two children - perfect? Hmmm... not quite. The perfect formula would have been one boy and one girl. But as all of you can see for yourself, I ended up having two boys! Its retribution for all the evil things I did to all the Marists in class - that I get replicas of them in my family. Arghhh.

So now the question is, should I have a third child and fulfill the government's desire? Do I want a girl? Yes, definitely! Can anyone guarantee me a girl? No, definitely not. By the way, Marists out there who are part of a consecutive chain of 3 brothers, I am pretty sure your parents wanted a girl! So am I prepared to take a gamble to try for a third child, hoping it will be a girl?

Yes: If the current work life arrangements can be more balanced with less stress at work and more time with the family. This means changing working cultures with less competitiveness and shorter working hours. For a start, the immediate carrot or catalyst that will make me take the plunge the third time is "6 months maternity leave". When I had my two kids, I was only entitled to 2 months. And I have always felt I had shortchanged them by going back to work so early and hence the bonding was never strong. Especially these days when my duty upon reaching home after work is to discipline* them for misbehaviour. (*leading to some of you threatening to report me for child abuse)

So, does this mean that I will have a third child? Inference, my dear Watson, inference. (erm, this is adapted from Sherlock Holmes and has nothing to do with Watson Tan from 4F!)

World Population Day

Top 10 countries with largest population ( millions )
1. China ~ 1,330
2. India ~ 1,148
3. USA ~ 303.8
4. Indonesia ~ 237.5
5. Brazil ~ 191.9
6. Pakistan ~ 167.8
7. Bangladesh ~ 153.5
8. Nigeria ~ 146.3
9. Russia ~ 140.7
10. Japan ~ 127.3

Top 10 most crowded countries and territories ( humans/ sq km )
1. Monaco ~ 16,818
2. Macau ~ 16,341
3. Singapore ~ 6,652
4. Hong Kong ~ 6,427
5. Gibratar ~ 4,308
6. Vatican City ~ 1,873
7. Malta ~ 1,277
8. Maldives ~ 1,264
9. Bermuda 1,248
10. Bahrain 1,080

Some interesting facts!

• 6 out of 10 people in the world are Asians.
  
• In 1 day all over the world, an estimated 369,755 people are born and 150,835 die. This means 218,920 people are added to this world.

Guys, how about giving your views on whether Singapore is getting too crowded?

Today is World Population Day!

Today is World Population Day. The theme of World Population Day 2008 is 'Family Planning: It's a Right; let's make it real'.