What are your concerns over getting married and having a family?

Question

Recent surveys have showed that financial constraints, busy work schedules and lack of childcare support were top concerns that limit a larger family size.

Answer 1

I think that financial constraints, busy work schedules and lack of childcare support are valid concerns that most Singaporean couples will face when deciding whether to have a child or not.



However, I feel a lot of Singaporeans are unwilling to make personal sacrifices, be it to their lifestyles, financial commitments or career aspirations for that matter, to have kids. This in my opinion is the foremost issue confronting Singaporean couples.



Not that the aforementioned factors are irrelevant to the issue, but they are secondary. Singaporeans must decide within themselves whether they can live with a more modest lifestyle, whether they are willing to make the numerous sacrifices that come with the package that the stork delivers.



There is no point in the Government pushing couples to make babies, or dishing out financial incentives etc. This has been proven to be ineffective or effective only over a short period of time.



At the end of the day, the Government should just take a hands-off approach and leave it to the Singaporeans to make their own decisions. Enticing less-than-affluent couples to have more children will only sabotage their family well-being. Enticing capable young couples to have children when they are not sure if they are willing to make the corresponding sacrifices, is also a recipe for killing their marriages.



So I urge the Government to just give us a break already.

Answer 2

Financial is the most important part. Without having enough finances, it will be hard on the children. They will feel why they can't have better education than those who has. Everything is getting higher cost in Singapore, but the worker in the private sector can't have increase in salary. However, the worker who works for the government deserves a higher salary. Then might as well, no need to have children. Rather than the poor children are bullied by those who are much better than them. The society have the mindset where the stronger bullies the weaker. It happens a lot of time. It shouldn't be. It affects the child's psychology mindset. We are humans. We are not in the animal kingdom.



Work schedules also plays a part. The workers in most private sectors are being squeezed if not they will lose the job. All work, without rest. No time for family. Need to take care of old parents. Pressure, stress and frustrations that lead to Singaporean easier to get angry. What kind of life is this? Isn't it better to have no children? A well spent time is important for child's development. If there is no time to spend with the children, it can lead them to mix with wrong people. Instead of helping the society, it increase the crime rate.



Childcare support almost costs SGD1000 per month. Then if the parents are odd job workers with S$800 to $900 a month, it will not be enough for them to pay the childcare. Barely can survive with their income to pay for living expenses, pay utility bills and property tax, what should the child feeds on. The child would suffer the most. For example, only give birth to a child, the child may want to have siblings. But the parents couldn't afford it. What can the government do?



Heard a friend saying that if a child is born in Australia, the child will be an Australian citizen. Every month, the government will give a certain sum to bring up an Australian.

Answer 3

There are a lot of varied answers here so I thought I'd offer my opinion as well. While I may not be an expert in this area I have been hearing this discussion a lot from Singaporeans as well as foreigners.



Generally, most people would love to have children and raise a family. It's really a completely biological imperative to do so. Procreation isn't exactly rocket science if you know what I mean. The bulk of the problem of a low fertility rate in Singapore lies with changing priorities, as many earlier answers have iterated. There are also aspects of rising living costs, higher levels of stress, NS commitments for males and even a shortage of space to grow up in. All these are entirely reasonable explanations. Singapore, however, needs to achieve everything.



A strong economy and high fertility rates don't exactly go together like peas in a pot. It's a trade off, and an extremely difficult one to make. (Which is why I don't envy Ministers of Parliament) If high economic growth is targeted, then people work longer and have less time to spend with their families and thus will think twice about starting one. Maintaining growth is difficult in a knowledge based economy like Singapore with almost no natural resources. Countries with healthy fertility rates of 2.1 and above all tend to have comparatively less demanding economies and thus probably slower economic growth.



Economic growth makes people want more materially because it fuels even more growth. Starting a family puts a substantial damper on this wanting of more goods and reduces in appeal to the masses.



The bottom line is trade offs. While some people may feel that a family is everything, others may feel that a new Condo is and neither of them is wrong really. It all depends on what you're willing to sacrifice over the other and this is something which is greatly influenced by the Government, which is why we should give them due credit for all those initiatives (Baby Bonus, discounts on flats etc.), however 'meager' they may be. Maybe the alternative would be a poorer standard of living that most of us would find less desirable than the high costs of raising a child. :)

Answer 4

It is rare to find someone who can be a successful career woman and a good mother at the same time. For most, there is usually a sacrifice to be made on either side.



Also, most Singapore woman have also lost their maternal instinct and aspire to be career women than to be good mothers. Frankly, I suspect some would rather face the yellings from the boss and superior in the workplace than to be hearing the wailings and crying of their babies. At work, you at least got paid at the end of the month when you are yelled at.. At home, you got to spend money in raising the kid and yet be wailed and yelled at by them.. Everyone is so concern about material wealth. Everything is down to the dollars and cents in raising a kid. This is to the extent where couples ponder whether a child is really an asset or a liability.



To solve, I think would require quite drastic measures and would probably need to have a 2 prong approach:-



First, to fault the "economically active singles of marriagable age" and "couples married but without children" with higher taxes. And secondly, to use the additional tax collected and also additional government spendings in subsidizing for couples with kids in area such as a much more generous baby bonus, free children medical care, free childcare, education, total maid levy waiver, tax rebates etc. Longer maternity leave, paternity leave, childcare leave etc etc.



As long as there is a very distinct and obvious differentiation in benefits between the "have-kids" and the "have no-kids", people will start thinking and really be encouraged to get married and pro-create.



When this happen, a kid is really an ASSET.. Alas, if it has to come to that, life has no meaning anymore.

Answer 5

Cost is not only a factor, it also creates other problems. Due to the high cost of having and maintaining a child and home, both parents have to work. This results in even higher costs! Getting a maid, arranging for childcare, transport to school etc.



Childcare might also spring unpleasant surprises on unsuspecting parents. Children tend to fall sick more often, need medical care and have to stay at home. Parents then have to scramble to apply for leave to look after their child. However, there is a very limited number of leave days that are available for this kind of situation, and it is also something that is rarely encouraged, even in the civil service. When there are outbreaks of diseases like HFMD, at the same time the government orders the closure of childcare centres and schools for sanitization purposes, they should also allow parents to take leave for that duration. Especially working parents who have no alternative childcare arrangements.



Despite government policy, the vast majority of companies still discriminate against working mothers or mothers-to-be. Even the civil service is not spared from this. I know a mother who recently wanted to re-enter the workforce, so she applied to a government body for a position which would allow her to have a flexi-work schedule. During the interview, she realised that the interviewers were not really interested in hiring her. They were merely going along with it because it was government policy and they were a government body. I know another mother, a civil servant, who was reprimanded by her superior for deciding to have a second baby and getting pregnant.



Its not just monetary incentives that should be considered. Changing the mindset of the people and allaying their worries would serve Singapore better in the long run.

Answer 6

While it may be true that a child with siblings grows up a better adjusted person, here's what prevents me from expanding the family.



1. Cost of raising a child. This is probably the single most important factor. If I really want to ensure my children get a good education, a good standard of life and the ability to pursue his or her goals till they start earning, it is incredibly expensive. Bright kids should be supported and given the opportunity to study what they truly love, and the cost of a 4-year or 5-year (Architecture) bachelors degree course in a good US or UK university is prohibitive - look at spending at least 300-400K. Even in Singapore you're budgeting around a quarter million dollars for education. Multiply this by 2 for a second child. You're already in debt before the game has started.



What kind of parent will tell the child to "go study in ITE" because you're still paying off your HDB loan and can't afford to pay for his education? Specially if the child is bright.



2. No time: Both parents are so busy working to make ends meet, where is the time to raise a family? Can you really expect a mother to stay home here just to raise kids, when the cost of living is so high? We're out 8 to 8 and the child is raised by granny? Then what's the use of having the child at all?



3. Not enough incentives: In some European countries, moms get a whole year off and dads get 6 months off to look after a new born child. In France they have a parental leave allowance of 750 euros a month for one year after birth. In singapore the incentives are nowhere close, and there are no laws mandating certain minimum maternity leave that moms can claim. I have known cases where pregnant women were refused jobs at some companies and there was nothing she could do about it. Unless we have better pro-child laws and the legal muscle to enforce them, we are not going to see much improvement.



4. Environment: Would you really want to bring a fresh innocent child into this monstrosity of a world we live in today? Would you want to add yet another being to this 6+ billion population, who is going to be another burden on the already over-strained planet?



5. National service: If I have a boy, he must do NS whether he likes it or not. Personally I feel this is a choice that should be left to the child. I know they have this in Israel, Taiwan and a few other countries, but imposing this on the child is not something I would do. This is two years at the prime of his life.

Answer 7

Now a day men and women not much different in term of working and having income to support family. Yes, most of the people have financial constraints for limit family size. Besides for every individual basic needs are more and more and everybody is getting rushing to follow up with modern living standard . 30 years ago if you don't have computer or Internet, it is quite normal and every individual still got spare time for the family. But now a day everybody can't stay without Internet or computer. Most of the people spend time on computer. Once they surf on the net, they will forget about their partner, not interest in their house work or whatever. The point is married is not easy now a day and having large family is far away. In here I mean for the normal average family . Off course if the person having a big background or strong in financial they might go for the big family.

Normally the big family occurs at the normal or low income family now a day. Beside the more educate the person the better for them in freedom rather than stuck at the family commitment and responsible.

Anyway planning married or having family will vary according to individual and their background.

Beside after married also another issue whether it will last long or not ? Mostly women are more taking risk then the men. Off course I assume lots of women in Asia still sallow their unhappiness, pride and others benefit for the family.

Answer 8

To me, getting married is a much easier task compared to having a family. Having said so, it still takes a lot for a couple to embark on the journey of marriage. It requires the couple to have enough savings to battle the costs of a marriage, getting a house on your own, paying your instalments, etc. The comforting fact is that these are all rather short- or mid-term, i.e. save enough $ and have a stable income and you are more or less covered for the period of your house loan.



The more challenging thing is having a family. This is really a life-long commitment, with many uncertainties along the way that you may not be able to plan for. On the financial side, the cost of raising a child, the cost of education, etc. And if you factor in the inflation rate, the picture gets worse!



The rising cost of living in Singapore has made it difficult for a single-income household to survive. Many couples are both working parents and this leaves hardly any time for emotional bonding with their child given the current stressful and demanding work expectations. The government spoke about increasing childcare facilities, but this is not solving the root cause of the problems. Furthermore, the costs of childcare facilities is also a problem. It costs around S$700-1000 per month for infantcare. This creates the viscious cycle that parents need to work more to earn more to finance such expenses. The government baby bonus helps, but to a little extent only. Imagine that currently, for the first child, you get $3000, but paid over instalments every half-yearly. How much does that help in tiding over the immediate needs of a first-time parent?



And in the end, parents are still left with little time with the child, increased stressed and inability to establish work-life balance. If so, why should they be enticed to start a family or to have more children in the first place??

Answer 9

We have finally gotten married, for about half a year now, and we got by by purchasing an affordable HDB from the HDB resale market.



I've always wanted to have the first baby before hitting 30 years old. But these factors are pulling me back:

1) work schedule

2) pursue of a course to upgrade my skills

3) lack of child support because both sets of our parents need to continue to work

4) Me quitting my job may drastically affect our quality of life and the life we can give our children.



Right now, we are considering that if we have a child, I will take a year off work until the child is a year old, then place him/her in a reliable childcare. The thought of having to place such a young child at a childcare breaks my heart!



I would love to have more children, but seems even 2 is hard to manage with the high childcare costs etc.



Also, taking time off work for so long means I will not have income for a long time too. My wish list will probably be these:

- on top of the 3 month maternal paid leave, and grant another 50% salary for up to a year.

- claim 80% of childcare costs

Answer 10

financial constraints = how much $ do you have after spending on food/transport/utilities etc per month? Any other $$ left to save? or feed kid?

busy work schedules = subjective to the company you worked for and how dedicated are you to your company. Remember, you can love your company but you won't know when your company stop loving you.

lack of childcare support = no $$ already still seek childcare... and how much does childcare cost even if its available?



Inflation is inevitable. Employers are not going to give you the same % of increment vs the inflation. To Top this, our dear gahmen add more GST tax, bring fuel price to higher, don't allow singaporean to go msia to get cheaper fuel (how come fuel in singapore must be at least 30% more expensive than the rest of the world?????), everything also inflate... then next thing, LEFT HAND of the gahmen ask you have more kids, RIGHT HAND of the gahmen gets the hospital to up the cost against you. then give you incentives whereby it comes in the form of tax rebate... so if you are not high income earner, this is purely bullsheet. And any cash given by gahmen is an act of charity.

Answer 11

Other then financial constraints, high divorce rates are also a concern. There is no support for single parent who had children to take care. The party who had the child custody will bear the full expense and time while getting a fixed maintenance. Lucky to said that i have only 1 child but things will be worse when there is more than 1 child in the family while govt had no concern and aid for this actual fact. Even if there is a possibility for 2nd marriage, is better to stay put with no more new birth.

Answer 12

The cost of living in most first world countries are getting higher and higher. Many couples in such countries are unwilling to have many children because of this reason. It's not just Singapore, other countries like the US, Australia, Britian and other European countries are experiencing these constrains too.

I am worried that the cost of living may continue to rise, and by the next 5-10 years, it might even become inaffordable to get married, let alone have children. As a result, both parents will have to work very hard just to make ends meet, causing the children to be neglected. It is difficult to find reliable childcare for the children nowadays, and the best childcare will probably be very expensive. So, we can't blame Singaporeans for complaining, because raising a family isn't an easy task like it used to be in the last two decades.

Answer 13

In SIngapore, the main issue revolves around : COST



Child Care is too damn expensive AND exceedingly inconvenient or impossible depending on individual circumstances. Even if a creche or child care center is located near work places like in the CBD, it's usually not affordable to MOST working parents. If the singapore government wants to encourage people to have kids, then instead of having some baby bonus one off payment thing, it should be a subsidy for the recurring childcare costs because that's what worries most people. Perhaps a % subsidy until the child starts Primary School and the subsidy stops or it could be a regressive subsidy whereby as the child grows older between 1 yr to 6 yrs the subsidy could go down from 75% down to 25% as infant care is usually more expensive than child care.

Answer 14

I think financial constraints are always the top excuse you hear from couples who can afford a condominium and car but cannot afford a baby. I believe changing priorities is the key. Unfortuantely wisdom always comes with gray hair,by the time you realise that some of your youthful pursuits are meaningless, it is too late...there is an old chinese saying "start your family before you establish your career". I have 3 kids and I find that lack of childcare support is a real concern; government has to look into improving this part. Increasing maternity leave for workers to longer than the current 90 days is not the solution as it is a big issue for business productivity. Quality of foreign domestic helpers is poor compared to other countries because we pay peanuts after the government took half of what we are suppose to pay the helpers in levies. The issue is deep and I do not have the answers.

Answer 15

Besides for every individual basic needs are more and more and everybody is getting rushing to follow up with modern living standard . 30 years ago if you don't have computer or Internet, it is quite normal and every individual still got spare time for the family. But now a day everybody can't stay without Internet or computer. Most of the people spend time on computer. Once they surf on the net, they will forget about their partner, not interest in their house work or whatever. The point is married is not easy now a day and having large family is far away. In here I mean for the normal average family . Off course if the person having a big background or strong in financial they might go for the big family.

Normally the big family occurs at the normal or low income family now a day. Beside the more educate the person the better for them in freedom rather than stuck at the family commitment and responsible.

Anyway planning married or having family will vary according to individual and their background.

Beside after married also another issue whether it will last long or not ? Mostly women are more taking risk then the men. Off course I assume lots of women in Asia still sallow their unhappiness, pride and others benefit for the family.

Answer 16

Make it short. Not including the figure as it varies but anyone can imagine.

1) Rising cost of owning a unit to start a family. Property prices have been rising and incomes do not match that growth for majority of us. There is a need to consider the rebate & grant policy. Grants are given for combine income of up to 8k. What if the combined income is 8001? Without grant, you think this couple really can survive better than those with grant of couple whose combine income is 7990?

2) The difficulty to get ideal unit. 2nd hand unit costly as owners can ask for price out of reach. There is no new units available though new flats are cheaper.

3)The cost of giving birth is too expensive. Recurrence check up when wife is pregnant is very costly. After giving birth, when both parents are working, the cost to find someone to look after is an added burden. After which, the education expenses and if the child is able to go all the way to acquire at least a Degree, that cost will roll on. This is only 1 child.

4) 'Fear' of marriage. Divorce rate is rising year by year. Then after divorce, husband still has to provide maintenance to the wife. At times & some cases, i wonder if the wife is married that guy with the plan to divorce some years later to get a share of such finance power.

Answer 17

Lack of childcare support is a top concern - most couples work given the high costs of living. Good quality baby caregivers like Pat schoolhouse is only meant for the wealthy. If you have 2 young kids and want to send them to decent childcare it is difficult. Grandparents often live apart so that compounds the problem. Ferrying the child to and from grandparents' house is tiring what with long working hours. Having a domestic help is also no longer cheap and you worry about leaving a young baby to the hands of an almost stranger.

Answer 18

I believe that concerns of finances and time stand out. But somehow, it is about sacrifice and wanting to share love and joy with others. I've 4 children (the youngest is just over 6 months), and although I would admit that there are times when I decide if it would be a Big Mac or a Cheese Burger, the joys of sharing with the children and family are immense. The family is closer when decisions are made together over what to buy, what is to be amiss, and how we would need to sacrifice so that the younger children will get a share of the pie brings the family closer together. It touched me when my sons spent a small portion of their pocket money buying a little toy that they younger brother would enjoy, sacrificing a juicy chicken drum stick for a fish ball. The pride he had when he came home and shared this with us and his brother. I believe that family life such as this is a sacrifice, and it can be hard now, but in the long run, it would be family that doesn't think only of itself, but of others. There would be support.



Yes, increase the population, yes provide new incentives for those that do not have children. But those that chose to have children, perhaps some incentives can be given as well. If the situation is right, I would not mind planning for a fifth.



While I agree with some of the posts that you only see your chidlren after work, make the best of the time that you have with them, and the weekend. It is well wroth it. Yes, I will admit that the frustrations are there, but hey, love knows no boundaries and love conquers all.

Answer 19

To start a family alot of factors must be taken into consideration with the constant raising price in daily expenses.

Before the child is born, a lump sum of money is already used for the pre-natal checkups, scans and the hospital bills. the government grant is not even enough to cover it.

Than come the baby, clothes, pampers and the milk powders. next is childcare if there's no one willing to babysit and pre-school etc.let alone to have a 2nd or 3rd.

Working mums are hit hard target boards. They are project in small companies as unproductive and a waste of resources. Taking 3 months leaves, twice a week leaves for sick child ( that's like we can predict when the child going to be sick) or worst even if the mum herself is sick that goes another few more days of MC.

Than comes the review of year performances, they will lose out on the bonus and the incentives that results in more mum are very put off when they do consider having a 2ND child. The stress is tremendous.

if the government is really considering encouraging newly couples to start and those who have children to have more. they really need to study the factors and come up with a good plan that both benefit the economy as well as working parents.

Answer 20

So far, everyone is complaining about having no time & money for a baby. Employers' expecttaions, lack of childcare facilities and support etc.



But I think only the Chinese are complaining about this. Look at the Malays. They are multiplying and having kids, and conceiving barely months after the baby is out of the womb. Some Malay familes are large enough to form a foodball team. And they still get on with life, sending their children to school and completing basic education.



Everyone in Singapore should follow the Malays and have as many children as they can.



Secondly, the low birth rate is also due to the Singapore government's successful plan in the 70s where '2 is Enough' and anyone having more than 2 children are penalised.



This '2 is Enough' Birth Control is still in everyone's mind.

Answer 21

As family is getting smaller the culture of "Giving" is slowly vanishing. We are so used to be on the receiving end.To become parents one need to exercise self-denial and self-sacrificial love. With both parents working, demanding for equal rights are on the rise and so he joy of being fully a mother or father is undermined. Roles are switched so most couple are not emotionally prepared or driven to have a child. There is so much of complains & bickering and as a result pregnancy is a dreadful experience especially when the mother to be feels a lot more stressful juggling between work and family life. Motherhood is more than just giving birth. It is savouring every moment from conception until the child reaches adulthood. We are there physically and emotionally present. Financial constraints, busy work schedules & lack of child care support are very secondary issues. The primary issue is the emotional unpreparedness. Bonding with the child has 3 stages. The sense of acceptance at conception, breastfeeding and raised by their biological mother full time.

Couples generally know the truth but this is swept under the carpet as they aspire to acquire more and more material gains. Subconsciously knowing that their pursuit to acquire will leave them with minimum time for family life, they are reluctant to start one. So the authorities should consider paying mothers-to-be allowance to stay home full time to care for their growing family, personally nurturing their children with the finest values. This will be the initial step not only to help propagate and multiply babies but raising beautiful and well natured Singaporeans.

Answer 22

High cost of living in Singapore!



Raising a child is not about 1 or 2 years but it's a life long investment n duty. Childcare, things, food, diapers, milk powder, education, medical expenses, transport...etc are all escalating. People have to have dual incomes to make ends meet. Housing isn't cheap in singapore. Neither is employing foreign domestic helpers cheap. You got to pay levy on top of the wage of the domestic helper. Why? Grandparents can't help much as they need a break too and how much can they help as age has also caught up with them. A child demands heaps of attention and nurturing.



With both parents having to work, the child is left in the hands of maids or childcare teachers. So what's the use of bringing up this poor children in such manner when you are actually not nurturing them by yourself. You hardly see them in the evenings when you yourself are drained after a hard day at work.



Medical expenses are crazy. My child was ill with flu and fever and was not drinking milk for a few days and i had to rush to KK. I was charged $70+ at the registration counter and thereafter had to wait for my turn for so long.



Education is vital and cost of educating a child is also steep in singapore. So the parents end up slogging and saving just for the child. No enjoyment is experienced with that new journey of marriage. At any given point should any parent be diagonised with an illness, that's it! All the savings will go into treating the illness and what's left for the child then?



Paternal leave is 3 days! What can a father do in that 3 days? He should also be granted some time to help his spouse as she will need loads of support during the first 2-3 months.



Living in Singapore isn't easy and cheap at all. One has to slog throughout to make ends meet. Bringing up a child needs devotion, time, money and support and it's diffcult when everything is so expensive in singapore. One child is enough to put you through the test!

Answer 23

Rasing a kid now and in the past is a total different thing. Nowadays, parents wants the best for their child.



Everything is raising, from the basic needs, like food, education, medical, transportation, etc. With the living standard so high here, how to expect us parents to have more kids. Let me quote an example. I have a child(5 yrs old). His childcare alone cost me $400 plus. And have not include any extra lessons like phonics, art and craft, music lessons, etc. All these can easily add up to $800-900 plus including the basic needs(milk powder, medical, etc) just for a child alone a mth. And not forgetting the education/insurance plan. Unless both parents are earning a few thousands a mth,if not i don't think any couple would want to have a child let alone having two or more.

Answer 24

Not that the aforementioned factors are irrelevant to the issue, but they are secondary. Singaporeans must decide within themselves whether they can live with a more modest lifestyle, whether they are willing to make the numerous sacrifices that come with the package that the stork delivers.



There is no point in the Government pushing couples to make babies, or dishing out financial incentives etc. This has been proven to be ineffective or effective only over a short period of time.



At the end of the day, the Government should just take a hands-off approach and leave it to the Singaporeans to make their own decisions. Enticing less-than-affluent couples to have more children will only sabotage their family well-being. Enticing capable young couples to have children when they are not sure if they are willing to make the corresponding sacrifices, is also a recipe for killing their marriages.

Answer 25

Cost of living is extrememly high in Singapore. Most of us can barely support ourselves, what more a family. Busy work schedules leaves us with little or maybe no time for ourselves and family. Many companies may not support the need for employees to take time-off just to spend quality time with family. Further more, raising a child is expensive let alone having a couple more. Having a larger size family means alot of emotional and financial investments.

Answer 26

As a 'swinging' single who contribute to the statistics, my concerns:

1) Financial constraints - high costs of living & living standards to live up to

2) Work schedules - spending quality time with your partner and even time for pro-creation

3) How to settle down when you can't even get a HDB flat? Having money is one thing, having luck with the ballot is another.

4) Work - Females are somehow still biased against in some companies. Realistically, it will. How about maternity benefits?

5) Childcare support - if both my parents & future in-laws do not want to take care of the child, & not all are lucky enough to have a trustworthy maid, who to take care?

Answer 27

I believe the main reason for the question will be the living standard in Simgapore that is too high. Expensive housing price and maintenance cost....High child expenditure and birth expenses.....All these are caused by our own singaporean culture which the education have taught us to be kiasu...must have this, must have that before starting a family. What can the government do on all these which was created along the way on the expense of Singapore today's development? Hopefully, the government is able to look into the matter on a different angle or else further social problem will be created such as increase in youth crime, low birth rate, high divorce rate etc.

Answer 28

It's the financial constraints and busy work schedules that i am worried of. I have 1 girl aged 9 and a new baby coming soon. Just spending money on gynae check ups and vitamins is already digging a big hole into our savings. With the increase of food, electric bills, oil prices and many more are making us scrimp and save for the children. And my company is not pro family one, taking another day of MC or time off to my gynae will make my company jump with anger!!. And i've been informed that i may not have my child care leave too because no one in the office asked for it at all.

Answer 29

Singapore has its plus points like safety, convenience and an uncorrupted government which I am thankful for. However, it could do better in certain areas in order to make this a great place to live and have a family.



My biggest gripe about the lifestyle here is that there is bad work-life balance. Life here is too fast-paced and too stressful. Every weekday it is home-to-work and work-to-home. On weekends, we are often pressured to bring work home. There isn't any time to do anything. Meeting up with friends is already so difficult due to our busy schedules and work pressures, let alone having the time to date and meet a potential partner. Same goes for raising a child. Children here don't seem to be able to see their parents enough as the parents are always hard at work.



Also, there are not many outlets for recreation and tranquility. No personal room to grow or take a time out from our busy lives. Everywhere you look there are people and I feel constantly like I'm suffocating under all the restrictions here.



In addition, it is too expensive and I feel children in Singapore don't have a life. They are pressured from such a young age and they don't seem to play enough.

Answer 30

There's a few issues that limit family size. FIrst, the daily Rat Race and Pressure from work sure doesn't help. Next, we face financial outlay for Marriage Ceremony, Housing Loan and Renovation loan.



By now, my guess will be that newly weds will have already used up most of their saving.



Following behind these commitments are the normal expenses that's going eat up most of our normal disposable incomes.



Next on the table...Babies...Well, it still need monies to have babies. From the point where couples know they are going to have children; to the point where the baby is delivered and up to the 1st month of birth, my guess is that the couple would have used anywhere between 5K to 15K. (medical scanning, nutritional food, and extra help required during confinement month).



OK...All the above acomplished...now 5 - 6 months round the clock taking turns taking care of the baby with diaper change, feeding and bathing etc. till baby stablised without waking up in the middle of the night (not inclusive of baby falling sick) and the monthly injections for new born babies (better get it done properly - less headache with government offical later when child go school). Sleepless night for first 5 - 6 months.



Then on top of all these, we have to change our lifestyle,. Why? We have a duty to take care of the child and all things will revolve around the child.



So, as far as I am concerned, these sure limit my own family size. Can't say for others.... But then again, there is joy when you hold your own child.



Bottomline....YOUR CHOICE !!! :)

Answer 31

no $ then use it brilliantly.



eg. wedding -i don't understand why chinese cannot just hold a wedding party just at the flat ground floor. I only see Malay did that. Is this that embarass ? And is that a MUST to go overseas for wedding photos .? or spend so much just to have a special wedding ceremony that different from others ?



Funeral-Chinese also spend too much $$ on that. If not affortable, why make so much people to suffer together ?



But i admit Singapore living cost is increasing dramatically since last year. It happen in other country too. So people tend to take this as an excuse not to marry, give birth, ...



If i found my belove, i will marry and having my own babies. If no $, spend less. No extra tuition class, no piano, no swimming course, no dancing course,.... I don't think without this, the kid would become a idiot.

Answer 32

I got my retrenchment letter last February when my company lost a major account. I had just found out I was pregnant. The company needed me to stay till end of April and paid me 2+1 month compensation which I would forfeit if I didn't stay back to work. The thing is, I couldn't get a permanent job after that cos no company would hire a pregnant woman. Secondly even the one that was willing wouldn't pay me maternity because my previous company insisted I stay till end of April, which means I fall short of the 180 day minimum period set by MOM - the length of which one should work in a company before being able to enjoy maternity benefits. The thing is, in most countries, the employment laws protect pregnant women. By right, on top of my 2+1 month compensation, I should be paid an additional 2 months maternity by the company that retrenched me, but Singapore law doesn't make room for that. In fact Singapore law protects the employer, not the employee. Lucky for me, I managed to get a freelance job that pays me just as much as I earned full time -- but the problem is, when I am on maternity leave - a time when I most financially strapped, I don't have any income coming in. I hope the government would help compensate 3 months of maternity for moms-to-be in situations like mine so instead of worrying about finances, i can focus on looking after my child.

Answer 33

Currently pregnant for my 3rd child. I love children but in Singapore everything is rising ... utilities bills, insecure job,employer not supportive. Pregnant is never easy , My 1st child is pre-mature and hospital bill was 15K and cash have to paid full of 11K and 2nd child was also pre-mature and was forking out cash of 7K.

Formula milk keep rising and how can this kind of living standard to live with more children ?

Moreover the school fees in pre-sch nor childcare is too expensive and price are keep rising too even there is a subsidy's are not affordable unless only have 1 child.

To have a nanny or a maid to take care of a child is also never easy as per month it was like 500 to 800 a month on top of that the sch was like 200 per month excluding food, books, and house hold expense. So with all these huge burden how can a family to have more then 1 child. ?

Both my hubby n myself was a cvil servant but contract base and 2 year down the road our contract ends by then we also not sure whether are we able to continue support this house if things still keep rising.

Answer 34

Everything is so expensive in Singapore!$1800 is only just enough for 1 person to live,not to say whether to support a family of 3.So when I was thinking about having a child,I will drop the idea.I think if were to give birth to a child,he/she might suffer with me in the long run.What if I cant provide good food,lodging and even education to him/her?



The incentives that the goverment had given so far is far from wanting young married couples to have children.Now to buy a flat you have to pay 20% of total cost which is around $40,000.How are most of us able to take out so much money?GST and ERP all are increasing each year,but our pay remain the same every year.Can you see this great different?Anyway the goverment also do not care about the people life and death.They only care about increasing this or that to earn money.Very sad to live in Singapore,I always been looking for a chance to migrate.Thanks.

Answer 35

1. Inflation and money matters - most of the population live in HDB housing - 70% are tax exempt so it doesn't take a math wiz to figure the average household income. Survive on single income? Probably not without a lot of help and handouts.

2. Are you sure about larger family size? With the size of HDB flats these days, it'd be a tight squeeze with just 2 kids plus the oldies. If you want 3 kids, a terrace house would just about do it, (not even a condo) but can everyone afford it?

3. Competitiveness - have to invest too much time and money to give the new generation a head-start in life

4. Lack of security - no longer can rely on the new generation to support one in one's twilight years after giving them your life's blood. They can't even fend for themselves and need mummy and daddy funds right up to their masters and wedding expenses.

5. Fear of life imprisonment - what ifs? e.g. increasing incidences of autism - no one knows what causes autism in individuals. What if your child has it - does it mean life long commitment with no light at the end of the tunnel, additional expenses for special education, may have to relocate to Australia because services are inadequate here etc. etc.?

6. Poor social support for childcare. What with the old folks coming out to work again, even grandparents prefer to generate income over being taken for granted providing free nanny services. Meagre provisions for child care leave, lack of business savvy child care centers who forget parents work later these days and may need extended hours. Not everyone can afford employed help and can you really trust them with your precious?

7. Worry over bad influences by baby's significant others when you're both away from work. Created in your own image, naturally you would want to inculcate the best and not pick up undesirable habits and thought patterns - especially NOT in the first formative years and this continues into the teens and for some it's a life-long affair.

8. It's all about the kids and no longer about I much less us. A day comes when you forget why you got together in the first place - alone again naturally. So what was the point of it all?



Ultimately, regardless of national agenda, committing to having a large or small family is a personal issue. Rational people which most Singaporeans are would do the responsible thing and weigh the resources available to them to bring a life into the world and raise it up well. If we're not well-supported, we just reproduce according to our means and not more. Can't fault the logic.

Answer 36

Raising a child in Singapore is very expensive. In order to keep up with the high living standard, both husband and and wife need to work. For some local company, some of their female staff with rank, due to their job-scope, had to go on unpaid leave and return to work only after they had given birth whereas those with no rank had to resign if they are pregnant and returning to work after birth is not a guarantee. This is a risk which some of them are not willing to take and therefore deferred the ideas of having children. Who, without any reason want to be jobless when there is an extra mouth to feed in the near future?

It is not only about financial, busy work schedules and childcare support but psychological support plays a vital role. Will my children be in the good hands of their care taker? Will they be well fed? Will their medication be given on time? What about their hygiene?

I personally think that both husband and wife should have a fair share of responsibility in managing their children too. Gone are the days when the husband earn to pay his wife her salary for looking after their kids.

Answer 37

What makes families 50 years ago so successful in giving birth versus today is that there are no rules with regards to raising a family. One can simply plant vegetables, rear some chicken or duck at the backyard or vacant land, set up stores to sell food near home just like the remote town in Philippines. Today, all these suddenly have rules that governed the operation and that made them costly, resulting in lesser time, no helping hand to look after children and meeting the educational needs of the children.



Truly, to raise the number of babies is not difficult. Question is who is willing to provide the "free lunches" if there are so many rules to govern the number of babies to be borned by individual family such as income tax relief for only 4 children. What happens to the income tax refief when the decision to have 10 children is made? Furthermore, the income tax relief given looks impressively sufficient to raise the kids from age 1 to 10 which in fact is totally beyond one's accounting table per kid.



Want to have more babies, simple, provide everything for FREE for the 1st 10 years of the child life since the rules of raising a family have been set by the Government. Then, there will be a baby-boom again like in the 40's to 50's era.

Answer 38

With the constant increase in almost everything but salary, it's so costly to raise a child in singapore. The employer's mindset has to change too. Look at the days of childcare leave given to working parents...it's only 2 miserable days for pte sector. Obviously it's not enough. We all know that children fall sick easily when in childcare, how is it possible for 2 days to be enough to cover. Of course govt sector gives more - 5 days per kid but still many of us are working in pte sector. The low subsidy is another issue. If you have 3 kids, you definitely pay 1.5k or more just for childcare and we are not even talking about the number of days each child falls sick in a year and the high medical cost.

Answer 39

I read a lot of articles lately on the stress resulted from work that caused infertility. Could this be one important concern that our govt. has overlooked? No doubt there was a certain amount that we can claim from our medisave for IVF but I think the amount was not enough to cater for the needs. This comes also under the financial constraints as IVF success rates are not even 75%. Fertility assistance such as IUI is not claimable so it really puts people with financial constraints off.

Answer 40

getting married is still within means as one can really budget on the expenses but having a baby can't.. We will want to give the child the best but the bonus is not able to support for future. It can only help in the 1st 2 months. We do need more support in terms of bonus, child care & even pay adjustments. To support a child is long-term where there are many commitments. Sometimes it is also difficult to have more time spent with the child due to busy work schedule.

Answer 41

too expensive and the most important thing is that im afraid my job will be lost to other ladies who are not married and pregnant. Some companies dont even have proper basic welfare for their staff, let alone asking them to allow their staff to go for monthly check-ups, or more maternity/paternity leave. OR we are too busy working non-stop to even sleep, let alone raise kids. Our normal working hrs is from 9-6pm (for office staff) but we are expected to work until 10pm (if not our bosses will give us some kind of weird faces isnt it), so tell me how to find time to get married? In Australia where i live, the government is very concerned over the failing birth rates and they (try to) ensure that there is no discrimination of any kind in employing pregnant women and most offices close by 5pm. Why? Because the quality of life is what Aussies look for, not how long they stay in the office. That is why many people have chose to leave their birth town and migrate to other countries. Yes, the government here may introduce new and "better" packages, but they will increase the prices of other things elsewhere, like daily neccesities, transport prices, childcare prices etc etc. And in the end, we are back to square 1.



This has been a super long term problem that we Singaporeans are facing. But trust me when i say that it will not be solved as there are simply too many factors to consider. And as we are an Asian country, our motto in life is to 'work till we die'.

Answer 42

Personal point of view, no matter how Govt is going to implement all the perks, i would think it is of no use. It's probably workable to some ppl who are so naive thinking that Bonuses Govt is offering is so attractive and they had forgotten about the rest of the days to rear a child up.

To have a child, shouldn be looking after perks the Govt is offering, instead, i would rather request the Govt to look into how we Singaporean is striving for our living. Given the baby bonus, how long can it last? Don't think can be of any help at all.



And given the extension of Paternity leave, do you really think the Man will really stay behind to look after the child. Face it, don't many guys are able to look after the child during the leave, it will only give the man more time for their own activity. lets face it, thats the nature of a man. Furthermore, all the party clubs are extending their business hours til nearly dawn. Is it really appropriate? Does any one know and realise how many so called "Family Man" is staying up late at these so called happening clubs? This has link to divorce rate in the recent years as well.



Having a good and understanding employer is the most important part. I am considered lucky to have a understanding employer as for now. A good employer who is actually encouraging me to have a second kid. Can you believe it? So, it makes me realise that given all the perks the Govt is going to offer are nothing greater than to have a Great Employer. Whatever the Govt is offering, is only for the present situation and not a long term support. Of course, I am not expecting the Govt to do so as it's not their job for People of their Nation. Think the role of Govt right is to work extra hard to understand the living standard of Singapore. And not offering perks for the sake of increasing the birth rate. These offerings are only for the presence like i mention earlier on.



Guess i am more concern about living standard for the locals. It seems like, Singapore right now, is so focus on Expaits, and therefore, Singaporean's got to put up with high standard for living in order to level up with the expaits.



Having a child is for the sake of a family, not for the nation. Is also how much we can afford and should not be depending on Govt's Perks. If you are comfortable, just have one, for the sake of starting a family. Its meaningless to have the very first one just because Govt is offering perks.

Answer 43

I am having my first child this year and i have just came to know that even if there are subsidiaries given by the Govt for the hospitalisation about $1400, we still have to come out cash to pay off the whatever balance.

So i was thinking why are we not able to pay fully with our medisave for the hospital stay? understand that there may be some need in the future but with this it will assist us a long way as there may be some complication (hope not) with child which the bill will come out to be a "bomb" and some parents may not have the money to pay. With the money they have in the medisave that they have save through their working life, it may be enough.

Flexibility is only a reflection of mind, if we think too much to cover too many areas we may not see what we really want to help the people who is young and would like to help many children.



Cheers and best wishes.

Answer 44

There are many factors why people choose not to have kids , one of the main factor is actually the ever rising inflation rates . In the past , people could be living with a 4 person family with about $1800 per month , now , $1800 is barely sufficent for 1 person alone .



The current baby bonus that the goverment has introduced is being divided over 1 1/2 years and the current $450 per installment is only barely sufficent to be able to cover a little bit of the ever rising cost of living to feed the kid . Additional to that , Paternal leave is not compulsary in singapore and some companies are practicing paternal leaves (example mine) . How can we have babies if this is not going to change .



I am expecting my first girl this year and I was really shocked when I went for the antenatal course that was conducted by raffles , my wife and I are considered the youngest among them , I guess this is to show that the younger generation would like to put their careers as well as making money infront of them . Having a children is now like a secondary thot . I guess many of us thinks this way , I guess in this modern century , this is how we are educated to think ....

Answer 45

Singapore is growing too fast in line with inflation as well. 10 years back I paid 300 cash only for B2 labour ward and today I paid almost 1600 cash at KK Hospital. However, the wages rate increase is hardly still 5% average annually with starting still all time low 1200 for a normal employee or some even lesser. Annual personal tax deductible for baby still unchange as 2000 or 3000? Imagine a formula milk cost as high as 35 per can and require 4 can per month. Already cost 1820 per year. I think is time government has to provide 100% support for kids upto graduation to ease parents stress. After all our government has the best making money systems in the world like road tax + ERP consider double taxation. Not complaining but trying to induce more birth ideas. We are living in a city going to be rich only subtainable. The lower income is slowly moving away. If that is what government trying to neglect and not important to pull back then let it be.

Answer 46

Living in Singapore is too COSTLY, i'm a father of two kids, i think is the BEST two person wrking i mean the husband n wife if not u totally cannot afford to have a child coz expenses too high n everything is increasing example( Diapers, Milk Powder etc ), Somemore if some of the families here still got parents staying with them n not wrking n still have to take care of the parents. No doubt Government is giving us the Baby Bonus but it can only last for maybe maximum 2mths. If can is the best to have some medicals rebate example going for injections or bringing baby for consultation from doc liked normal cough, Flu or fever. I know that Polyclinic is the best place to go which is the most affordable but when the baby got fever we still need to queue for the numbers. It's wasting of time n the baby is feeling so sick.

Answer 47

I am a mother of 2 and am a working professional. If I am given an option of12 months 50% paid maternity, I will consider having 2 more kids, to make it 4. I have worked for 14 years, and have been in with my current company for 6 years. Through out my 2 pregnancies, my company has been very supportive. In return, I have been a faithful and productive worker, and I do not job hop. Of course I do go on my urgent leave here and there, but I also go on urgent, last minute business trips or extend my business trips when the company needs me. This is a give and take, long term relationship, family and company. It is also a win-win combination.



My girl friend works with Virgin Air, base in Hong Kong. Virgin gives her 12 months paid maternity, she is a stewardess. My friend is in her early 40s and she has 4 kids. My freind is still happily working for Virgin Air.

Answer 48

Yes, financial constraints and busy work schedules are definitely major deterrence for procreation in Singapore. I myself did not want to have more kids after my first. But I found myself with 3 kids now, though the third one came unexpectedly. However, things did not go as bad as thought initially, as we learnt to adjust our lifestyle accordingly and made sacrifices for the sake of our kids.



However, there is a major "No No" for more kids which I think not many mentioned it here. It is also crucial that the kids has proper upbringing to become a polite, morally upright and ethical person. How many of us parents do really have the time, energy and the know how to spend quality time giving our children moral, social and ethnics education? How many parents know what are these and the importance of these? Are parents today not drawn into getting their children spending most of their time in participation of the school's rat race? When do they start and where can they receive moral, social and ethnics education if there is any?



I want my kids to grow up to be a polite, ethnical, kind, caring, and thinking person. Is this possible or just a wishing thinking on my part? Will he or she like us parents be also drawn into the rat race in this social environment here?

Answer 49

Despite having both couple working to support the family the rising cost of living is the main deterrent for us to have more babies. At times, couples have to have more than 1 full time job so that they can support their existing family. The rising cost of living doesn't match the take home pay for most couples. By having more children, that may mean having a maid or a caretaker to take care of the children while they earn a living.



Most low income Singaporeans cannot afford a maid to take care of the children or send the children to day-care should they need to find a job to assist their spouse in supporting the family. They end up staying at home taking care of the children themselves. This has cause a fear among Singaporeans that having children may actually give them more burden than they bargain for.



Most Singaporeans have developed the mentality that not having children may acutally be healthy for the marriage life as it will cause less financial worries and burden.



Yes, it is true having children is a blessing in disguise inspite of all the hardship. But how can we have more babies when we average Singaporeans are struggling to keep up with the inceasing cost of living eventhough we have minimal support from the relevant authorities?

Answer 50

Firstly, there is the lack of appropriate housing. There is all these issues to consider given the horrific ERPs raising & crowded public transport that it's really not wise to pour in all the dollars we can never get any returns on, thus who won't preferred a location that is more centrally accessible (since we still can always get the investment back upon resale)?!



The ERPs meant longer working hours to avoid these little cost which is going to add up as quite a sum of unneccessary expenses in long term. Then who is going to take care of the kids if the parents can't afford to stay home without a salary with the cost involved in the housing & other high standard of living? All that is even after the obstacles of long working hours is overcome; otherwise how to even have the energy & time for any physical intimacy? At most, having a one & only kid is more than what most would tolerate given the cost of living standard now in this society! Almost everyone is striving for promotion to cope! How is 2 days of children leave be enough when other countries are having a few months for the parents to share?! Isn't that a fairer arrangement?



In view of all that, any rational person would have gladly chose to stay single & affordable of the lifestyle they prefer than be burden down with all the above factors. I still can stay happily in love into my middle age as long as I took care of myself & maintain my well-being without the above burden! Why would I want to get married then? Why would I want to start my own family? I can still live with my current family without worrying of anymore housing repayment; isn't that better? Why would I want to slave myself for the future population of the nation? If the opportunity present itself, I'd definitely grab the chance to leave for a better place where I can live in greater luxury with less stress!



There is such a widening of social class that the rich is getting richer (& I wonder if really happier too) while the lower class is simply struggling to make ends meet! Seems like the options of marrying UP is the only easy solution if anyone is to consider marriage & starting a family without all those stated considerations!

Answer 51

Firstly, casting financial constraints aside, my husband is a teacher and his working hours are long. He leaves the house at 7am and comes home only at 6pm at least 3 times a week! Very often, he brings his work home and work till the wee hours in the morning! He get 2-3 hours of sleep and goes to work in the morning. Even though we are planning to have children, looking at how much time we get to spend together least to say getting intimate, having a child is almost impossible.



Secondly, not having our own flat is another obstacles. We are not able to get our own flat solely because I had co - owned a condominium which since has been sold off more than a year ago with my parents. The only reason I had to be a co - owner of the flat was so that we could pay off the bank loan using my CPF account as I was the only working adult at that time. To put it simply, I was punished for trying to be filial. We had to wait for 30 months from the day the condominium was sold before we can get our own flat. For now, we are living with our mother in law in a 3 room flat. If we were to have a baby, my baby will have to sleep in the living room as there is simply no room for a baby cot in our room.



Thirdly, financial constraint is definitely one of the major obstacles. With cost of living rising but our income not changing, we simply can't afford to have a baby.



The government have to do more than just improving pro - family incentives. They have to also improve working hours and housing issues.

Answer 52

My answer is based on my personal opinion and experience, not from any other source.



My main concerns of having my own family will be time spent as a family unit. My ideal idea of a family is being able to sit down for breakfast and dinner with my husband and kids on weekdays (which means ONLY 8 hours in the office) and spend the whole day of quality family time together on weekends.



Unfortunately, even as a single currently I find it hard to do that with my own parents and siblings. Work schedules and demands are building as I become an important body in the company. I am currently on my first job. And right now keeping my job is my main priority since I do have a desire of getting married and having a family in the near future.



On top of that I am taking my bachelor degree to keep up with the times and hoping for a better future for me, my parents and my new future family. So basically, till I graduate and get a higher paying job (compared to my current job), now is not the right time to get married.



I am 23 years old and have time and financial issues. And getting married and having a family definitely has to wait.



I hope you get my point.



Cheers

Answer 53

I am a father of one yr old and both me and my wife earns above 10k a mth combined but we are losing the battle of rising expenses on the kid. We barely see our savings after expenses so I could understand how bad it is for couples earning less. The fact of rising costs and endless payments to come from pre-school, medicals, nanny, etc instil a real fear in losing our jobs and unable to feed the family. That fear itself drives us to work even longer hours giving less time to family without a second thought. All those family values on commercials blah blah blah is a joke when there is no basic support at the most needed level.



Singapore has all the facilities for a childcare, education, and healthcare but the costs are prohibitive. The birth rate will continue to decline unless these costs are subsidized by at least 75%. Talk is cheap and poor incentives in guise will be ridiculed. Cost itself is 25% of the many problems but solving this 25% will alleviate the 75% of the other problems. Period.

Answer 54

Noone has an answer for this as this is a global issue that most developed country is experiencing. What the government can do is of cos to help the citizen if they value fellow Singaporean breed more then foreign talents. Take for example, Finland impose a maximum 30-40% tax on their salary but they get higher salary to offset the tax, free education for children from childcare to university, free books, assement etc, subsidy for any children related items purchased, 105 days 80%, followed by share of 158 days with father for maternity/paternity leave and the list goes on. Ok, so what our tax is low? Our car price is amazingly high, housing is atrocious, basic cost of living is rocket high and we have amazing ERP, Male have to do ICT, IPPT(fail RT), work, support wife etc etc. In the end we are paying more tax then our fellow friends in Europe but they are enjoying more benfits then us. Unless our gorvenment is willing to adopt the european benefits, we forever will face worst off situation then any other country. So I am sure PLAN B will still be the better off solution for our gorvenment.

Answer 55

Not that the aforementioned factors are irrelevant to the issue, but they are secondary. Singaporeans must decide within themselves whether they can live with a more modest lifestyle, whether they are willing to make the numerous sacrifices that come with the package that the stork delivers.



There is no point in the Government pushing couples to make babies, or dishing out financial incentives etc. This has been proven to be ineffective or effective only over a short period of time.



At the end of the day, the Government should just take a han

Answer 56

Too many times have the government been 'taking painkillers' instead of finding a cure. Introducing short term measures will never work unless they look beyond the first 5 years or more and acknowledge that parents face a lifelong path of financial commitments - more than just the maternity benefits and the joys of parenthood that they preach about.



Sometimes I wish they could just walk (and perhaps live) with the folks on the street who don't have that 'wow-bulous' salary to cope with the cost of raising a kid in this place. If they can do that, it's time we can sit and talk.

Answer 57

I've been married for 2 years now, and have been stayin in my new house for a year. It was a huge decision to get the house as it ate away most of our savings. Thus, we had to start saving from scratch after the banquet and honeymoon. While I say we are not struggling with bills, everyday is a constant worry as we plan our next big step to start a family. With our dual income, we have just enough to get by... we can afford the daily necessities-toiletries, mobile phone bills, utilities, and occassionally, splurge a little on dinner with friends. But that's as far as it goes. Sometimes I turn my frens down because i've overspent on groceries this month, or have cut into our savings for abit because we had to pay for insurance for the whole year... But this is not the life I want to live... If my husband and I have to worry about expenses now, what do you think will become of us once we have a kid. This really scares us and it's what stops us from really saying YES... we wanna have a kid now. Well, yea.. we want to, and I know we should cos we're really not that young anymore.. but the questions is... CAN we??? The government is clearly not doing enough. Baby bonus will not entice pp like me to start a family. There is a lot more at stake here. I want my kids to have the best education and support. Money here is crucial and something we, unfortunately do not have. Ask for pay increment? Locals are suffering under the influx of foreign workers who get paid more for doing less and being recognised for job well done-for them. This situation, I only have one thing to say.. IT SUCKS BIG TIME !!!

Answer 58

I am married and just had my 1st girl 5 mths ago. Yes everybody is right, the cost of raising a child is HUGE!!. The 9 -10 months of pregnancy check-ups and compulsory medical tests adds up to $5000 and it is only for gov based hospital. Child's medical bills $700 (only 1st 4 mths), Milk powder - $ 640 (up to 5 mths), diapers - $400. There are still many things which are beyond our counting like baby cot, prams, compulsory car seats, unforeseen illness. By the time she is 1 yrs old, the bill will be more then what the BABY BONUS the gov gave. So how to have kids or more kids with all these bills. Both parties have to be working to ensure that all bills are paid on time, have enough money for rainy days (luxury), have enought money to survive the daily expenditures as well as to have enough money in the bank so that the banks do not fine you for not having the min sum required (nonsense). So sometimes I do think, WHY bother to help the gov to boost birth rates when they are not helping us at all?? Since our gov loves to import foreign talents to fight for our exsisting low employment rates and pay as well as unsecure jobs.



For my case, I think 1 kid is MORE then ENOUGH!!! If your combined income is low better not to have any.

Answer 59

Let's look at the cost involved in getting married 1st before we jump into having a family.



My boyfriend and I have plans to settle down soon. The 1st thing to settle is not the wedding dinner (reservations to be made at least one year in advance), rather is a roof over our heads after we're married.



We started researching information relating to purchase of a house (new flat or resale), including the terms and conditions for HDB loans and grants.



This is where we are hit hard!



Our combined income will soon limit us from buying new flats from HDB or obtaining any grants to help ease the debt aspect of financing the purchase.



Is there any way that we, young couples who have not really worked and saved enough to finance the purchase of a house look forward to some financial assistance so as to take the 1st step to getting married?



We each have a stable job and all we needed is just a little generosity from the cold hard rules.



Hopefully this concern may be taken into consideration as one of the government's new measures to encourage home ownership and more importantly a push factor for young couples to build their love nest and eventually having a family.



For a start, how about lifting the salary ceiling of HDB loans/grants so that my boyfriend & I may be included as one of the young couples that government finds hope to boost birth rate?

Answer 60

No matter what kind of bonuses the government give, i will not have a child simply because of the high living cost in singapore. Having a child is also about nurturing and teaching the child myself, and not whisking it off to some childcare centre in the day, and the tuition centre at night because i am busy with my work. Firstly, I would not want to give up my consumeristic lifestyle just because of my child. Secondly, a child would result in much worries. I would have to worry for my child's education since singapore emphasizes heavily on education. Then i have to worry if my child can survive in society in future due to rising cost. Thirdly, i have to worry if my child turns astray while i am off at work to beat the rising cost. And the list goes on.



I feel that giving more bonuses is not a way to encourage birth rates. No matter how much the government gives, it is not enough to cover the upbringing of a child. Besides, the raising of a child is the responsiblity of the parents, not the society.

Answer 61

It's not just the lack of child support and things getting too expensive... there are so many other things that do not fall into place nicely for those who wished to settle down and raise a family.



I am a SG citizen, married to a foreigner, am expecting my first kid BUT can't purchase my own house cause currently I am on no-pay study leave that does not allow me to get a house direct from HDB and have to seek for a resale flat even if I am not studying because my hubby is not a SG citizen and if I apply for a resale flat there are many other rules in place before I can get one. On top of that resale flats require cash at hand which is ridiculously high and impossible to pay! So now I am renting a place to live... which is still too expensive... since I have a kid to plan for... so what am I to do?

Answer 62

Primarily its financial constraints. A decent wedding now cost at least 100% more than a decade ago. Reasons cited are higher rentals and increased food cost. When the wedding is over, whoever would have enough to bring a baby to this world? The ERPs are not helping to begin with. Couples are likely to turn up early at work and leave late inorder to avoid their mounting expenses. You are likely to be looking at a full 12-hours work week. Would there be enough energy after work to make babies, let alone raise them. We want to raise quality kids, not quantity. By that, we mean giving them a good headstart in life with good education. Good education comes with a premium again. Good nutritional food which translates to better performance at school also comes at a premium. With the ever increasing cost in all aspects of our lives, it is no wonder people think twice about starting families.

Answer 63

I guess marriage is still ok but when it comes to kids, people may put off the idea



Reasons for not having a kid:



1. Too costly

2. Worried about whether can he study or not in this ever competitve environment

3. I do not want my kid to commit suicide a few years down the road when things become too stressful

4. Piano lessons, swimming lessons, ballet classes, you name it, you got it....if i ask you yourself to take it, would you want? So why are parents imposing so much on their child? Kiasuism?

5. Is baby bonus really enough? How much exactly to raise a kid nowadays? Even a hundred K may not be enough.

6. Working life is already very stressful, plus a kid...OMG!!

7. Raising a kid nowadays doesn't mean he or she will take care of you when you are old. Worse still, what if he or she ais one who always take money from you instead?

8. Woulod you want to bring in a child to this sadistic world? At our era now, a normal flat can even cost up to half a million,. and plus all the rising prices of living, I really wonder if I'm brinign the child into a world of happiness or sadness.

9. Will a child wag his butt when he or she sees you coming back home?

10. What more can I say?? Can I assure myself that my child in future is not going to give me trouble?



Reasons for having a child:

1. Complete the family

2. Re-read the above again.

Answer 64

In the first place I am married to a wonderful hubby with four kids.I have never regretted having any of my kidsDespite the reasons given over concerns getting married and having a family , I feel that the society must come to understand and support larger family size especially in the work place and employers should be supportive of people with larger family and give them the support needed when it comes to family matters.. In many places, support from work place is missing!

Answer 65

I am married and 2mths pregnant. I am still wondering if I should keep the baby. There are a few reasons to it.



1) Increasing inflation, GST and cost of living.



2) Lack of government support.



3) Lack of employers support.



Frankly if I am to give birth there is a possibility that I will migrate to the country that is giving good support to mothers and mothers to be. Also I would not care less what is the population in Singapore at 2070, I would be dead by then.

Answer 66

Main factor is the stress level of competition in work place and raising costs are the causes for getting married and also starting a family.

Secondly most of the couples are not ready to have a family. The fear in lost of income and promotion also plays a part in this.

Moreover everyone wants to secure a proper financial stability.

To even have 1 child is a big responsibility for a couple given the time and support.

Answer 67

Having babies in Singapore is way too costly be it hospitalisation or even education like childcare, nursery or even kindergarden. Just 1 day of hospitalisation at govt hospital with subsidize can also come up to almost $200 so how many couples can afford to have many children in a family?? Even with the baby bonus, how much can they help and does it help alot? I don't think so which is why people don't dare to have more kids.



Even for me, i have problem getting my own flat just because of the flat i co-owned with my mom has to wait for 5years before i can sell and because of this restrain i cant get my own flat for my family. Flats nowadays are so expensive which not everyone can afford the buy bigger flats if they have more children.



Even though govt says to be pro-family but even my husband who worked in a navy can be so busy that within a week i only get to see him at home after 6pm for only 2-3 times the most. If too much workloads, they should hire more people instead of getting the employee to stay behind and work while they have children at home who need them.

Answer 68

My husband held 2 jobs and i worked full time since our marriage and had 3 children. All are working with 2 married, but we are still working as they can only afford to give us allowance which is insufficient to support us financially for us to be 'retired', as they have their own family to take care. My children said that we are parents that produce but not nurture due to our financial constraints, busy work schedules and thus not able to provide them the 'best' of everything which they need to have a more comfortable lifestyle. Thus, do not have children if you have no money and cannot afford the time. Anyway the world is over populated, why bring another life to 'suffer'???

Answer 69

This issue is actually closely linked to employment laws / employee rights in Singapore.

The discrimination against women (especially those with children / pregnant) in the labour market is very much alive here, despite the fact that Singapore is considered a very advanced country.

Although the stated 3-month maternity leave is good for mothers to recover / look after their children, this also makes women less desirable as employees. Companies simply refuse to or are reluctant to hire women. Or pay them less in the same capacity as men. There are not strong enough laws to protect women who are discriminated for this reason. The result? Hire men instead. No compulsory 3-month leave. No disruption to service.

Having children will start a viscous cycle: decreased employability, decreased household income, families struggling to get by.....

I would like to see an equal length of compulsory paternity leave for fathers. But then again, companies might simply refuse to hire men AND women who have children. I hope the government can do something about the employment laws in Singapore.

Answer 70

I have been married for 3 years now and still putting off the idea to have children. The goverment is not doing enuf for the incentives that wife and husband will be getting during the pregnancy and after birth period.



First - Pregnant means having to take time off or annual leave once a month to go for check-up and initially twice a month after the six months period.



Second - Fathers having only 3 days leave.



Third - 2 + 1 maternity may put off a lot of employer being away from work. Risk off getting fired is there



Fourth - after the 2 + 1 maternity period,there is still more follow up to do,means more leave to take :(

Answer 71

Am married but childless, not by choice. Married late, have a series of medical problems that resulted in this state. I'm not very upset cos I don't think I'm very maternal. I had considered starting a family (thru IVF, adoption) but am very put off by many factors. it's not easy making a living in SIN. Job security is not there anymore and everyone works a double/triple load with streamlining, outsourcing. I'm from the public sector and the iron ricebowl concept is gone. With the long hrs I have, when I go home, I just want to eat, wash up and sleep. I cannot imagine having to take care of a kid after a long hard day at work.

Also, it's costly, as most posters have mentioned. I'm doing financial planning for my partner and me and I'm already concerned if we can be financially sound when we are retired with no kids to support us. How to set aside $$ for raising children?

And lastly, maybe I'm just plain selfish in that I don't want to change my lifestyle. I can sleep late, can travel anywhere I want, can call up friends for late nite chats/supper and $$, is less strenuous so I have more disposable income in that sense. Mentally, I have lesser stress in that I don't have to worry abt getting my kid to a gd school, my kid don't fall into bad company, my kid cannot make it to university.

Answer 72

When you get married, your bank account takes a huge dive. When you get a flat, your bank account takes a huge dive again. when you start a family and have your first kid, the bank account takes a huge dive again.



Its getting very expensive to start a family in Singapore. Our income is not keeping up with the rising standards of living. Used to be that the husband brings in the bread, the whole family can get by comfortably, now the wife also need to bring in the bread in order that the family can have a modestly comfortable lifestyle.



Used to be that HDB houses cost about 100K now HDB costs 300K and above. No wonder that a lot of young couples prefer or choose DINK (Dual income no kids) The environment is simply not conducive for family starting.



Unless they work in a big MNC or corporation, most ladies will think twice before taking maternity leave.. their jobs may not be there when they return.



Parenting costs are also up. Education costs start very much earlier now. So that the child can have a head start.



Used to be we only have kindergarten, then they have pre-school, then they have nursery, maybe pre-nursery maybe coming out soon.



Parents have to fork out large sums, to start enrolling kids into all sorts of classes, montesorri, kumon, music, arts.



It is becoming a very competitive society. Down the line, we may just develop to be like Japan or Korea, where which school you come from matters in gaining entry into the corporate world.

Answer 73

Getting married is not a problem but having a family is a BIG PROBLEM.



With the high cost of living and average mean wages by a average worker, how can we dare to bear more children.



The govt aids cannot lasts long, funds for the purpose of child-education are more likely aids for the family's day to day expenses.



With the rising cost of living and education (even the University's fee has increased their rates) I hope that there should be life-time free subsidy for a child's education for the low and average Singaporean earners.



More subsidy should go full-force for those having more children instead of judging from their income. A low earner may afford a 1-child education but how can an average earner afford for a 3-children's education.



Instead of giving subsidy for baby bonus, income tax rebate (not much of a help to an average earner), why not a full-subsidy for education for our next generation.

Answer 74

I am married, however, I feel that nowadays, when couples want to get married, the important issues pertaining to marriage has changed. The difficulty is not in getting married by keeping the marriage up and running, when the honeymoon is over. I find that this is very lacking, when couples get ready to enter into marriage.



The above issues raised are really not the only things that one considers when planning to marry. I agree that these things have to be thought about and thought through, however, when you are married, it is to be thought through together.



How did our parents manage? I guess times have changed but has the values also changed. Have we become so materialistic that we have forgotten the beautiful act of marriage...



In short, where there is a will, there will most certainly be a way, around, about or through whatever problem.

Answer 75

Hi! I am a mother of 4 young kids, age 5,4,2 and 3 months.



I would like to air my view regarding child care support.



I am very lucky to have my mother-in-law to help me take care of my children when I go back to work. My parents also helped out when I needed more help.



On a daily basis, my mum-in-law would help to look after the kids while my maid will do the housework. However, we realised that maids nowsaday are more and more unwilling to work. They will complain about the slightest things and because I stay in a cluster terrace they will request to change employer as they wanted to work in a smaller house.



And when we did that we, the employer, are the ones who pay the penalties. Besides paying for the admin charge, insurance coverage and so on of another new maid, we have to do without a maid for some time.



Personal experience was when I was on my last month of my 4th prenancy. the second maid after working for 5 days told us she wanted to change employer. Not wanting to keep her for fear she might do funny things to my kids we let her go.



Ended up my mum-in-law who is in her 70s and I in the advance stage of pregnancy had to do the housework. This was not the only encounter we had.



What I am trying to say is maybe MOM should also look into the well being of employers of maids. It is alright for the maids to know their rights and how to look for help when they are being abuse. However, I think that many of the maids are abusing the system and in the end employers suffers.



Hence, besides looking into childcare support outside home maybe the government can also look into childcare support within home.



For a bigger family size, having a maid makes more economical sense than sending all my 4 kids to child care centres.

Answer 76

Having a child is like an investment nowadays! The scary part is, no matter how much education or good values we try to instil in the child, we can't gurantee when we grow old the child is able to take care of us. That is if we decide to have one child, we really have to nurture the child very well not only in school education maybe even moral or religious education. Firstly because, by giving the child good education, the child will have good stable jobs to support his/her own family at the same time take care of their parents. For this, a lot of money is to be invested for the child's education and upbringing. This also can't gurantee us not being sent to an old folks home when we are old and useless. No matter how hard we try to bring up the child well and give the best we can, we are no experts. Maybe a parenting class would help but that also needs money. Like they say, a mother can bring up many children but the children may not be able to take care of their mother.



As a second and last child, I know how lonely when there is no one to play with if your sister/brother is not around. I wouldn't want that to happen to my child but to have one child now is already so taxing what more to have more than two children?



I am about to tie a knot and that alone already costs me almost 40K. My wedding is not even gonna be that lavish but just average but I hope it to be memorable. I don't think I can have enough financially to have a child immediately.



Personally, I would want many children (I like children a lot) if possible four but I don't think I can afford it. With all prices of household expenditure, education, baby products, bills, etc, going up and never going down and the salary never going up, I don't think I can be like parents of the olden times where they could afford to have many of children even when the mothers are not working yet the children grew up to be highly educated.



As parents, definitely we want to give the best we can but without the means to do that which is mainly time and money, it is just so sad. Especially when they see kids around them who are having more than what they have and they start to ask or compare.



I really hope the government can take into considerations all our problems/factors and do something about it. Baby Bonus incentives alone won't help! Even for us the average income people what more the people below average?



Thank you.

Answer 77

I do not want any more children as I do not have the time due to my busy work schedules.



Why bring a child into the world only to suffer? The cost of living for the child when they grow up can only continue to increase, the work schedule and the financial burden !



Why get married when you do not intend to start a family? The purpose of marriage is for procreation... to continue the family line if you like.

Answer 78

I think that if the government wants to increase birthrate as per household, what they should do is target at helping the 18-22 years old women and 23-26 years old men so they can plan to have 4-5 kids. Couples with many kids should plan years apart between their children because they can be less strenuous when children go to school. And of course that means the earlier you start the better. You will have energy, time and resources more than other age group. Incentives should channel to such as these so it will ultimately be counted as good investment. Cheers and hurray for new birth!

Answer 79

financial issue is the number one concern, raising children in singapore in definetely not cheap, from the moment the baby is concieved till birth till uni, not to mention the raising cost of living, having car is so expensive, it's so inconvinient to have more than one child here, the mrt is so packed and smelly, and have to walk n walk, it's so tiring, having maid is also expensive, can u imagine come home from work so tired and stress out yet got to do housechores and look after children?

the baby bonus is not even enough to cover the hospital bill, how about the daily needs? both parents must work just to cover the basics, children are put to care by smb else, what kind of generation singapore wants to have? a three million of rascals? the children here grow up with money mindset, do u know that the love of money is the root of all evils? but it cannot be helped, that's the way things go around here

Answer 80

The major concern is whether we have enough money to keep a family to survive in Singapore. I have bought my 5 room HDB at below market price in 2004. Lucky I was able to pay deposit with the full 20% CPF. But now married couples have to come out with cash and it may run up to min of $10000. Giving a child alone would cost u up to $2000 for the delivery of your child. It cost RM200 to give birth in Malaysia. Childcare per month will cost u around $300 to $500 per month. A stressful working environment where we have to compete with all the foreigners for jobs.

Answer 81

Nowsaday couple have to work in order to have maintain financial balance for the family (expenses for the baby, monthly housing loan, rising utilities bills, etc). When 2 of them are working then is difficult to find the time to make baby. Cost of Living is getting higher in Singapore, giving birth to a child is costing a lot to a married couple (hospital bill, consulation bills for the 10mths, medicine, etc) even though people can use thier medisave to pay parts of the bill. Even the government coming out with baby bouns & other benefits will not be able to minimise the financial burden for the couple.

Answer 82

I think the government of Singapore doesn't need us to tell them how to improve the birth rate of Singapore and the mindset of Singaporean. It's obvious that we need to let ppl feel that it's cool to have baby by giving more obvious advantage to parents. Financial incentives, pro family society, pro family employers, free educations and more. All this were noted but whether they mean it when they say they want to encourage birth rate in Singapore or they actually think that immigrants is the better and cheaper alternatives which i believe is what we see now. Immigrants should be viewed as an advantage to our workforce and economy but not helping in population. Local born rooted Singaporeans are still more important to the society and the future of our nation. If we can have the sense of urgency on the problem of low birthrate like how we handle SARS then i think this problem had already been solved long ago.

Answer 83

I agree with the surveys. In the past, things were made very difficult for couples to have kids. Cost of living is very high. Work stress is high and many couples are working late and most of the professionals are travelling in their jobs. There is no job security promised when one had a family. Infact, I was asked to step down and eventually given the gold handshake.

What generation are we raising if maid is the solution to child giver role? Unimaginable! However, working mums just can't do without maid. The cooking, the washing and besides the also playing the role of coaching the kids in their school work. Look at the rebate for maid levy for family with kids. It is only up to 7years old. Does it mean we will have a latch key kids and does it mean the kids can cook when he/she reaches 7? Thus, it is cost of living, cost of good education, cost of keeping the home running, pressure in work, late hours, school coaching etc that is driving birth rate down and as well as no good helpers.

Answer 84

1stly, its too expensive to raise a child, not talking about a family in these high inflation times. 2ndly, we do not have the time. 3rdly, everyone is more interested in making $$$ for themselves so that there can have a secure future, so marriage is definitely not on the cards. 4thly, there are no special priviliges or benefits for single parents. HDB flats are so EX these days and the area is so small. It looks more like a bird cage. HBD should build bigger flats, like how it was approx 10 years ago. Maybe only then would ppl consider having a bigger family, Lastly - what guarantee is there that when these kids grow up, they will be able to get jobs, after going thru years of education pressure? what guarantee is there that they wont have to share their birth rights with the PRs - like what we are doing now, with so many foreigners settling in Singapore. there are so many negative factors which disuade us from having children.

Answer 85

Everything is too limited! When the baby bonus was announced, I missed it! My baby was born in April, so only baby that was born after August is eligible! Then when I had my 5th baby, the baby bonus is only for the 1st to 4th! I missed all the goodies again. Why can't the govt do it like - every 4th baby (regardless of month born) and why limit up to 4th child only? Isn't the 5th child also contribute to the already low birth? Its so unfortunate for people like myself. I believe I am not the only 1 facing this. Recent newspaper also cited the same grieve as I am. We both have the same situation. Maybe the govt should look into this situation in order to raise the birth rate. Who knows, people like us (who loves kids), will be more than willing to give birth and will not stop at 5 instead!

Answer 86

Singapore's standard of living has gone up tremendously over 10 years...during my parents time when we were small i remembered clearly how much my parent's combined income was and were lived a very simple life but it was still a struggle...but now even if our pay were to rise right now...everything else seems to be rising...no matter what government comes up with a plan to support us with childcare support it is never enough...end of the day when our child hits the age of 21..as parents we went them to study up to degree and so on...and we will have to be paying for everything till our last breath...when they get a job, marry n settle down they will have their own family to think of and financially it will be hard on them and to add on that...we have to depend on them...its a merry go round...both my husband and me decided when we got married 7 months ago, that we will work and save and enjoy every moment together and travel round the world and same time buy lots of insurance and have savings..when we are old and time to go..all our will will be written to the orphanages.



we rather die happily knowing we have seen the world together and we left no burden to no children and our money would have helped some kids out there in the ophanage then die worrying how our children's gonna survive and their kids gonna survive in this country which is gonna be even more expensive and the standard of living is gonna kill every singaporeans who plan to have a family in 30years from now...coz i can imagine how the prices are gonna sore in 30 years from now...coz thank god....we wont be alive by then.....

Answer 87

The environment in Singapore is geared towards money making once upon graduation. Family life is put on hold as the pace of life here is more for couples aiming to climb the financial/corporate ladder. Everything in Singapore is controlled by the government, setting a family is not. It is not as simple as life in the 60s or 70s, cost of living, cost of childcare is not as cheap as before.

Answer 88

Marraige- getting a pet is better than getting a man. You instructed "sit", they will; Men instead, may run out of the house giving you excuses that wife is screaming like crazy woman so thats why they falled for a younger love. -All marriage should be tied down with a pre-nuptual agreement but by looking at the men nowadays, their income is not even good enough for a "long term" lover outside of the house. Not to mention compensating a wife.



Babies- I can have a baby anytime i want. But who's supportive on single mum? Society? Government? Just for them (children) to be competitive against one another, what if i cant afford the pre-school? what will happen to them in the future? So, whats my point? To give birth because you are married? Or because of baby, you get married? What's so important?



BTW, by 2070, i may not lived till that long. So who cares about the population is halved or not? Why not just leave this issue to government to ask their wife to give birth to more babies?



Philosopy of life is- what really matters most is yourself. Since nobody can stop what the government announce, just take care of yourself first and be happy. Why slog over a kid? Who cares about ancestors nowdays? Do you even have time on Qing Ming day??

Answer 89

Hi all,



I've just wrote an email to Mr Wong Kan Seng to tell him my own difficulties.



Many couples want to get married, but they dont even have a proper house. Resale HDB market is blooming, cash over valuation is so high. Newly weds need to use up all their savings for that amount of cash, then they will have noting left for weddings, renovation and furnitures. And not to say having a baby after marriage, where can we get the money to handle all those hospitalisation bills, baby stuffs and many more.



I feel that HDB ballotting system should give couples more chances. OK..although they already made some improvement regarding this, but it's still not enough. People who already hold a flat, wants to get another flat from HDB bcos they dont need to pay cash over valuation and they can sell off their old flat, to make money! many pple are doin that, which explains the high amount of balloting applicants. And we, suffer. Always fail in the balloting exercise.



I've been waiting for 6 years...how long more can i wait??? until 40 years old???

Answer 90

Hello



One of the concern for me are the financial issues as the grant awarded through baby bonus is barely enough to cover the initial one or two months cost.

Secondly it is the constraint put on working mothers which compels them to put long hours at work even after their stipulated working hours. While the solution is to put the baby at the child care centre, this is often not the ideal solution since the child requires the mother specially at the earlier stages when it is born. So flexi/fixed hours for working mothers(specially at earlier stages after child is born) will go a long way in boosting the birth rate



Regards

Answer 91

I am married for 4 years and have always wanted a child, I had an ectopic pregnancy abt 3 yrs ago, and have blocked fallopian tubes. Therefore, the only chance to have a child to thru IVF(Assisted Reproduction). I have tried once in IVF but to no avail. That cost me about $10k.. And if i were to try again, it will be another $10k or more. Although, i am able to use either mine or my spouse's medisave partially, its still a very very high cost for IVF for a moderate earning income family.



I would like to highlight that recently i heard so much abt the government wanting to increase the birth rate in S'pore. I am suggesting that the government should also look and help couples who can't have kids naturally but are trying hard to have one by providing some subsidy

Answer 92

One - Spore govt. has to address the root of the problem.

Go beyond to look at the real situation face by the middle-income & below S'porean. EXPERIENCE it for themselves. Govt talks & visits don't do much. LISTEN, feel it & put your shoes in it and solution will be out.



Two - Solve the problem by setting the whole S'pore CULTURE right . Integrate & Engage &communicate well within the Govt departments. Set the mindsets right.

Sometimes It 's ok to be in second.



Three - Be generous to invest in the area of our future humans. Prioritise the needs.

Without the humans, what is the use of building nice & fantastic flats tt cost so much, coming up with ERP system etc. It is nice to have them but look at the needs first.



Three - With the a mindset of struggling & worrying of the every day needs & neccessities. How would all S'porean have the piece of mind to increase productivity.



Four - A food of thought. Our great grandparents work so hard was to provide for the lives of the next generation. Given not a very nice environment to stay in but they are happy to see the growth of their next generation be it you are rich or poor.

Answer 93

It's all about the money.Try to start a business or suceed at career,increased operating and transport costs, rentals,reservist training (for guys)which is siong and when you come home from work, making babies is the furthest thing from your mind. Dunno if other Singaporeans agree?I'm in my 30's and married, just as my business starts to get profitable I'm gonna get hit by higher rentals.So what do I DO?I pass on the costs otherwise I won't have enuf to support a family.and I'll have to close shop and find work,as if so easy!.I think the govt should help financially if they want to see more Singapore babies.Even the papers feature kids here with not enuf sleep, what kind of childhood are they having?Infant care? easily $1000 a mth.Wife to quit to look after kid also costs career.Ask any young couple what's on their mind about why no kids yet tho'married so long?Honestly money no enuf!"Just do it !" doesn't buy it for me.Looks like if no 5c's here then no 6th C:CHILDREN!Right now 1.29 is enuf!

Answer 94

Rising a child in S'pore was easy if we look back 10-15years ago.During that time with a salary of S$1000 or less families could afford to raise 2 or more kids.My dad can raise 5 child with a salary of S$1500 during that time.On top of other bills & necessities.



Looking at know i pity families that earn less than $1.5k & having so many things to pay.I myself with one daughter at times facing with financial difficulties.Though my spouse & me have a combine income of 4k+ we still feel the pinch.



S'pore goverment should have adopted the child incentives policies implemented in most of European countries & the states.No doubt they are working on something right now but its not necessary the dating couples will head for ROM the next day & then head for the ROOM.Talk about baby bonus...even that the goverment is giving in 4x installments payout.1st baby 3k & every installment pay out is $750.$750??what a joke...my lil girl requirements for milk,diapers,doctor consultation,check-ups,childcare fees & etc.Every month almost 1k goes to an investments that you won't get back in cash form.



So lets wait & see what do our minister have in plan to revert this issue..but whatever its in S'pore nothing goes down but always goes up...Take a look at our current inflation rates & it tells everything.



The reality is raising a child is not the same as it seems in movies or fairytales...its a happy start with a long winding road with no light at the end of the tunnel for a long time.

Answer 95

I am considered a newly wed. just got hitched in end march this year. I went for a budget wedding because i know i will have other better use of my money and judging from the rate things are going, we know better than to overspend. I do not own a flat of my own yet because property was at its peak. We couldn't afford it at all. The prices demanded for re-sale flats are also too high. Everybody is fighting to buy flats esp when rental fees are that high.



The rate the ERP gantries are springing up are frightening, the over-crowded public mrts with foreigners/immigrants are too much. I thought i was in india / China / philippines.

Now the govt is still increasing the influx of immigrants i cannot imagine what it will be like in future. Our future is not secured.

What will it be like in the future for my offspring/s?

i may consider migrating to another country where i can lead life on a slower pace, have a life other than work and see my child / children grow up.

Answer 96

Time, Money and People.

These three will always be a key factor.

The cost of living is increasing way faster than our salary.

The government always publish stuff which is showing positive impact. Do you think they will publish the dark side where families are broken, unable to survive with the small pay etc.



Getting married already cost $

In order to give birth to a child, more $ is needed. In order to do so, majority of couples both need to work to sustain it. When both parents work, who will take care and educate the children. They will say grand-parents, nanny, child care center.

All these also needs $$. No amount of care and concern is comparable to those given by parents.



With couples working it out just to sustain living, how can we survive. Its unlike the 80s when more couples can have a bigger family and somemore living comfortably.

Answer 97

i'm in contact which you and your boyfriend are very youthful, notwithstanding while you're over 18, that continues to be way too youthful to get married (rather considering which you won't be able to spell the be conscious as properly as others). while you're the two over 18 years previous interior the U. S., legally neither set of mum and dad can do something to stop the marriage from going on. yet, that does no longer advise you need to bypass forward and get married. Are you and he financially self reliant from the two units of mum and dad? What approximately if a new child happens to return? Are you the two working making sufficient money to assist a new child? Or do you nonetheless have years of faculty left? on occasion, mum and dad truly do understand what's desirable. Edit: properly, while you're the two on your late 20's, then with the aid of all ability bypass forward and get married, and the heck with what your boyfriend's mum and dad say. as long as you men can help yourselves, then have a blast. Sorry for assuming you have been youthful--however the form you typed became many times the way young little ones style.

Answer 98

Firstly, let me emphasize that Singapore is a business centre and it's not an appropriate place for anyone to get married and start a family. Singapore is not homely enough to be called a home. With the increase in EVERYTHING (but not in salary), how can we ever survive? When the singles can't even make ends meet, then how can a family ever make do with the high cost of living here? Yes, the govt do give a bit of dividends here and there on top of the baby bonuses, but these are just temporary relieves. To raise children in Singapore is way too expensive, thus resulting concerns in getting married and starting a family. To manage financial problems, both parents have to work, leaving their children in the care of childcare centres, maids or other alternatives. Every choice made comes with a very high price. Childcare centres are charging at high fees now, giving excuses that the cost of food, books etc have gone up. Employing maids is another BIG headache. Their salary keep increasing while their knowledge and ability to work remains slack. On top of that, we have to pay levies to the govt for employing these maids. Maids nowadays are no longer a luxury, they have in fact become a neccessity for every household and a definite burden for us. Judging at the way how life is now, there is no way that a mother can stay at home and look after her own kids, which will in turn lead to breakage of family bondings and conflicts the work-life-balance which the govt encourages on. Everytime one foot is out at the door, we have to be well-prepared that every step taken is payable. Transports have increased, ERPs are everywhere, expensive food/drinks, daily consumptions etc are making it very difficult on us Singaporeans.

Even enrolling our children into primary schools is becoming a stress, when we have to compete with other PR kids for vacancies. The govt should give Singaporeans priority instead of them. Being given Phase 2C is already bad enough. Why dont the Govt give the expat/PR kids Phase 2D or something so that we wont have to do ballotings. Im getting really stressful staying Singapore. Somehow, I just hate staying here and at the present actively looking for an opportunity to migrate, which i should have done years ago. Now i understand why most of my friends and relatives migrated. NO doubt Singapore is a safe and clean country, but as for now, i would rather grow old graciously & peacefully rather than to spend every second of my life worrying bout fines, court charges, financial constraints, having not enough food, kids' studies, job opportunities...etc

Answer 99

However, I feel a lot of Singaporeans are unwilling to make personal sacrifices, be it to their lifestyles, financial commitments or career aspirations for that matter, to have kids. This in my opinion is the foremost issue confronting Singaporean couples.



Not that the aforementioned factors are irrelevant to the issue, but they are secondary. Singaporeans must decide within themselves whether they can live with a more modest lifestyle, whether they are willing to make the numerous sacrifices that come with the package that the stork delivers.



There is no point in the Government pushing couples to make babies, or dishing out financial incentives etc. This has been proven to be ineffective or effective only over a short period of time.



At the end of the day, the Government shou

Answer 100

First and foremost before we even get to the point of getting married in Singapore, we must go further back to the point of contact - when a man meets a woman.



This days we are saying that local men have chose to marry foreign brides more as compared to local women. The reason is that our local women, though have evolved through the years into becoming more independant. They have in fact have lost their "self and their soul" as they became more materialistic and unrealistic.



Having to overcome the time spent being together and surviving courtship stage, then comes the marriage part. People this day have to be clear and realistic as the standard of living have risen to the point where our wages barely make ends meet. So have to be clear and practical on marriage plans and celebrations.



Then come children issue.

Answer 101

Yap, as pointed by most - lets talk about basic needs, talk about those within control. Things like wedding, it is a choice whether to have a big or small celebration etc. Thus looking at those beyond control:



1st - We need a roof over head. Cap of $8000, make those in the middle income. Esp myself who are above $8000 but below $9000.



2nd - Kids need $$$ to support - baby powders, etc..wat abt cost of University???



3rd - Work versus family time.



Singapore has no resources - We are the resources. We have to be faster, better and smarter.



Using this simple facts.. YES, i can get a HDB flat, but bank loan - 5% cash ($10 to 17k) downpayment + $15k to 30k COV + $20k Simple Renovation + 5k simple Furniture.



To have a house, i need to pump out that much of money.

I have not talk about $$$ for wife checkup if pregnant, kid follow up etc.. At the end, Truth i still wan to have kids... BUT HOW MANY?



During my parents time - 2 IS ENOUGH. Then 3 IS BETTER..NOW CRISIS bec BABY NOT ENOUGH!!!



EVERYTHING IS A DOUBLE EDGE SWORD!!!

The way is to START WORKING on those GETTING MARRIED, JUST MARRIED - They are the pple to convince first. What to give, the sky the limit, there is never enough. But first for Christ sake let them get the house cheaply first.



Those married with kids - Burden had started.. TO CONVINCE them, help them practically now to cope, eg, School wavie, more tax incentive.



Couples married will want to have their own kids. Now is TO CONVINCE THEM TO HAVE MORE.

Answer 102

I really don't understand why government keep urging couples to have more babies when the inflation rate is so high & not forgetting the high living expenses such as medical bills, education and housing. Unless more efforts & relief to ease the burden of setting up a family, i believe the birth rate will never improve. It happen to me as

my spouse work from 9am to 7-8pm during weekdays and sometime she has to call back during saturday for extra duties. She is working in one of the ministries AND the government is urging singaporean to be pro-creative and employers to be supportive which i don't think so. Isn't this double standard. We are too stressful to have children....

The authority should look into it....

Answer 103

I totally agree on the recent surveys. I am glad that people are voicing it out. We really can't breath with the expenditure in our hands. We can't enjoy like how the rich people enjoy.



With things becoming more and more expensive, yet we can't deprive our kids from having what they want because of the lifestyle we are living in.



I also feel, that working mothers should not work on Saturdays and i think bosses should understand that too. We should enforce 5 days work week for the mothers in the Private Sectors as well. I have a 2 and a half and 1 year old sons. I feel very sad when i have to work on Saturday. The weekends are really very short and we should encourage Family Days on Saturdays and Sundays.



We work like dogs here but we are under paid and it is very sad. I am a PA to my boss and i am under paid terribly. The expats are paid better. Staffs Welfare in Singapore is bad. We are not given enough annual leaves, child care leaves, maternity leaves and paternity leaves as well. My company cuts $100 if we take MC. Are we not entitled to MC??? So even i am sick i go to work because i don't wanna get the $100 deducted. Our money is being sucked from us and we get nothing back in written.



We really do not get financial support in Singapore for the Singaporeans unlike other countries. In Singapore, both parents have to work if not we can't survive and we need our kids to be looked after by who by the maids. Not all maids are good, so we need to get our parents to help us to overlook. I think it's useless having us to pay the maid levy. The Gov. should scarp off the Maid Levy for us to save extra money.



By giving baby bonus which is $3000 for the 1st child and 2nd Child $6000 same for the 3rd and 4th child and we put in $6000 which is $ to $. It is not easy to get the $6000. How are the poor going to afford it. I think the Gov. should just put in the $12,000. Baby milk, diapers, food and so on are very expensive these days.



Why are our Singaporeans moving out of Singapore because they can't take the stress level here and the education system is very very stressful as well compared to Australia. In Singapore, every one is competing with each other and i do not see the reason to do so. Especially parents. These should be put to a stop at once.



I really hope that these matters will be looked into with high importance. Thank you very much.



Kavita Sharma

Answer 104

tax breaks too restrictive - 30% of us pay income tax - ie 30% of us supports 70% of others, yet tax breaks like grandparent relief, maid relief are all restricted to one family only - if one of the siblings have claimed grandparent relief, the rest cannot. maid relief is only on wife's income tax - but not on the husbands' (usually higher income tax).



$3000 for first kid? A joke - paid over 3 installments! Each time we visit the paedatrian or the gynae, it comes to a few hundred dollars.



My wife works at Siemens Centre - but she cannot find any nursing room when she needs to use the breastpump. At the Singapore Flyer, despite given direction, we still cannot find the nursing room. Others (eg Westmall) are nothing more than just a metal plate from the wall. Raffles City's Baby Room is great but probably the only one of its kind in Singapore - in short, Singapore is not baby friendly.



Public transport - try struggling with a baby on the bus or MRT - the commuters who give up their seat to you are usually those above 50 years old! The younger (and more able) folks simply sit still and pretend nothing is going on!

Answer 105

The lack of childcare support - and I do not mean the lack of childcare centres. Look at it this way - my mil is working past her retirement age because of the rising standard of living, and we do give her allowance, but it is not enough, we can't pay her the same as what she's getting now to stay at home to take care of my child.

Maids - maid woes and problems, recently encountered with my maid who was caught shoplifting, and I had to take urgent no-pay leave to settle it, on top of it, I had to continue paying the maid's levy and I could not cancel her work permit because she was detained in the police station.

Childcarecentres- yes, there are lots in the island, but how late do they extend until 7.30pm? 8pm? how many of us work past that time rushing deadlines and projects? that brings us to another topic of pro-family in companies. How much for a childcare centre? approx. $600 per month, 2 child? $1200 a month? Heard bus fees for primary school kids also increase..how to have more children? Phobia already.

Answer 106

I have 1 child now, and terrified of having a second child, simply because S'pore is just NOT the place to raise children. You need to be very rich to do that.

Why? Let me calculate for you.



Maternity Expenses

1) $2000 to hire confinement lady

2) $2000 for antenatal expenses

3) $2000 for delivery (Assume normal delivery)

4) $1000 for confinement expenses (esp impt for chinese)

5) $ 1000 for baby expenses (more for 1st child)

Total = $8000 to receive a new born. You only claim back your $3000 from the govt 1 year later.



Child care expenses per month

1) $600 for baby sitter. For infant care, costs more.

2) $300 for diapers, infant powder etc.





Once the child attends preschool, costs more.

You need an average family earning $2000 can survive this? good luck babe!

I'm freaking out!

Answer 107

With all the cost involve in marriage and having baby putting aside, freedom is also the main concern. Family problem will arouse between daughter in-law and parents too. The way of handling a baby is always different by individual.Every parents have thier own view. Listening to one means to make the other unhappy.

I am the youngest within my siblings and my wife parents stays over sea. I couldn't count on my mom to look after my baby because she is looking after 3 kids from for my brother and sisters. Meaning that I need to push my poor thing baby to a nanny at this young age. So having baby is not only you and your wife issue any more.

Answer 108

Personally,im married and i already have a son.My husband and I would like to have a bigger family but the issue of high costs in living,education and medical made us think twice.



And the cost of childcare centres are also high for a middle class income earner like us,we simply thought that we can only survive through it with 1 child.



My concern is probably taking care of my child because at the moment im working and for me to stop working and be a full time housewife is out of the question and to send my son to a childcare institute will cost even more.Thats y we decided to stop at 1 at the moment......

Answer 109

childcare support is extremly expensive. Double income is needed to support a family. If there is one in the family to help to take care of the child, eventually we 'll choose the option to place the child in childcare, even when the child is 1- 2mths old. it may cost ard 700+ per mth for a child. Image if more children, the expenses will be v high. N that is childcare expenses alone, havn't include other expenses.

Answer 110

With the constant rising cost in Singapore, even marriage is very costly. Although with a two person combined income, i think having a child or more than one is a heavy burden due to the living and education cost.



Also i don't think the money incentive given by the government is even enough to cover the basics. Maybe for a month or two after the baby is born but beyond that is the family's cost. If calculated on a long run its a heavy 'investment' that not everyone can afford.

Answer 111

Work schedules also plays a part. The workers in most private sectors are being squeezed if not they will lose the job. All work, without rest. No time for family. Need to take care of old parents. Pressure, stress and frustrations that lead to Singaporean easier to get angry. What kind of life is this? Isn't it better to have no children? A well spent time is important for child's development. If there is no time to spend with the children, it can lead them to mix with wrong people. Instead of helping the society, it increase the crime rate.

Answer 112

Getting marry in SG is not easy. Everything must start paying like dating, then when getting serious over this relationship, ROM also must pay. After ROM, being from a traditional family, wedding dinner is a must, regardless of races. This too costed money. To officially start consider starting a family, had to get a flat, and if you thinking of having children in the future, must chose a flat near good primary school and secondary school. To ensure more time saving for the child in their future traveling, had to get a car. All these above cost alot to start with before having a real child.

When you are pregnated, imagine the hospital's bills from before and after birth. After the baby is born, to ensure that they can get into a good school, parents had to consider start voluntering in good respectable school or donate a lump of money to them. (Don't think these only happen in soap opera)

When the child is growing up, if you only have 1 child, they will ask why my friends have siblings, so good alone at home nothing to do. But if you had 2, then you have to worry of them fighting or qurraling. But both way will still lead to similar outcome that is buying toys for them. having 2 kids equal to 2 set of similars toys, only child 1 set of toys but cause is playing alone, they get bored of it also pretty fast, so had to buy new toys again.

When they start schooling, all the moneys will be rush into their education's expenses.

And 1 important thing that we can't forget, the moment the baby is borned, or some kiasu parents, the second they knew they having a new member in the family, the parents will start buying different kinds of saving insurance to ensure that in the future if anything happen to both of them, their kids are still able to live a comfortable lifes.



To be able to afford all these, money is the main concern. And to ensure this concern to be meet and resolve, both parents must work. When working, the time spend for the kid oso reduce.

All ended up with a big question marks of how does the olden days families survive?

Answer 113

It works both ways, external and internal factors.



By external, I mean the rising cost of living, which is affecting most people in different ways whether they are high or low income.



On the other hand, I feel a lot of young people have high expectations of life and not willing to adjust to the situation. There are so many ways that living cost can be mitigated:



- simple but tastefully done wedding dinner that doesn't cost a bomb, whoever said you must have shark's fin, grand banquet, most expensive wedding package, chaperon? face saving? We did not have wedding ring, don't think there is a need. We were not tight on money, but hated chinese wedding dinner, did it our way and had beach party. Be innovative!



- no need to go expensive hospital to give birth, choose basic package if no complication



- children can attend PAP kindy or lower end pte schools at $150/month, no need ETON, or PAT's school house



- be humble, and seek parent's help to look after kids if both work, put aside differences



- some can live with parents first if there is extra room, good for kids to be close to grandparents



- put aside pte property dream until financialy able



- grandparents are there to spoil kids, so don't be uptight about such things, there are so many other ways to instil values



- breastfeed for as long as possible. If milk powder, no need expensive brand



- for normal illness, go GP, no need paediatrician



- free the children from endless tuition and enrichment classes, they do not make them more clever, just exam smart. As parents, you HAVE a choice



- enjoy the free outdoor



- what's wrong with regional holidays, you can have as much fun



- even if you own a car, you can decide when to drive, and when to use public transport to reduce bill



- recgonise there are sacrifices to be made on the career front (if you choose to be so)



- eat out less, or less expensive outlets, cooking at home can be fun and simple affair



Come on, there are so many other ways to live a life with kids in Singapore, its just how you manage your expectation!



But of course, if you decide to postpone or not settle down due to high cost and maintain your standard, so be it, its your choice.

Answer 114

I got married 2 years back, and have been deflecting the typical relatives questions on when will we be having kids. Although right now, hubby and I are earning comfortably, we feel that we are still not ready to have a child, as we realised that having one in Singapore is hideously expensive. Current Govt's incentives' are just 'tickling our toes' and seriously, do not help much. Also, I am not sure if I want to bring up my child here, where we have to be the best in everything, and there is 'no room for failure''. I see other nationality kids having so much fun growing up and learning, and this is what I want for my child.

Answer 115

Firstly, the cost of living is ridiculously high. You can't even afford to think about getting married if you haven't yet reached a point in your career where you're earning a certain amount-- and to *get* that amount of salary, you either have to be a university graduate who landed a VERY lucky job, or a scholar who landed a super well-paying job, or have worked for years to climb the ranks.



Since it already takes so much longer to complete the Singapore education system, compared to, say, the US system, what gives? And people wonder why Singaporeans are marrying later, or not marrying at all?



Then after you get married, if you're a young couple, your entire savings are already practically wiped out. Who is going to be able to think about having kids unless you're seeing divine miracles of provision in your life left, right and centre?



Oh and after you have your first kid, let's not forget the exorbitant costs involved-- and how the Singapore labour laws are So Beautifully Employer-Friendly (please notice the sarcasm).

Answer 116

I am a Singapore PR and my husband is a Singaporean. I was quite disappointed when i heard that only Singaporean Wife are allowed to enjoy benefits such as 3 month maternity leaves etc while i will only get 2 months. Both of us really like children but when i think about the benefits that i will get is lesser than a Singaporean , i am quite disappointed. At the end of the day my husband is a Singaporean and our child will also be a Singaporean. Maybe can re-look to see.

Answer 117

My wife and I are both 30 this year and we are expecting our 1st child in few months time. First of all, both of us are normal working executives with combine salary not more than 6K. We do not owe a car as our combine salaries could not afford one. Its OK, we will go public (buses and mrt only). However, the increase in public fares put additional strains to our pockets. Its OK we just bear with it. So less quality time spend after marriage.

We are not poor people, but in this 1st class society, we are slaves. Slave to our 4room flat and slave to our kid. I tell my wife, its ok. lets stay positive. Wait a minute, our government is giving us GST relieve package to assist Singaporean due to the 2% GST increase. PM Lee stated, he would rather take the bitter medicine first. Fine, after taking this bitter medicine, have i recovered fully from the flu and cold, the answer is "NO". In fact my flu and cough have gotten more serious.

Its ok, i am still very positive. Many of my peers are stopping at 1 at most 2 children. This is the fact that educated Singaporean like us feel this way with the current situation. What's the point of giving birth to 3 or 4 children when parents like us cannot promise them a proper education. In the end, our children turn astray and thing might turn worse in future.Thus, we rather concentrate on 1 and try to provide the best we can offer to him/her.

My company do not has childcare leave, so why don't our Govt make this compulsary?

Paternity leave is only 3 days some companies do not even have this, why not make it 14 - 30 days paid leave?

Infants are very prone to illness why not make medical fees for children affordable.

Many young couple are afraid of setting up a families and geting married. Why? Money issues that's all.

What's the point of giving baby bonuses when the thought of making one is already so frightening??

In this present society, who can promise us securities. No one but ourselves. If anything is to go wrong, blame it on ourselves but no one else.

We are just like a bunch of rubber bands. Being stretch to the fullest by this society, those who cannot withstand the financial strains have already snapped. Those who are still holding on are added extra stress. Slowly one by one we started to give way. Who can help us? As many starts to wonder.

Answer 118

Hi all

I am quite saddened to read all the negative comments about raising children in Singapore. I am not sure what the government is going to do or not to do. Raising children is a very personal choice and yes we cannot deny financial assistance is helpful but ultimately it boils down to sacrifice and commitment. I personally am struggling with this too but with a good supporting spouse and also concern family members and friends, this can go a long way. Having a supportive community is also a big plus. One reader mention about environment and the security factor, well, no country can offer this 100%, we are now one globalised world. We need to learn with live with each other. We need to worry about everything from bird flu, rising costs and terrorism. There is no short answer to this declining birth rate. We have to make painful cultural changes and make choices. We cannot be the Number one in everything and yet have the cake and eat it. Something has to give. For those who have children, enjoy your gifts that God has given you. For those who are aspiring to have, I say, dnt wait. For those who dnt want them, I say, you dnt know what you have missed in life. Best wishes to all parents out there. It is a journey, a stewardship and a great joy to be parents !

Answer 119

The major concern is the financial constraints due to the high living standard in Singapore, those rich are filthy rich and those who are poor are poor and there are those who earn just enough to support themselves. So basically only those who are rich are able to have a big family and those below rich can have maybe 1 child per family.

Answer 120

Only worry - Not having enough resources ($$$) to see the whole family througe the ever rising cost of living in Singapore, even when the ecnomy is good, prices still go up, when the economy is bad, prices still go up. AND the government say it's a global phenom... who are you trying to kid, a retard?



You want more babies... here's a few ideas (Singaporeans need to apply ONLY):



1. Childcare subsidy for the first 5 children until each child is 12 years of age during that year (PINK IC) - tax free.



2. All parents will get a back payment of 10K each for each child - up to the 5th child upon birth (PINK IC) - tax free.



3. Minimum wage structure - nationally for all Singaporeans (PINK IC). That way, even the less educated can hold a DECENT pay to raise a family. Pay in this sense must keep with the times.



4. Parents of babies have the same number of times to get housing subsidies - from the HDB, depending on the number of children they have. A bigger family requires a bigger flat. (both parents must be PINK IC) - tax free.



5. Priority to all Singaporeans for jobs, transportation, food, schools, benefits everything and anything.



6. Time benefits (partenity/martenity leave) to be increased, but allowed to be taken in phases as we choose, with job security and assurance less we resign.



7. Free healthcare until the parents (us) retire from the workforce.



Another thing - We have seen too many foreigners, having kids grow up only to return to the foreign country to get Citizenship (e.g. English father, son returns to England to be a Brit), and then return to Singapore to become an expat, with that expat package (free car, lodging, inflated pay etc.), AND marry a Singaporean girl (who wouldn't ? Deep endless pocket). Who would you choose to marry if you're the Singapore girl? Time to think of ways to prevent this.



This cycle continues until we actually put a stop to it.



So IF the government want more babies, think from a HDB DWELLING SINGAPOREAN point of view, NOT an EXPAT, or someone WHO HAS CONNECTIONS.



The government may actually find faults in their planning and philosophy IF they actually stayed and lived like a PAUPER in Singapore.

Answer 121

My dream with then-bf, now husband, was to have 3 children in the family but sadly after having 2 kids now, both my husband and myself have concluded that we will stop at 2.

With no family support of childcare arrangement, we fork out huge portions of our salary to childcare schools.

Babysitting/childcare fee alone cost me $1.5k (nett) monthly. This is the amount after subsidy.

I work in a government sector and when my children fall sick, I had limited childcare sickleave capped at 10 days per year for 2 kids which honestly speaking, it's not enough.

Everytime my child falls ill, my fear goes beyond the emotional upset because I worried about not being able to send my kid to childcare (due to unwell) and yet unable to take anymore childcare leave. Once my child had hfmd and the clearance is 5-7 days but I had reached the cap of my leave. I had no choice but to beg my boss to grant me special leave. The feeling sucks. The system claimed to be pro-family but the measures meted out are not parallel.

Many families talk about having children is about responsibilites and life long commitment. I couldn't agree more. But if society adds unduly pressures and poor government support to help cope with the rising cost to raise them up, it is definitely a deterring reason for having too many.

Answer 122

Money constraints for middle or low income group of Singaporean and Time is for high income group! If there would be big subsidies from government for baby milk powder & baby essential items, maternity & child medical care, from childcare centre till tertiary education, domestic helper or babysitter, i believe more married couple is willing to have more children. these items i mentioned above the costs are rising from time to time, the percentage is higher than our salary increment. How to have more children? There is a will but no means. For me, time is a choice for a person to make. A sacrifice/ compromise is necessary and worthy when come to bringing up our children. But for those items , it is non-tolerable if we have no financial-able.

Answer 123

Getting married is simple and straight forward, unlike the decision of having a family which may involve lots of parties, in-laws, employers, caregivers.



Careers may not take off as fast for those who have family as compared to those without. Those without children (especially young children) are often available and more willing to work overtimes. They are also more likely to take-up overseas postings.



Cost of having a family is also a big consideration, childcare costs a bomb, even after government's subsidy.



Time for family is limited for working parents, as both are likely to be back at home at around 8pm, after settling down, dinner, kids dinner (feeding) and doing the dishes, it may be around 9.00 pm, by that time, the parents may only have 1 hour left to have 'some' communications with the young kids.



Kids will then be left feeling lonely and unattended to, as even weekends, the parents will be busy catching up with household chores, buying groceries / household needs.



Solution: maid? it's really expensive to engage one, and your luck may not be at your side, to be able to engage a 'good' one, and imagine, the cost of insurance that you need to pay to cover this maid, and for every maid change, there is a new insurance cost. (by the way, the insurance is not transferrable to another maid)

shall stop here, otherwise i'll go on and on.....

Answer 124

The baby bonus is not enough for a long run,...the ealier age of the the child is important and we are not able to guide them due to work commitment can't spend time with them everywhere is competition if we show more concern on work family life is slacken and if we show more concern to family work life is slacken so to avoid all this we came to a conclusion on no family no commitment.We feel guilty not being there for children as parents when they need us ,maid can't be a mother or childcare centres can't be their parents ,so what is the solution for this and day by day expenses are going high when the man only work its not enough to run a household and when a woman works her duty as a mother is not fulfilled than what is the point of having children when we are not there as parents.If we are the middle class family we are not entitled for help and there is criteria for everything.It is very constraing for us than why we bring the children to this world and constrain them too. what the friend have they also want it and if we are not able to give them than the pressure is becoming high feel sad that we are not able to provide them and when they feel down they start becoming stray and that is when we are more pressured not able to see what they are doing .Is 3 to 5 hours enough to spend with a child half of the day is at work and if we don't have enough time to spend with children than where will the time come to spend with your husband to produce children.

Answer 125

Mainly due to the increasing cost of living in singapore. All prices seem to go up. The oil price, bus fares, taxi fares, erp.. All this contributes to the difficulties in living in singapore. With all these price hikes, it's very difficult & hardly affordable to start a family, let alone have more babies. Not all family bread-winners have high pay checks. After deductions which consists of house loans & utility bills, one can have only so much to support the family for the month. That remaining amount after the deductions need to be divided for hp bills, pocket money for kids, monthly groceries & that leaves very very little for savings & hence one can't afford to have many children.

Answer 126

1) Financial is a crucial issue

- pay for house/apartment

- pay for vehicle

- pay for petrol + toll tax

- pay for insurance if any

- pay for households miscellaneous

- pay for own upgrade education / child education and other needs like toys + books

- pay for medical for both parents and child maybe oldfolks

- pay for monthly food ration

- this list doesnt end here but these are enough for a monthly commitment excluding expenses on vacation etc.



2) Busy working schedule = no time for children needs



3) Stressed working environment + stressed at managing a home = pushing children off a building



4) Society improvement = too fast but forced to cope otherwise wont earn enough for monthly commitment



MONEY IS EVERYTHING!!! Not enough $ + no car + no shelter = cannot woo girls so no marriage where to get baby / dying family



Everything is like war in Singapore (must win, must be better motto). One child is killing enough, who else got the intention to bare more child than one, even getting married is a huge one time expenses. No matter what the government going to announce, cross our hearts and hope for the best.

Answer 127

Getting married cost you a bomb already.. How to bring up a child when the combined income of the husband & wife can't even cope for themselves? Althought i am married but my hubby & i don't even dare to think of having a child, it's a burden nowadays when work stress making us stay more time on job, comes to $$ everything increase over the board with our head out of water grasping for air... Even support from GOV is not a solution for long run, it only covers a week or lesser. With the ever rising cost & inflation rate.. i think most couples would forgo having a child or least to say not to get married in the future... (lolx... i'll plan for a child if GOV gonna pay everything till the child is 21yrs old)

Answer 128

Because stay in Singapore everything is expensive ( include study, living cost, car, petrol, house )... A lot of things to PAY !!! If I stay at Indonesia.. I can have so many maidssss...

2 maid take care of my babies, 2 clean the house, 2 driver, 2 cook, everything is cheap ( even the labour). So gvmt please consider to make ur country stable.. Dont always increase here and there..and heard that gvmt will increase GST to 10 % soon ? WOW... u must be killing ur own ppl... thats why a lot of SG Citizen give up and move to other country..thats all the reason why ppl will think twice to have more babies at SG after married..or maybe will think twice to married as ppl is just busy with their own work everyday..

Answer 129

1. Once, when people are willing to give birth more, the government inplement the 2 children only policy. Over the years, people are already used to small families.

2. People are educated nowadays and they are more career minded, when they are ready to get married, they are in their 30s already, there are risks in getting pregnant over 35. So they tend to give birth to 1 or 2 only.

3. Living standard in singapore is high, whereas the pay is remained 1000++ to 3000++ for working class. And the youngsters nowadays are exposed to all types of entertainment. Couples have to combine pays for entertainment, cars loan, housing loans, bills & etc. Maybe it is just enough to meet the ends let alone to have 1 more child to add to the burden.

4. Having a child is a great responsibility. Educating them, taking care of them, it need alot of time and money. When they are still inside the womb, going for checkup also need GST.

There are alot of factors, it depends how you see them and works it out. =)

Answer 130

I was with my company for many years from being a single to married status. When I had my frist baby, my company was very understanding and I was even given a promo and increament aft my delivery. When I deliverd my second baby, my boss started to drop hint of his displease due to my clearing of the 3rd months maternity leave and that I was not able to stay late and work on Saturday readily. Hence, when I expected my third baby, I quitted the job to avoid his discriminating views and demanding schedule and I lost the perks of getting a 3 months maternity leave!

I think the government is very kind to have considered longer maternity leave but in most private companies especially the small to medium ones, they shuned preggy due to this factor. My previous company did not have the sufficient manpower to relief my work. Hence, when I was back after 2 months of maternity leave, I am expected to clear the backlog within days!

I hope the Government will consider giving more childcare relief to us. Further, the Govt can also consider giving cash in lieu of the 3rd month maternity leave to enable flexible if the mum choose not to utilise the 3rd month leave due to work commitment.

Answer 131

i got 3 kids.it is quite heavy for us even though there is baby bonus.the costly part is education and maid .and also time.1.education pre nursary to kindergaten,sch fee monthly $110.books $300 per yr.each child.transport $45 per child.maid $300 and levy $170.how much left to spent.baby bonus if we put the money authorities give that until the age of 8yrs.can u put the amount of money till 8 yrs.thats impossible.and more now jobs demand not like 1980s-1990s where u can work till 10-20 yrs.now more companies looks on low wages.and the help from cdc depend on salary.they have max. capped then they will help.what abt middle income.low income being help.what abt middle income.

Answer 132

A really attractive 'baby bonus' would be a '3 room' HDB FREE! (Like some CIS countries or Russia is doing). However knowing our 'tight fisted' government. Perhaps a 'large subsidy' may be given. This should be with out 'strings' attached, like having a degree, or an age limit, or natural birth; ie even surrogate birth or adoption would qualify. No income limit, and even private property owners can qualify or be granted an equivalent amount in cash or CPF

Answer 133

I have a 11 mth old son, though me and my wife very much wanted to have 2nd one but need serious consideration. Our parents are unable to help and has to depend on a baby-sitter. We need to take leave whenever baby sitter is unavailable but my employers are not giving any childcare leave as its not mandatory for employee earning more than $1600. Only giving 7days leave and deducting allowance whenever I go on leave. All these years I have been working in different local sme and realised that most of them are not giving benefits like paternity, childcare cos its not mandatory for employees not under the employment act ..... Children gets sick easily and employers are not supportive. What can we do with 7 days of annual leave?? Plus high cost of living, education fees itself is a heavy financial committment. It makes me think twice before having a 2nd kid.

Answer 134

It is very costly bringing up my children just alone the doctor's bill. Whenever my child goes sick be it a flu, fever or cough, for each visit cost me an average of 65 to 100 easily. And with the numerous compulsory injection that each child have to go through it really adds up the bill to hundreds during the first 3 yrs. Baby bonus does some help but in reality is not enough to cover much.

Answer 135

I think financial constraints is becoming the major factor for the smaller size family.



Taking myself as an example, me and my wife are both working, and we have little choice but to employ a maid to take care of my baby gal, since both my parents and in-laws are working as well. And the cost of employing a maid is around $500, inclusive of the levy which cost around $170 every month. Plus the necessities, it works out to be around $1000 a month.



Feeling unsafe to leave my baby gal with the maid at home, I have to send my baby gal to my parents place every morning, since my grandmother is still around to monitor the maid. Which means we have to leave the house even earlier since we start work at 8am. And the cost of taking a cab or getting a second hand car for this purpose works out to be another $800. Taking public transport will mean we have to leave home at 6am?Just these 2 factors works out to be around $1800 a month.



Other than financial burdens, we are faced with busy work schedules which in turn means longer working hours. The childcare timing are not able to meet the longer working hours of us parents.

Answer 136

Going by Gov. track record, sure got "terms&conditions" one.

Give 1cent, take back 10 more.

Lower car taxes but increase ERP gantries & charges.

Give housing grants for resale flats but increase valuation prices astronomically (see past year.)

Maybe so as to "justify" increasing the prices of new HDB flats.

When housing prices come down, very fast to lower e housing grants.

Give senior citizen bus-fare subsidies but increase all public transport fares for buses, MRT n taxis.

Let people have maid but must pay levy.

Increase medical benefits through Medisave/Medishield but also let medical costs increase by 6-8% p.a. (and thats during non-inflationary years.)

Give GST offset package but increase GST from 3% to 5% to 7%, and who knows to how much more in future.

Everything is MONEY, MONEY, and MORE MONEY.

There's not really many simple pleasures you can have here without costing you.

Even going to Sentosa, which the last time I checked was part of Singapore, you have to pay just to get in.

At e end of e day, do I want to bring a child up in such a moneytaristic environment?

Or should I rephrase that to, can I afford to?

Answer 137

With the ongoing retrenchment exercise, rising cost of living which means costlier transport, education, food, etc. etc. there is no sense of stability for a married couple and even less, for a married couple with children. If Singapore is ranking as the 6th most expensive city in Asia, that information does nothing to create interest in marriage or having a family. With the same amount of savings one has in Singapore, one can have a comfortable and worry-free life, say in India.

Answer 138

High cost of having children...in Singapore and the Poor Always Pay and everything only goes north but not south. We are not a social welfare state. Most people even the well heeled also tighten their belt in these times. So unless it is very attractive, most of those whom took the baby bonus bait are now in deeper financial trouble then the handout by the government. So deep thinking is necessary or stop at one.

Answer 139

1. Stressful environment

2. Rising cost of living expenses.

3. Lack of childcare center operating hours to cover most of the parents' working hours.

4. Unstable job

5. Expensive housing.

6. Long working hours, not a conducive environment to bring up family.

7. No available helper to take care of kid.

8. Stiff rules on signing up schools near home.

9. Lack of understanding employers to have flexible hours for parents' to go back to take care of family.

10. Demanding & competitive job have no time for kids.

Answer 140

Having thoughts of marriage means buying a house. Nowadays hdb flats are not cheap. Even if HDB sells resale flats, the availability of the flats are lesser than the applications received. After marriage, bearing children is a must. Otherwise, the in-laws will pressure the couple. And being pregnant is not cheap. Vitamins, medications, check-ups and etc are needed. Expenses going up and up and up but our salaries just remain. In short,

Expenses up & Salary remains = No House

No House = No Marriage

No Marriage = No Family

Answer 141

concern over getting married - long working hours leaves us with little time to socialize & due to the long tiring hours at work, we tend to spend our rest days resting at home instead.

Concern over having a family - Lack of support from work organisations to help tight over in case of emergency; ie when child is sick, colleagues would start to make a big fuss when having to cover for another colleague. Childcare nowadays are too expensive, to have a maid - is like a gamble..u don't know when u get a good & reliable maid or a monsterous maid.

Answer 142

I am married. Have a 5 year old girl. Surely I would like to have one more child but what is stopping me ? Very Simple Question .

Answer will be

1) No one to look after them

2) No time . Work long hours.

3) Etc......



But most of all what really hinder me and my worry is $$$$$$. If I have more than $800 to spare per month now. And more when year go by, I will surely go ahead.

My dream is to have 3 kid. Does not matter boy or girl .



And I 100% surely . Sporean will agree it is the $$$$ that concern most of them.

Answer 143

Having many offsprings is a very natural instinct in most animals. But being human and having lots of education, becoming more advanced as a civilization means to curtail our animal tendencies and instincts. If the average Singaporean want many children and expect society to give you more handouts (via Govt support), I think it is pathetic. It is natural that as you become more well informed, your need towards having more offsprings is reduced. Every 1st world country faces this issue. Every third world country tends to have more kids than their ability to care for them.



Look at the animal kingdom, the lower species such as insects have tons of offsprings while mammals as a whole have a lot less....So decide if you want to be more insectlike and leave your offsprings to fend for themselves or choose to be a higher evolved species...Simply have less and do a better job with the few you do have.



Having kids should be a personal love and desire for them, not one made because the government is giving out incentives. Stop expecting handouts or things to get easier...IT NEVER WILL!!!! By the way, the more educated, the more informed and more spiritually aware you are as human being, the less desire you will have to reproduce (if any) thoughtlessly. Since ancient times, spiritually enlightened folks, highly educated people, royalty all had very few or no offsprings at all. It has very little to do with how much Money one should have to have kids but everything to do with being aware of how much work, responsibility and love is required to provide the quality of nurturing as a whole most children require. Knowing one's own abilities in terms of parental qualities is key. Most don't unfortunately. Every idiot without serious health issues can reproduce. Please do not look to government to guide you in how many kids you should have. That is so lame.



Instead, take a good hard look at oneself and see if you really have all the essential qualities (especially in terms of character) to be a good parent. Money is the least of the issues.

Answer 144

Concerns over getting married is not as strong compared to having a family. We can choose to have a simple wedding but we cannot compromise on childcare and the quality time needed to nurture our children.



We just need more time and more money...my child is 7 years old now and I am still finding the courage to have my 2nd child....ideally I would like to have 3 but physically and mentally, I already have enough.

Answer 145

I have three kids... and, oh boy, I am really feeling the burden! Childcare is so expensive... it really get worst when they start falling sick. Do you know how much it cost to see a doctor now??? Plus, as parents, we are worried about our children not being competitive enough... we send them for enrichment....Hell... I have no extra cash at all. A huge bulk of my pay just go to my children education, food and other expenses.

The truth is, I don't buy anything for myself at all...really no extra cash.

Plus, we face pressure from work, bosses, etc... after work rush like crazy to pick up the kids from the childcare....later household chores etc....

As much as I love my children, and the joy of having them around in my life, if I can choose again.. I rather have one child... at least no so taxing on our finances and emotionally... To be truthfully, you can't even speak about quality of life when you have more children (more than 1)

No time to yourself... not to mention your hubby which will lead to more social problems in the long run too.

Answer 146

What are the other options, government has for womens who wants to start a family & have childrens, but have medical problems, where it is a must that they need to seek doctor's help in order to conceive. Or they need to go for operations or IVF programmes and etc.we have to come out cash to pay to the government hospitals and also private hospitals.

So i was thinking why are we not able to pay fully with our own medisave for such treatment. I understand that there may be some need in the future but with this it will assist us a long way as there may be some complication (hope not) which the bill will come out to be a "bomb" and some parents may not have the money to pay in cash. With the money they have in the medisave that they have save through their working life, it may be enough to settle the hospital bill and have a peace of mind.

Answer 147

I have been married and had what might be considered a large family; not sure what this is over here, since I am from the USA.



I know one concern was to have a wife who was fully supportive of the idea of the family, and also that I could share the family duties with, to assist. And had the eugenic characteristics to produce good children, and high intelligence. I was glad she was pretty too, but that was not a major criterion!



Work does interfere, but there are still things to do to help the wife and ease her load. We had 4 children, wife worked at times, we home-schooled, and also used both public and parochial schools, and I believe the children turned out very well as a result.



Concerns were of course financial, but also giving the children enough attention and good education and a good basic moral and ethical (religious) foundation to prepare them for life.



They were encouraged to learn all they could, and we talked 'Adult' to them, and worked on their vocabularies, as well as other school work, and music appreciation. They have turned out pretty well in general, and had no problems finding work and making their own way, tho they still keep in touch.



My concerns were basically to have all the children we could afford to educate properly to be good citizens. Thinking of adding good, well-educated (broad education, specialized after a good wide foundation), honest, and honorable children with very strong and good ethics to the population pool, which seems to be quite lacking these days in such.

Answer 148

Expectation, time, sacrifices,lifestyle,cost.... All this & more swarm any singles thinking of getting hitch. Factor in the cost of getting a house, maintaining it, etc. Can anyone blame singles for their concerns? Any measures by the govt to encourage can only fall short of expectation, in time to come. Because it fail to address 1 key issue - the lifelong security in S'pore is not there. Thus when people are less than confident in their outlook, marriage, let alone having children, will be tough. It's the social climate. Less than balmy. Don't put the cart before the horse.

Answer 149

firstly, one should only get married when they are ready to start a family, i.e have kids of their own.

cause i see little advantage and more setbacks of getting married and not having kids immediately. the children are the binding force that will propel the entire family through the test of time.

however, this is easier said than done, with the rising cost of inflation and the carefully selected influx of foreigners. these new immigrants are wealthy, educated, and have their own lifestyle which may or may not contribute to the singapore way.

so with a population fast approaching the 5 million mark, the consequences are going to be rather undesirable, for a small country like singapore.

for one, the average local singaporean will be deprive of a good portion of the piece of cake , as it shares it with many others. worst still , they will not have the spending power as our richer newly immgrated neighbours.

be mindful that these foreigners very quickly appreciated our property value and on the same token they can cause havok if they decide to call it quits, when the **** hits the fence i.e reccession, and go back to their homwtown. now, its left to the faithful local hardworking singaporeans to pick up the pieces.

there must be a distinct advantage of being s'porean, sadly this is missing. we pay just as much as a tourist to ride the singapore flyer or visit the night safari. i'm ashame to say this, but due to the high cost, i have gave up hope of riding on the 'singapore eye'. i can only encourage my guest from abroad , with their superior spending power to do so.

even local housing , HDB, have appreciated so much that, one has to live on the outskirts to pay a resonable sum. these helpless people, who form the backbone of our society, will only know singapore as a small suburb around the area where they live, cause venturing anywhere near the city would set them back financially, let alone using the facilities. its like these country, seems to be for the survival of the fittest. slowly but surely erradicating the weak-subcontiously.

i just pray that god gives all good health, otherwise one would die of the illness or the burden of paying up.

Answer 150

it's so costly to raise a child in singapore. The employer's mindset has to change too. Look at the days of childcare leave given to working parents...it's only 2 miserable days for pte sector. Obviously it's not enough. We all know that children fall sick easily when in childcare, how is it possible for 2 days to be enough to cover. Of course govt sector gives more - 5 days per kid but still many of us are working in pte sector. The low subsidy is another issue. If you have 3 kids, you definitely pay 1.5k or more just for childcare and we are not even talking about the number of days each child falls sick in a year and the high medical cost.

Answer 151

i was 29yrs old when gave birth to a baby daughter lst year 2007 after 3years of marriage. the problem i faced was from work (employers).

i was asked to take fixed 2 mths maternity leaves and spread out the last 22days into 6mths due to shortage of manpower within the dept. however when i was about to take the maternity leaves, i would faced problems within inter colleagues. i cannot find anyone to act my backup when comes to work. my mgr to the extend hinting me that as a young mother, if there is a need to go home on time, at 5.30pm sharp and it might not be suitable to the current work function. - Therefore indirectly asking me to resign ??

i only has 14days annual leaves. during the 40weeks pregnancy, i have mild chicken pox in the first semster although i have injection before getting pregnant, i was given 2 weeks mc = 10days... during the 2nd & last semster, i was down with very bad cough. i told my mgr that i cannot sit in the aircon environment for long, requsting to loan a laptop and work from home at the 2nd half of the working day., she told me it cannot be done and asked me to take either from annual leaves or unpaid leaves. however when i was on leaves, my mgr and colleagues still call me and ask me abt work.

i believe, everything can be discuss internally & with the mgmt.however she just rejected me outright.



honestly, i think someone (the MOM ??) educate more at these private sectors, and stress out more helps to the young working mothers. Without a career & understanding mgmt, we cannot pays for all the necessary expenses requries by a baby.

Answer 152

Hi I'm married for 4 yrs. And had been trying for one for 2 yrs. Recently I went to the hospital to do check out on myself and husband. Do you know the cost of all these check up are not cheap? After which the doc told me that I was not so fertile, in order to have a faster pregnancy IUI was a good method, cost money again. And not that once will be successful, you may need 2nd try, 3rd try, 4th try.. etc. Each try cost us like almost $800 again. I also can't wait for a kid. but with all these costs how to have one especially for women like me with problems. Shouldn't the government do something for us? And like everyone was saying, everything is so ex in Singapore. Basically we have to work and work to earn money, how to have time to go home on time to make bb. If don't work how to pay for all the bills?

Answer 153

Many older parents think that having children is easy. Just work for one night and you are on your way. Things are not as easy nowadays. We, as Singaporean, who are earning dollar for dollar. Even foreign workers, who actually have the advantage on the currency exchange rate, would prefer not to raise their child in Singapore, unless they are high-income earners. From regular check-ups, scans and consultation, till the actual birth of baby, it would easily cost anyone more than $6k. This figure is just based on the average spending. After confinement, if both parents are working, infant care, diapers, milk powder, insurance, baby clothes and accessories are also the money killing factors. These bare essentials are not cheap, for any average income earners. Then you will need to save up, in-case your baby falls ill. On top of the lack for sleep, while taking care of the infant, the work load, stress and work requirements can easily make one lose their cool. With high cost of living, parents who wants to bring their baby out, can only take buses or the MRT. However, with the amount of preparation required before each outing and the crowded public transport, most parents would preferred to stay at home. Gradually, parents lost their daily life-style & freedom. With the growth of the child, Day-care center, After school care, Education cost, Living cost and material cost kicks-in. These are ever raising. But it's said that it's not advisable to increase the pay scale of employees, just to ease the inflation. We are encouraged to plan for our elderly age, but with an extra golden mouth to feed, most parents can only afford to plan for themselves, either at very old age or unless the parents themselves earn well per month. So how would one expect an average to low income earner to have more than one child? When it comes to having a house, private developers are selling very expensive new HDB flats and the resale market isn't that cheap either. Cost of renovation and furnishing the house is another killer. With all the money factors, how much can the baby bouns cover, while taking care of a child is actually a life-time career.

Answer 154

My boyfriend & I would like to get married soon, as we're already in our mid-20s. However, we think it's better to save up for our own HDB flat first and then start a family. Thus, this is causing the delay to get married because it is quite expensive to buy a flat in S'pore. Even with the housing grants available, we are still hesitating.



Another issue I have in mind is that if we were to have children, I would like to be a stay-at-home mom & take care of them properly through their early childhood years. Not the maid, my mother or mother-in-law to take care of them! I don't think it's fair that my mother or MIL has to look after the children while we go out to work...they had already done their fair share of looking after us when we were kids! It should be our turn now. But in S'pore, I think it's quite hard if only 1 partner is working...how to make ends meet?

Answer 155

With childcare costs going up even though after gov subsidies, it still cost us cash S$450-600 to send a child. Even gov owned PCF kindergarten fees are going up next year! The baby bonus cash given every 6months does not covers much given that powdered milk cost S$35 - 45 per can & diapers also cost alot , inshort, i hope the gov would give more & better incentives to promote more births as our economy are striving too fast & everything getting too expensive to have more children .

Answer 156

Getting married is fun. Having children is not. We got married and started a family with 1 kid. 4 years after the kid, we don't want another child to destroy the stability established. It's hard when you still want your career, your sanity, nice holidays, a private house and a car. One more kid means I need a maid, take only Malaysia holidays and pull my hair out. If the government wants to really encourage childbirth, try giving subsidies for medical bills at paediatricians, having cheaper and more avenues for childcare, and providing free education till the child can work and repay the government (not our CPF!). Also, the government has to ensure companies do not penalize women who choose not to work or work at a slower pace to care for the family. Impossible.

Answer 157

I am married for two years and realised that having baby naturally is out of the question due to medical problems so doc. at KKH has recommended IVF. My wife and I have been trying for baby even before we were married and its been 4 yrs. After we were brief of the IVF procedure and costs, we realised that we cant really afford it. We really wanted a child and also hoped that we can be apart of help to boost the birth rate in Singapore but after calculation we think that we cant make ends meet.... Using up my medisave but not enough to cover on the bills that will be running till birth and still needs to set aside for upbringing. We sincerely hope that the government would consider of giving infertile couples more subsidies and previlages in IVF pregnancy.

Answer 158

Its so expensive to have a child here in Singapore, from the first minute you realized you are pregnant! In addition, living cost is extremely high especially medical, childcare and education service.



Most of my friends planned to get married at a earlier age and hopefully might have a smaller age gap from their children. However, due to the education system and the living cost here, it is not so possible.



For a man who is a graduate, he is at least 24 - 25 = NO MONEY~~ then need to work, because girlfriend say want to get married. WORK SAVE WORK SAVE~ at least 2 more years, then money goes to wedding and getting married! then back to square one! by the time the couple plans for the 2nd or the 3rd baby, most are in their mid-thirties or early forties~ then medical problems set in!

Answer 159

Personally, I think it's more of opportunity costs of what I could have achieved more if I do not settle down versus what I have to give up in order to lead a married and family life, more than your listed reasons. I'm single now and choose not to get married because I'm career-minded and wish to establish my own business before I think of settling down. Also, I believe that I'm not good enough to be a parent yet, as in I still need to empower myself with more skills and knowledge before I can be a responsible and worthy parent who can impart my skills and knowledge to my own children. I enjoy being single and having the time to learn everything that I wish to now and to travel as and when I wish, whilst at the same time establish my career so my concerns are clearly about having to face disruption to my current lifestyle and unpreparedness.

Answer 160

Having babies is simple. But who to look after it. One of the simplest way the government can help is by completely removing the levy on maid for families with babies at home. It doesn't make sense if you spend about $800 a month on maid (including food and misc spend on the maid) and go out to work if you can't find a job with more then $1.8k coz after deducting all the cost and CPF, you are back to the same situation again.

Answer 161

Hi

Life in Singapore is very stressful. Bringing up a child will bring added stress to the parents though the child brings priceless joy to the family.

In order to bring up the child well and bond with him, I would love to be a stay at home mum. But being a double income couple, how can I do so? If we were to send the baby to expensive infant care, may as well stay at home and tighten all belts to stay afloat.



The government is giving subsidy to child care but this is not enough. Today's parents' want the best they can afford for their only child. They would rather pay more for better teachers in better child care with better facilities and teaching materials. My girlfriend sends his 3 yr old only son to a $1k a month child care 1km from her home where next block has a child care that cost less than half of what she is paying. Why?



Parents nowadays are better educated and want the best for their child. Government can into better child care improving their facilities, teachers qualifications, teaching materials, child development etc...

Answer 162

In addition to financial constraints and busy schedule, employers who are not supportive on family planning is also a factor.

On the contradictory, even though the government has been promoting family planning, the employers do show their concern in hiring this group ladies. There are employers who may not hire ladies who have plans to get marry, or newly weds or even ladies who have intention of planning for more kids.

These have definitely put pressure on ladies, especially when they are seeking for career opportunities. I don't think that this is fair on the ladies.

Thus, in this competitive country, ladies would prefer to settle and stabilise in their career before planning for family.

Answer 163

There are many reasons why Singaporeans hold off from having a kid...



mostly due to financial constraints. Singapore is an expensive city and we want the best for our kids. Our lifestyle cannot afford more than one child per household. :(



You should read this article, it pretty much explains all the possible things that the govt must do to get us to produce more kids.



http://www.theasianparent.com/articles3.php?reg_id=76&cat_id=6

Answer 164

I am mummy of a 14mth-old prince and a 28mth-old princess. To raise them is simply too expensive especially the medical bills. Even KKH children's Emergency clinic is charging $80/visit which is too expensive. Not yet the cab fare especially after mid-nite. Another concern is the child care fees which is also digging a hole into the bank account. I am hoping to see more subsidies into the childcare fees.

Answer 165

At any give space of time, man struggled to make a living, desires comforts of life. Cost does matters but I doubt this is the crux to the matter.



The essential question one must answer is :

Having offsprings is a mandate of human, social responsibility or purely a matter of choice?



Whichever u choose, your action will be different.

Whether out of love or out of mandate or responsibility, one will still choose to have kids inspite of social / financial circumstances.



When choice is that matter, self-centredness has the biggest say. Naturally, DINK is a wiser decision.



Committment towards marriage is no longer as strong as days of old. This is a strong hindrance to anyone who thinks about forming a family with another.



Family values and Personal values have to be strengthen to see a generation of certain kind!

Answer 166

Singaporeans already predicted that with the inflation going on in singapore, people cannot afford to have more than one baby. As a result, singaporeans prefer to have their family in another country where they can afford to have a family. Some people do not even have a home, I see them sleeping anywhere, in the parks, hdb playgrounds, behind the bushes where police cannot see them. Teenagers smoking anywhere, most of them are drunk even in the mrt.



I think what they say is true that, Singapore is not a place to raise a family.

Answer 167

I'm married for 10years, during the initial few years, we didn't want to have a kid because if we do, one of us will have to be a stay home parent. Or else, I need to put my baby in infant care which will eat up almost most of my salary. So, it doesn't make sense for me to work to be able to pay infant care & pay for our other commitments. 5 years later, when both myself & my husband are ready, when we are more financially ready, we tried. I had 2 miscarrages & now going through IVF. Now , its 2nd try of IVF & if its sill unsuccessful , we will have to go for the final try because we are only allowed to claim IVF on 3 tries. Now, there are couples who are willing to go through many tries, but if govenment is not extending the 3 tries, so, at the end of 3 tries, thats it. We should be allowed to use our medisave in whenever way we want, obviously, what MOH can do is, as long as there's a minimum cap to medisave, we can use the balance for IVF. Isn't this better & more ppl will try & not be put off due to the high cost of IVF.

Answer 168

Just a personal experience to share...



My hubby and I ROM this year in March and we were planning for a baby this year as he is already 30. But little did we expect that there are no HDB flats available except for those under the Build-to-order scheme, which we have to wait 4 years before the expected completion date. We seek help from HDB to grant us a interim HDB unit, however it was rejected. Despite the letters our MPs help us to write to HDB, our request was being rejected again and again. We're both sharing rooms with siblings so finally we gave up the thought of having babies! If only we're richer...then we can survive the inflation...

Answer 169

everything but salary, it's so costly to raise a child in singapore. The employer's mindset has to change too. Look at the days of childcare leave given to working parents...it's only 2 miserable days for pte sector. Obviously it's not enough. We all know that children fall sick easily when in childcare, how is it possible for 2 days to be enough to cover. Of course govt sector gives more - 5 days per kid but still many of us are working in pte sector. The low subsidy is another issue. If you have 3 kids, you definitely pay 1.5k or more just for childcare and we are not even talking

Answer 170

The current baby bonus that the goverment has introduced is being divided over 1 1/2 years and the current $450 per installment is only barely sufficent to be able to cover a little bit of the ever rising cost of living to feed the kid . Additional to that , Paternal leave is not compulsary in singapore and some companies are practicing paternal leaves (example mine) . How can we have babies if this is not going to change .

Answer 171

Get married? To a S'pore guy?

Well, lets see...

Those guys below 25 are too dumb and selfish;

Those guys 26-35 are still immature and selfish;

And those guys above 35 and still unmarried must be the leftovers that the best of the worse from above have been taken.

So no amount of government or peer or relative pressure is gonna make me marry before I at least secure my own future.

And if any of you guys are wondering,

No, I'm not gay nor butch.

But I am 18 and pretty ; )



shut up n let me go

Answer 172

You should check out the queues and registration at fertility gynea...



There are always different segments who need different forms of aids:-

- financial stress

- insufficient help (baby sitters, school enrolment etc)

- society aid for mums in search for job

- infertility



I always believe that there is no "one size that fits all" rule...and the urge to set up a complete family should eventually comes from the couple so that self-responsibility acts as the fundamental to the life-long committment!

Answer 173

Finance. I've seen the GST rise from 3% to 5% and from 5% to 7%. With each increase, along the same paycheck, it gets harder to be financially healthy. It won't be surprising if the GST is to increase again in the future and then it will be my children's turn to experience the difficulties I am facing. So no way am I going to make my children work just to keep up with the high cost of living and not have valuable/meaningful time to themselves..

Answer 174

Haha... how can goverment made companies a pro- family working environment as they only make it a must for those earning below 1.5 to have the extra childcare leave while those above is subjected to their employer wish. If we are really a very pro-family company i guess this will never happen. I guess there are many female employers don't have that luxury since their pay is above the amount set by goverment. :-)

Answer 175

Govt should



1) Allow the use of Medisave to fully cover the cost of pre pregnancy checks, up to baby delivery.

2) impose $0 Maid Levy for

3) Heavily subsidise childcare centre fess

4) allow tax rebate from 1st baby and not from 2nd baby onwards.

Answer 176

Living standards are too high... being young couple, we have to support ourselves, parents and if baby coming another burden. No time no money, the subsidise given is too little to meet the high inflation and having a kid. Now everything is $, everything went up so terribly and scary. If more subsidise in terms of hospitalization, parents, utilities & maintainence, baby, childcare etc these will enhance the growth of birth rate... high living standards will never see growth in birth rate...

Answer 177

Just had a baby and really could understand why so many working mums/dad are torn between maintaining a job, income and having time for family.



If the government are really looking into how Sweden and UK maternity benefit, i hope that we would see an improvement of maternity/paternity/flexible leave benefits so that one doesn't have to worry about losing their job while taking time off to care for their child. (e.g. when the primary care taker is sick or not available)



Current benefit is definitely good compared to the past but there is room for improvement for sure.



I believe our government would do their best to improve the situation and we look forward to good news soon.



Notes from a Hopeful and Happy Singaporean

Answer 178

Getting married has lots of factor to look into. Buying a house, wedding preparation, planning for a child and most of us do have to look after our own parents and even need to give them monthly allowance and medical bills. I do agree that most ppl loves to have a child but Singapore living standard has rise so much that we cant even fend ourselves well. Let alone have a child. This year, petrol, rice/food beverages, transport etc almost everything has rose without our control. I hope govt can look into all these matter. In this new generation, employers shld give mother/parents flexible working environment to let employees have more time spend for their children esp at their age from birth to probably lower primary. This is the crucial part when children grows and nurture them. Employers shld not look down on married staff not employing them as they might plan for a child soon after settling down in a new job. For young couples, despite working they have to look after the house. Everything has rise but not our salary. After giving a child, they have to send their baby to nanny, mother or childcare centre. If not, they will employ maid. Few years down the road, education fees and curriculum activities to nurture their interest/learning. Basically all these add up to $1000+++. After all the money deducted for child's living expenses, parents do not have much to save unless they are living off parents for their meals. Adding more to the scheme doesnt help much. What couples need is time to spend with child, more financial help, support from family if not with maid help. I think govt can help in providing affordable maid employment for young couples with income not more than $7000. With all these financial help and maid assistance, I believe more young couples will give a thought.

Answer 179

3 moths maternity leave for working mother is simply too short considering the fact the other country are offering 6 months.



The baby bonus incentive is not at all attractive as it will only cover for a short period of time (1 - 2 months).



Therefore, if the government would like to offer something to help, maybe 100% rebate on maid levy, car incentives/ rebates for parents with babies/ children, better work incentives as well. (Please do not only include married couples w/o children but also those with children as well.

Answer 180

S'pore may be safe to live in but i'm sure many would agree tat its just a stressful living here. Fines,erp,tax,living expenses,hdb flat...everything is just too expensive. For newley weds,even getting a flat,be it rental or new ones,depends on your luck. N raising a child...when both parties are busy making end meets,where is the time to have more kids...? U could if u want but do u really have the time for each child.. If u don't,the child might end up attention seeking and therefore leading to social probs.. Sadly..i love s'pore but i doubt s'poreans r a happy lot.

Answer 181

$$$$ is the biggest concern at the rate how expensive Singapore is.esp those born in 1980s..good luck to US!!

My dreams to get married and have kids has gone to zero the moment i think of the amt of $$ we need to pay for a house,to survive,to get married,to even have a child.

At the rate we are going, we will even beat USA in economic status.

Why is the govt not concern about our ppl ?

Why is it just about the economy? Could be reasons why many Sg are running away and neva returning..i would someday..

Answer 182

Financial is main issue. But rising and giving education is rather more important. We are busy parents. Even we could send then to childcare, still we are fully responsible. If they sick, we have to take leave. We cant gauge how long to take them to cure. That if 1 kid. If more? Can employer tolerate if we always have family matter. If taking maid can solve the problem, having maid add another prob. turning round and round, financial still the main issue. even though govt do give incentive & subsidised.. but how much can they help?

Answer 183

The workplace is just not conducive for raising a family in Singapore. Employers only pay lip service to being pro-family just to appear 'politically correct' . In fact, they just want staff who can work 24/7 and if pay is lower, better for them. That's why they freak out when an employee tells them she's getting pregnant or if she has a take urgent leave to attend to family matters. Funny thing is that this applies to even female bosses whom you think should be more sympathetic. Sorry, in S'pore, its work productivity that counts and this is what has been drummed into generations by our government.

Answer 184

When i was pregnant with my 1st child, it was a difficulty pregnancy, thus I had made a choice to stop working. Now I have 3 children, I had return to work. Eversince I stop working, it is tough for my husband being a sole bread winner. With the rising cost in food and milk powder, it is tougher. My issue is when my children is sick and can't attend childcare, I had to ask for leave to look after them and its tough being in the workforce. You had to set your priority, family or work. i tried to get help but its in vain. In the end, my boss told me that I focus more on my family commitment than my work eventhough I finish my work on time. Its frustrating and this keep my morale down. Sometimes I wish that i'm single again so that I dun have a lot of commitments.

Answer 185

Agree. No doubt the govt had lots of incentives to encourage birthrate, think about it, raising a child takes 20++ years. Can the incentives last that long? To "survive" in this competitive society, the parents will have to slogged until the children graduate from university.

During our parents' generation, "O" level is good enough. Now, the job market for "O" levels is extremely limited.

There's a saying, "Just take a stone and throw at any young adults, they are at least a U if not Diploma grads".

Education is not cheap, though govt subsidise portion of it. CPF used for children's education is being controlled, worry that the parents do not have enough for retirement.

Medical is getting expensive, transport cost is on the rise, etc.

We are struggling to meet ends needs, some parents took up 2 jobs, which leads to neglecting their children's needs (I'm not talking about just giving them $$).

Single is better, you spend on yourself.

Answer 186

I am happily married with two young girls, aged 31/2 and 1yr 10mths. I was truly blessed when it came to childcare support. My mother in law came all the way from India to take care of my first daughther and my mother dropped in occassionally to help out as well. With the arrival of my second daughter, we decided we needed extra help and hired a maid. All because we could afford it.My mother in law has since gone back to India and my mother with her arthritis problem is unable to come over to help out anymore. I go to work each morning with a heavy heart wondering if my maid will be able to handle both my girls all by herself. She has to send my first daughter to school and with all the safetly issues in my mind, I sometimes feel like quitting my job. I wonder if that will help solve the problem. But it will definitely raise another problem FINANCE! Sending my girls to school is not cheap with their school fees, bus transportation fees and all. On top of that diapers, milk powder and my husband is considering doing his masters. How in the world will we ever manage if I was going to quit with outstanding loans to be paid. How wonderful it will be if childcare in Singapore was free like in some countries. How wonderful if our bosses were more understanding towards our family needs. I guess no matter how much we are paid to have children, it will never attain the desired effect until something more proactive is done like free childcare and paid leave for fathers. What we are given by the government is considered peanuts as a simple C-section sets you back by $4000, sometimes even more. Try persuading me to have a third one and I will shoot you down.

Answer 187

Main Concern: $$$

The basic costs to hv a bb are shockingly HIGH.

Infantcare is S$1300 (b4 subsidy $400)!!! Mean about 40% of my mthly pay! That's excluding milk powder, diapers, vaccination, doc fees etc. How to have bb or more bb when u can barely survive each month?



After having children, no extra time/$$ to nuture them. That's worse, isn't it? Parents are always to be blamed when kids are hitting the streets in bad company... Vicious cycle...



I'd love to hv more kids if more support is given. Fingers crossed. Sigh...

Answer 188

Singapore, despite its size, is one of the most competitive countries in the world.

Needless to say, something has to give in to such results. Young people put their job and financial security before everything else. Income has to remain competitive, standards of goods and services has to be kept up to par.

Its no wonder at all that we have the lowest birth rate in the world.

I would say its the governments concern, since its just nature taking its course and finding its equilibrium.

Answer 189

Most govt & big organisations are supportive on this issue, but NOT small & medium firms. Since there are many married women in the latter catagory, they are very put off by starting or having a second child. Eg, i have lots of female friends whose bosses are not happy with them taking leave for monthly check-ups during pregnancy. And i also have many female friends who are terminated from their job half way thru' their pregnancy. All of them have swore off having a second child. Those of my friends who are single, have put off marriage when they learnt about all this. So employers' non-support is a very very crucial contribution to the falling birthrate. It is time someone sit up & take note of this area.

Answer 190

Yes I agree... it's too expansive to raise a kid nowadays. Lets start with the basics:

Hospital bills, diapers, milk powder (raising prices), insurance, monthly-about twice ill need to see doctor. next comes along with childcare (both parents need to work in order to support family),education. And now the newly raising prices for getting HDB flat. How are we, newly weds with a child able to buy a flat and raise more children as encourage by the government?

Answer 191

Financial contstraints - start learn personal financial planning.

Busy work schedules - break all the rigid rules at work & start doing things efficiently & effectively. It's the man-made rules & schedules that make us busy and non-stop working.

Childcare support - Kids are getting smarter with formula milk, they can pick up & learn fast themselves. Babies taken care by nurses, grow up in hospital learn how to take care of others, & they will know how to take care of themselves later on. They have best nutritionists, psychologists & vaccinated environments & mothers' love.



Concerns are we think too much, perfectionist. We want everything to be right from the start. Kids must have the best education, good life, smart &everything. If we can't perfect our own life, we don't want to bring an imperfectionist into the world especially in S'pore, when you'll be condemned if you're not number 1 in the everything. Many e.g but too long to type here. So end up think abt distorted thinking, we blamed ourselves and govt & lousy life never satisfied for perfectionist. Blamed everything when things go wrong. Even giving birth to babies become a bargainable trade. No $ no talk. If can, just give birth lar, no $ no time, throw kids in the street, let govt clear up the mess & discipline the next generation, anyway our roles is increase birth rate, think so much for what :p Even we "robots" are not perfect & malfunctioned. If we ever increase our babies, don't stop, continue & let it flow to other country. Don't worry abt overpopulation. Not enough lands, think abt sea & outerspace. More ppl, more brains, more possibility, more solutions.



We're kiasu-ism (scared to lose) in everything, but what about married & family? The lifestyle we're in, the mindset we're molded into. We want to find the suitable, best husband/ wife, in-laws, careers and waited and searched till realised we're not getting younger, romance gone, realistic expectation comes in. What's the point marry & family when only have a few years together, old then wait to see who die first? Now need to forget abt retirement & family, have to work till die. Balance work life - idealistic v.s realistic :(

In S'pore, stopped dreaming & start working! Dreams=disaster for your future.



Major concern - Stressed at work also caused some of us to be infertile, which means even though we tried and wanted to have a kid, but the body function is not working. In fact stressed had gotten into our head we don't realised, everything fast-paced, biological system in body overworked haywires & stopped function. Environment factors, hazes, advance tech radiation etc. leads to bad health=problems=abnormal babies=society problems. Sad.

It would be good if pace in S'pore can slow down a bit sometimes, not everytime fast & $ up. So what if no.1 but =unhappy citizens=extinct soon=die. Slow pace a bit won't die & can have happy citizens=up productivity=problem solved. $ is root of all evils. Even economics also up & down where got everytime up.



Sorry for the bad english, many things to say but limited time=shortcuts=haywires=confused but at least can get some points across. Must relax.

Answer 192

I'm a mother of 2. I work 9-6 daily on weekdays, and 9-1 on Saturdays. By the time you get home and settle down, its at least 1 1/2 hrs later, Cook? Another (at least) 1 hr later, other chores (at least) 1 hr later, where do the kids come in? I'm a healthcare worker and hence Saturday work is a must, where do i get the luxury to spend time with my kids? What more have more? Time for myself? I rare guilt filled luxury. How to?

Answer 193

Childcare support almost costs SGD1000 per month. Then if the parents are odd job workers with S$800 to $900 a month, it will not be enough for them to pay the childcare. Barely can survive with their income to pay for living expenses, pay utility bills and property tax, what should the child feeds on. The child would suffer the most. For example, only give birth to a child, the child may want to have siblings. But the parents couldn't afford it. What can the government do?

Answer 194

I can understand very well the government is trying to resolve issues concerning the low birth rate in Singapore by giving out baby bonus starting a few years back. There is no doubt about having children after marriage is still our responsibility whether on guidance, parenthood or financially. There are 3 parts which I would like to highlight here:



1. It is very clear, especially for those who have been through bringing up a child or more, that the baby bonus is insufficient to motivate couples whether newly wed or those already with 1 child to give birth to more. There are too many considerations before a couple decided to have children based on the current hectic working environment and of course the financial constraint to add on when the child is born. We cannot denied that all parents wanted to provide their children with the best they can offer due to the higher living standard here and that somehow ended with higher expenses for education and living cost. Even when a child is sent to a lower cost pre-school, it is still a considerable amount to be paid by couples especially for those who have only sufficient to meet their monthly expenses. Since the issue now is to encourage married couples to start their family and give birth earlier, I would suggest the government to look into allowing couples to use part of their CPF account (whether ordinary or special account) to pay for the pre-school expenses? This is just like using their CPF money to pay for their children education but of course the difference is the latter has to pay back the amount to their parent CPF account. With that, I would think part of their worries over financial constraint can be partly resolved but not forgetting that there are still other issues which the family have to resolve it themselves and cannot expect the govenment to resolve all their issues before starting a family.



2. The baby bonus scheme should also applied to those who are born before the govenment implement this scheme a few years back but of course have to restrict to children less then 7 years old. Why should this group of children be left out which I think it is not fair for their parents especially for kids who are born just before the implementation date? They are Singapore citizen and should also be given the benefits implemented.



3. Lastly, family with children, who are applying to HDB for their new flat should not have the ceiling income restriction. The 2 times or chances allowable for family to apply a new flat directly from HDB could probably be changed to 3 times instead. This could form another key factor in encouraging those couples who have only 1 child to give birth to more, especially for those who hit the income ceiling restriction by HDB.

Answer 195

Getting married is an expensive affair. Having a baby is even more expensive and stressful. I am a full-time mother with 2 kids - 8 and 4. I need a helper to do the housework and cooking, otherwise it will be difficult to attend to my kids and coach my son in his studies. We are surviving on a single paycheque. How is it possible to have more children ?

Answer 196

I'm one of those who try to see beyond the challenges of raising kids in this ever increasingly costly country. I do think the joy of having kids supersedes the difficulties. I have a son and now trying for another(at times albeit half-hearted). As a non working mom, I'm in a great position to raise more kids but am not encourage to do so by our govt. Our system seems to reward working moms more(as shown in higher subsidies enjoyed for pre-school). I feel penalised for not working. It was my wish to work many times but its just hard to get employed again after stopping for 1 few years. As well, much more can be done to make Singapore a pro-family place. Eg. Higher discounts for local families to places like bird park, zoo etc. A retractable baby seat in female public toilets (like those commonly seen in Japan). I believe many moms can relate the stress of having an anxious crying child strapped in his stroller outside the cubicle while the mother hurriedly finish off her "big biz"!

Answer 197

I totally agree. First of all, it's not cheap to raise a kid in Singapore, hard enough during the first few years, worse when he/she reaches school age. Schools don't provide text books on loan, plus all kinds of projects, ECA, etc, everything is about money. Secondly, when both parents work, who will take care of the child when there's no other means of childcare support for them? For my husband and I, one child is hard enough, what is there to encourage us to have more? That's why till now, we're still childless.

Answer 198

The standard of living in Singapore requires both husband and wife to go out and work to support the family with kids. so who will look after the kids?? Maids?? if the mother so decide to stay home to look after the children, what does she get? NOTHING!! Just look at all the perks that the government gave out over the years.. to the poor, to the old, to the NSmen, to every one else except the MOTHER that stays at home!! So whats the incentive to give birth and stay home? Unless the new measures takes care of the stay home mother and children, IT WILL NOT WORK!!

Answer 199

I agree with the rest, its way too expensive to give birth even to a single child. Even from basic things like children's clothing, its quite expensive as compare to adults'. Children grows quite a lot every year and clothes bought a year ago soon cannot be worn and have to be buought regularly. Unless govt gives incentives etc to newly weds, and help them manage the inflation in the coming years. This will probably boost the birth rate in Singapore.

Answer 200

Getting Married and Having Children are personal choices...



If Singaporeans are not interested in getting married and the hassle and costs involved, then there won't be babies... Babies are much more expensive then the wedding ceremony and needs more attention than your husband/wife.



It is very tough to juggle work and having a family. Any baby bonus we have now are not even enough to cover the whole course of pregancy check-ups and hospital bill.



Do not tell me abt going for subsidies antenatal care... Because mums to be need to work... Cheap antenatal care at KKH and SGH are only available from 9 am to 5pm weekdays. So its like telling mums to be - if mums do not need to work, please have babies - not all employers let you have it easy when you are pregnant. Sad to say.



Let us have free antenatal check ups... Free pre-school fees free primary school fees... Then at least parents can be able to afford to pay for infant care and child care.



I am urgently looking for part time work so I can spend more time with baby. To no avail! So much for a good economy.

Answer 201

Firstly, the couple needs to have earn enough money before they could get married. Getting married itself already cost a bomb, from the Gown to the luncheon hosted by the couple and even wedding banquet for the customary wedding.



If they owned a flat, they need to take care of the expenses the flat will incurred. On top of that, they need to take care both of their aged parents, if they are still alive. Besides that, they still need to take care of their living expenses. Situation would be worst if either of the parents suffers from medical problems.



If a couple decided to have children, they will incurred even more cost from medical to living expenses and education for the kids.



Bearing in mind of the increasing living cost in Singapore, many couples preferred not to have kids to avoid more burden.

Answer 202

thou I m not married yet, I heard from friends on the cost of having a new born.



First and foremost, medical bills alone for 1 week stay in KK comes up to 30K!!! What kind of Subsidy is there available to help on that!!



For all that we know, our gov is well-known for giving a some "sweets" initially and carve off a bigger block of you later in time. Just maybe, even if there 's 50% subsidy on the med bill for child birth, what about the our work??



Singapore is a world-class, developed country thanks to our minister's good govenance but lets not forget its also the desire and diligence of the workforce that makes its possible.



Bottomline is: If the workforce is expected to spend long hours in office and even after office hours worrying abt how to execute things faster, simply no mood to engage in social activities, less even talk abt marriage and children.

Answer 203

Apart from the common problems like financial matters, family bonding and time, I am also worry about my children's future. Life in Singapore is not getting any easier in the future, there are so much competitions. I am wondering if I want my children to go through the hardship in the future. It is a human race and survival.

Answer 204

Children are NOT expensive. Lifestyles are. The poor finds it hard to keep up with the competitive and materialist capitalist society while the rest rather spend their money on indulgences than to care for children. Moreover, many affluent Singaporeans are already second maid-bred generation and hence they do not know how to care for themselves let alone another. In short the issue has always been the problem with VALUES not money.

Answer 205

Childcare might also spring unpleasant surprises on unsuspecting parents. Children tend to fall sick more often, need medical care and have to stay at home. Parents then have to scramble to apply for leave to look after their child. However, there is a very limited number of leave days that are available for this kind of situation, and it is also something that is rarely encouraged, even in the civil service. When there are outbreaks of diseases like HFMD, at the same time the government orders the closure of childcare centres and schools for sanitization purposes, they should also allow parents to take leave for that duration. Especially working parents who have no alternative childcare arrangements.

Answer 206

Yes indeed. there are just too tough to to have a family these days in singapore, but govenement just wann to use the Comparision of having a kids and living ratio to debate our feedbacks.



But the statistics are just too biased and too simple.



human are dynamics being and then cannot have it the way the other country is doing.

Too many factors to contribute to a good result.



I will vote" All concerns till the day the kids grow up to take care of themself n a bit about my well being. "



Thks.

Answer 207

I have 2 children & it has been a nightmare from the very first child for the last 4 years as it was very expensive even for the medical check ups before delivery then the delivery charges & other hospital charges.Then the daily childcare expenses,my wife & myself have to really slog to meet these expenses.then when my child grew upto to goto school the childcare center was fast on exploiting us taught nothing but was extracting money from us they did not leave the opportunity to extract money from us for little expeditions to the city like going to airport or some interesting spots for children.We really pray to God everyday to see that our children are not denied good education due to lack of money.If the government wants to encourage then it has to be realistic .The government should give childcare subsidies exercise greater control over the childcare centers who should not rob the parents,they must give good education to children(for this there has to be strict measures by MCYS to see that only qualified teachers handle the small children & unqualified teachers even with degrees behind them should be asked to change their profession as they will not help in anyway in our children growth,there has to be system of appraisal for teachers as what i have seen is the teachers who dont even have any education in early childhood are teaching) I have had a very bad experince with a teacher who has no formal education in preschool teaching treated my daughter so badly that my daughter went into a trauma & she was scared to goto any school for that matter even to our temple where we teach our children something about our spiritual values of life thru stories,dramas,songs she was scared about anything that has to do anything with learning.So who is to be blamed the teacher or the school or education system.Later i also learnt that the schools do not pay well to teachers even if they are qualfied teachers so the result is there is lack of good teachers.The old saying goes that you pay peanuts & you get monkeys who are not at all bothered about your child's development what they are bothered is their pay check at the end of month. Parents must check out the schools before putting their small little children in the hands of these kind of teachers who have no mercy on your child. It was very difficult for us to actually find a good school for our children .

So the government if it really wants to encourage must see that the teachers are well trained & well paid & the parents are given enough subsidies to allow parents to give good education to children & the same goes for medical insurance which is so high that its not affordable anymore & thats scary.Maid levies should be removed.



So to sum it up education should be made compulsory & free upto secondary school,teachers should be well trained & well paid & there must be a system of recognising expert teachers who are role models for the children they teach.Its the teachers who makes the difference in the life of a child.Medical bills & insurance should be subsidised .The whole package of having a child should be attractive for those who have children or those who are planning to get married . If the government wants to see talented people in singapore then there must be a serious effort all round & specially education both spiritual & material education since a spiritually & materially developed person will be a good leader in society but a materially developed will be a good exploiter of society and will cause damage. So the education should be with great values otherwise it is only "information,information,information & NO TRANSFORMATION"

Answer 208

High cost of living and long hours of work with few off days. The cost of pre school is a nightmare for low income parents. How to have a big family if situation goes on like this...

Answer 209

It's the Singapore society and work culture that doesn't encourage having a family. It's very very difficult to change a society built in the past 3 decades just like that. This is a very serious problem.

Answer 210

first of all, starting a family, now, is too costly. from recent news outbreak, everything is rising. all costs are being raised sky high, and from what i have read, the government is not allowing for a raise in pay. yet, on top of all the rising prices, erp, etc, we are asked to raise a family? with what little income? one thing, if the government isnt aware off, it isnt as easy as it sounds, and it isnt at all cheap. not everyone is RICH.

secondly, with the rise in population, there are higher demands, and therefore with these demands, prices happily sore. how are those who are earning an average income, going to survive? even if both sides are earning. and dont you think is already packed? expats included.

Answer 211

Singapore is not a good place to raise up a child in term of learning and family. The burden start from marriage to old age.



Not to complain, if there is some subsidy for single to get married sounds good. Make it like HDB grant, hopefully there is Wedding Dinner Grant at selected hotels outlets.



Secondly, more grants and family oriented laws for all companies will do the tricks in our fine Singapore.



Welcome to Singapore afterall.

Answer 212

My husband and I are newly wed but we've put off the idea to raise children here simply because we hope to be able to spend more quality time with our children even on weekdays but sad to say, we cant in view of our "8 hours work a day or maxi 44 hours work week" employment policy. Flexi-time is workable and highly encourage only in government sector but not for private companies. Believe it or not, staff may get warning letter from HR department if we are 10mins late for work.



Other than those concern shared by other viewers, I personally think that our working hours are long. Just take my case - a typical routine job, for example, wake up at 7am, work from 8.30am till 6pm. By the time i reach home, its about 7pm, have dinner with family for an hour - 8pm, the remaining time are the actual free time we can spare to do other things. I cant imagine if we have a kid, by the time when we settle down (pick child up from nanny or childcare), its bed time for him/her (say 9pm). We only have about 1 hour of quality time with children daily. The only time when my poor child will have us for 24 hours will be weekends! I cant put myself to seeing my kid suffer for not being able to have a little more attention and love from his/her parent in this competitive country.

Answer 213

Having a child is a life-time committment. It's not like buying a mobile phone today and decide tomorrow that it is not what you want.



Conceiving a child is easier, but bringing them up is not.. You can buy and sell stocks at different times without concerns of loss or profits, but a child is a life-long investment which you do not know the returns till x years later.

Answer 214

There is also an invisible fear of being a working pregnant mother - once you are pregnant, when comes to appraisal, you will be discounted as your length of service will be cut short by 3 months maternity leave. There is also the shortage of childcare support system. Another reason is when you are returning to work, there is no arrangement of flexi -work arrangements.

Answer 215

I have just given birth to my fourth child slightly over a week ago. And do you know how expensive it is just to give birth, let alone raise a child in Singapore? Whatever the government going to announce, I hope its really something every young couple would go 'Wow!' Other then that, good luck Singapore. Then again, I hope the government will not forget those who have already have children, yet finding it hard to cope.

Answer 216

Lets see..... Singapore Ministers always talk like very eaazzzzyyyy.

HAVE MORE BABIES..... HAVE MORE CHILDREN..... DECLINING BIRTHRATE NOT GOOD FOR SINGAPORE..... BLAH....BLAH.....BLAH......

Then what they do???

Give you $3k for 1st Child, and that also by 4 installments!!!

BIG DEAL!!!!

Oh yes, you also get another $6k for the MDIS, or whatever.... BUT, first, you have to put in $6k of your own money.

Very typical of our Government.... always got caveats for their GREAT generosity!!!!

Honestly, the pathetic $3k just about covers the delivery cost of the baby, which you have to pay in full upon discharge.... and not in 4 installments over 1 YEAR.

Many other things are..... COST of CHILDCARE/DAYCARE, COST of NURSERY, COST of KINDERGARTEN..... and how much the Government "subsidise"???..... isit about $200 or $300????

SUPER BIG DEAL!!!!!

And people, please dont forget.... we still have to take care of our Parents too!!!! (who are most probably old and/or retired.)

How about a home???

Lets see, "Have more babies".... so, is a 3-room HDB flat enough?

Hardly.

But wait.... check out the HDB "highly-subsidised" new flats.

$300,000+, $400,000+ ????

If you want cheaper flats, sure..... go to Jurong West Extension or similar ulu areas without much facilities/amenities and every working day spend about 2 HOURS bus journey, to and fro, on crowded and sometimes smelly public buses and pray that the aircon works!!!

If you lucky enough to have MRT run through your ulu HDB estate, then you're slightly better off in saving some time, but prepare to stand all the way in overcrowded peak-period MRT trains.

Get a car to avoid all that shite???

Sure.... but someone forgot to tell the LTA that people, especially working adults with families, would like to get home BEFORE 8PM!!!!

Preferably, even BEFORE 7PM, so as to have dinner with the spouse, child/ren, and most probably with Parents too!!!!

(For the uninitiated, the LTA imposes an evening peak hour "penalty" for those working in town area & driving, who dare to want to go home before 8 PM!!!!)

Now, how about education for our children??

We all want the best for our children, right??

So, if you want your child/ren to be guaranteed a place in a good school or a SAP school, be prepared to donate alot of money to the school, or at least make sure you volunteer your time to the school, eg, be a zebra-crossing guard or something.

Or else, be prepared to send your child/ren to some school further away from home and most probably somewhere near the bottom of the School-ranking list.

And Heaven help your child/ren!!!!

How about University???

Well.... a short & simple answer is.... THERE IS NO GUARANTEE that your child/ren would get into a Singapore Uni EVEN IF YOUR CHILD/REN PASS/ES THE "A" LEVELS!!!!

And Heaven help YOU!!!!!

Answer 217

It's the ever rising living and education cost I'm most concern.

I have 3 toddlers and I'm very keen to go for another one. Only thing is in time when all my kids go to school, I have to worry the cost of getting tutors for all of them. Basing on the cost now, the tutors and extra curricular course is gonna cost me $2K if I really have up to 4 kids by then. Im quite sure I won't be able to cope with that.

Answer 218

1, Money Not enough to get marriage.

2. Wife depend husband to have enough $ to support her and children in order to have more children if she is not working. If it SAHM, can husband support in this stress place and costs living so high.

3. In Singapore, so stress country, costs living so high, quite hard to have more children which I love to have at this age of 38 , with two of my children less that 4 yrs, i had premature birth at this age and with work stress and family stress. Do you think people will want to have more kids without all this supoort? Well, I do face it now and currently may face loss of job due to obesity after birth, Do you think I will want to have more children again with only one income and thinking of being out of job and wait for Government to support?i may plan for it too in order to have more children, don't need to work and government's help. ..Considering for my second option as a SAHM for bring up the children and their education - extra coaching...fees...government can help, make more baby?

How Much is single income can support a family of 5 to 6 (Parents, 3 to 4 children)?

Answer 219

Think there isn't enough support from the government on infertility treatment. Those who had gone through such treatment already spent a boom to get a child and therefore unable to afford to go for another child. I had 1 child conceived via IVF, I don't mind to try again for another child but it is too costly and most importantly NO subsidize from the government at all.

Answer 220

Main concern is housing.



We are in a rented room now, so we are in a diliman if to conceive at this monent.



Well, our lease will be ending next september, if we were to have a baby now, we anticipate problems in finding a place to rent.



Will you rent your room to a couple with a baby that is going to cry everynight?



It is not healthy too with two adults and a baby cropped up in a small room with no place for the kid to play and roam.



We do love to have a baby in the earliest date, unfortunately, we foresee that it will not happen within the next 3 years.



In fact my wife in her late early 30s keep pressuring me to have one. After I explained the situation to her, she has also relented.



We have applied 03 times for flats to no avail. The june BTO scheme has only 310 units of rooms available and our queue number is 500plus. Again we think we will be denied again for selection.



Even if we have selected a flat, it will take 2012 to complete. So no house no baby, sorry!

Answer 221

with eveything keeps soaring hi how to maintain a family of 4. In-order to hv a healthy population, government should try to bring the cost down. MRT is always crowded everyday. Y? Hw to survive down the rd in the next 5-10yrs, what will happen really do not know.

Answer 222

I worry that my potential kids would have to work twice as hard, with double the qualifications, for a quarter the land size to build their home.



I also worry that our overall strategy is unsustainable, and nobody knows how to change it, or indeed, what would be the desirable outcome for change (ie, direction).



These are fundamental and crucial questions for which I am hopelessly unqualified to answer. Maybe someone earning more than my peanuts would be able to do so. Or maybe not.

Answer 223

It is like a pig farm, whenever the owners(the ruling elite) wish to acheive the goals of raising more piglets, they will increase small incentive with lots of conditions attached, just to stimulate pigs to increase the piglets, but in reality they don't care, otherwise why do they have to pay double (maid-tax) for their helpers(maid)??? Without the helpers, how can they made piglets and raising these piglets. Mind you, the owners don't care nor responsible for raising those piglets. They also don't care about the masses( pig communities) having to pay through their nose for their transporting carts and all the entrance fees for driving to work (despite paying for the highest price for their carts, usage and fuels for the whole wide world). Remember, Singapore is good place for pig owners in raising piglets, until the pigs find out the cost of raising all those piglets!

Answer 224

How to give birth to more when the govt restrict me to only 2 kids after i sign up for the Hope scheme? Reason : If i am too poor to raise the kids, then i am not allow to gve birth to more! And y i sign up for Hope scheme? Yes, its because i am in financial problems.. and y? Because spore is a too ex country, everything have rise! From rice, gas, petrol and other misc items. 1 of my son is in health problem, 1 is in Pri 1. There is not enough to pay, how to gve birth to more? And with the Hope scheme, i have even aborted twice. I feel so sad, but wat can a poor person like me say anything?

Answer 225

Most of us in the 30 something enjoy singlehood life, renting a cosy place, travelling without heavy luggages and shop everywhere, no emotional bagages, further education without worries and pursue a carrier. Wedding means $$$, Children means $$$. The society of economic-driven here has shaped us. We work long hours and the salary we have is enough to make us happy alone. Some of us need to make sure the prosperity in this country no? While others can juggle with family and babies....

Answer 226

I believe the major issue have been answered by Jensen C. It is all about addressing the root of the problem. People are becoming less optimistic of the current economic situation in Singapore. I for one, am not sure if i would have been replaced by FT 3 years down the road. Job security is not there for citizens. There is also the ever rising cost of living in singapore.



Rising cost + Low job security = nono for kids!

Answer 227

oooh,,,now im doing my poly 2nd yr.. by the time i finish and hit the completion of NS by 2012, i wil be 22, then by the time u get a degree and settle down its gonna be like 27, and when u find the dream gal and settle down, u are already 30. and when the hell am i gonna be a father at old age of 35? then by the time the child grows up,, i will be even older, and have to be concerned whether will i be even alive to support the child throughout the growing stages of my child........

seee!. singapore must do something abt this!

this is a real time problem!

it affects the majority of pop!

Answer 228

Having a kid is no joke. Although the govt. gv quite a bit of benfit to us but it cant last for 18yrs... Going though the 9mths is nt tat diffcult but wat abt the rest of the yrs? A kid is like makin an investment tat at least for 18yrs.



And nt ot mention tat the living standard is so much much higher than b4... wifes cant stay home as much as b4...then wat the point of hving kid but u cant even spent enough time w them? Mayb in the weekend or at nite oni.... cos mother will nt be at home, if the child is in childcare then mum will hv to rush home striaght aft wrk to pick the child n tat will affect the job performance....n if the child is w a baby sitter (parents) they normally pick the child back oni during the weekend... we dun hv enough time for children... hving "enough time" meaning hving nt enough $!!! So which is more important?



The govt. reali hv to do somthing on the living standard, it too high forcing us to gv out too many "fun" , hving a few kids in the hse running around it fun... but now we cant even afford to hv 1!!!!

Answer 229

Getting married & starting a family is moving to a higher stage in life that requires self preparation especially in financial terms.

Even how hectic is your schedule in work, you should find time to spend with your family to be able to maintain a good relationship with your partner & children. Giving them importance is also showing them that they are loved & cared. With the prices so high nowadays its also important to budget your income to meet your daily needs without sacrificing your family's health.

Answer 230

The living standard in Spore is relatively high. In addition, it is so difficult to get a flat nowadays. I seem to be pretty unlucky when it comes to balloting despite being a first-timer. Resale ones are costly. How to have a child when we can't even secure a house? By the time we are ready for the child, we might be too old....

Answer 231

Hey man!! it all depends on how much you love children.



All the money in the world won't change a thing.



Why create another human just because someone pays you to do so?



Get real man!



Hey btw, when you've decided to get married and have kids, it may be too late. You may be too ugly and probably suffering from EDS - you know what I mean?!

Answer 232

-Workplace does not allow for quality time with family, difficult to take leave even if it is already stated in our employment contract - should make it more transparent. Employers (especially private companies) should be educated on this!

-Financially unstable: Housing/food/fuel prices are all rising. Salary is not.

-Our parents cannot help us to look after our children if we stay too far out like in Punggol/Sengkang just because we cannot afford to buy resale flats during this housing boom. It makes it tough to try and keep our families close-knit. Vicious cycle!

Answer 233

All of the above + lack of employer support. I was pregnant twice and twice I was asked to leave, I started work for both companies for less than 6 months so I had no stand to argue at all. I was at the losing end.

Answer 234

I don't want to lose my job (who will still want to employ females with extended maternity leave benefits being made compulsory?). At the same time, my kid cant go unattended when I am working. This means I will probably need someone to take care of my child (a maid etc. Please note that not all grandparents love to take care of your kid for you. They like to play with them but you will hear the complaints once they have to take care of them. Its best for the mother to take care of their kids. I have seen a lot of rude and spoilt kids nowadays and I don't want mine to be one of those.) Also, I need to rush home to watch after my kid after work. So I need to buy a car. Please dont think that the public transport is that convenient, people like me who live in the outskirts need at least 1 hour and 15 minutes to get home. My kid will be crying by then. To add on, the ERP hours had extended, I can only get home at 8pm if I wanted to keep the already high cost of owning a car down. Of course, all on top of that, the cost that comes with a kid such as: lessons, medical and daily needs etc. I think having a kid in Singapore have already became a luxury status. Well, I am married. I want a kid, but all these factors sort of made me think twice. I am of the medium class. Having the baby bonus being paid out is a good approach but increasing the cost of living else where will yield a net zero effect on helping us with our finances. I hope that our government can come up with something more convincing and substantial to keep up to curb the rising cost of living here, else I think many of us will have to stay childless.



To : donBself...

Hey, don't be self centred. You had $8k a month, that does not mean that all of us in this forum earn as much as you. Me and my spouse don't even have $6.5k a month. You should not be comparing us with the older folk. We are now in 2008, not the 1980s. A bowl of noodles just cost 1 dollar then, its at least 3 bucks now! do your math. I sincerely hope that our government DO NOT THINK like you. Else we are all doomed.

Answer 235

I think the main concern here is $$$$$ !

You need $$$ to get married, then $$$$ to buy a hse, $$$ when you get pregant plus hospital bills, diapers, milk powder, baby care etc which after that follow by $$$$ childcare, insurance, toys, clothing and more things to come....

So now you tell me NO $$$$$$ CAN MEH??????

Answer 236

I feel a lot of Singaporeans are unwilling to make personal sacrifices, be it to their lifestyles, financial commitments or career aspirations for that matter, to have kids. This in my opinion is the foremost issue confronting Singaporean couples.



Not that the aforementioned factors are irrelevant to the issue, but they are secondary. Singaporeans must decide within themselves whether they can live with a more modest lifestyle, whether they are willing to make the numerous sacrifices that come with the package that the stork delivers.

Answer 237

I'm single and can get by with $500 a month ONLY IF:

I do not own a car

I do not have to pay for life insurance

I do not have to gave my mother anything

I do not have renovation loan

I do not buy CDs, watch concerts

I do not have a mobile phone line, Internet line

I do not need to pay utilities, conservancy charges, parking fines, etc



In other words, $500 = no life! Better off dead!

Answer 238

there are those who want children, but cannot conceive due to various reasons...to me, the physical stress due to long hours of work, the financial stress supporting elderly parents(and hiring maids to look after the weak elderly) and the expensive medical fees when seeking medical treatment to aid conception. should our government look into subsidies for people who need long term medical assistance (fertility programmes), be it in our hospitals, clinics, pharmacies and even chinese medical halls. medical treatment/medication may be affordable for a few visits, but long term visits will definitely burn a hole in the pockets. eventually, this will put a strain on us financially, not to mention the emotional strain that goes with trying so hard to have a child.

Answer 239

My BF and I are ready to get married but we were not able to get a HDB by balloting. Now our income exceeds $8k, we are not eligible for 'subsidised' HDB and cant afford a resale flat.



Now we have to shelve our wedding plan as we need to earn more and save more. Even after marriage, it is forecasted that we have to focus at earning more to pay the housing loan.



So...Thank you PAP.



Govt should look at the issue from many angles. Instead of just concentrating on 'pushing' married couples to have more babies, Govt should also make it easier for young couples to get married with affordable flats.

Answer 240

Actually it's too expansive to raise a kid nowadays. Just gave birth to a baby girl and im PR. My Medisave was wiped off to 0 ,hospital bills, diapers, milk powder insurance, twice a month i have to see a doctor. And the treatment for vaccine itself cast me more than $400 per-visit.I hired a maid to look after my gal car e(both parents need to work in order to support family) & education. Getting passport for my gal ..

Answer 241

I suppose i'm a typical sporean....

recently married, life consists of working and saving as much money as i possibly can to get a hdb flat of our own. Staying with in-laws is totally inconceivable and out of the question, so until i can afford a home (not just any home, one which is big and spacious and done up tastefully, having babies will have to come later....what's the rush? who wants to have to scrape by for a living?

Answer 242

Getting married is a expensive event and having a baby is even worst, it's not about the cost of having a baby, it's the baby who we're going to bring to this world (Singapore), how can, these days education is never enough, so why should we have babies and let them suffer here. I'm stress enough with life, so why bother taking another in.

Answer 243

The standard cost of living is getting higher where by the salary package working in a private sector is low. The management will give excuses when come to either increments or bonuses.

Answer 244

I agree that raising a child in Singapore is not an easy task. The start-up cost to raise a kid is expensive! With the kid around, the couple will no longer enjoy their honeymoon stage and career will be affected too. Better think twice.

Answer 245

Incentive is not everything la....if you want singaporean to give birth to more baby, do us the followings by



1) giving free education till secondary school (like US education system)



2) give continuous incentive every year to lighten the burden of singaporean.



3) reduce family income tax and give them better package in getting bigger flat.



and more but what the point writing all these, no one bother about what we small citizen want.



Just sentence, everythings is just TOO expensive. It seem like all the money we work for just enough to pay Tax, instalment for HDB and hardly got any extra cash for other purposes. It draining us dry and how do we even bother to give new life where we can't even get a better life for ourself.



Example if i didn't get it wrong, Singapore road tax is the most expensive in the world and yet so many ERP is set up, Y?



Not all Singaporean are well off like others, they need save money for their family, if money keep draining out from us, what will their children think?



Seeing their parent work like animal and hardly got any expenses or free time for their children, this give our future landlord of society psychological bad impression that when i grow up, i don't want to set up a family and suffer like my parent did.



Does anyone know the side effect of draining our resource from our pocket?



Eg. Industrialisation result in global warming and natural disaster, coal and oil drain out from earth leaving empty holes underneath, earth also have life you know, draining the vital source from itself and result so many disaster.



I feel that Singaporean are suffer in silent and waiting for time to overturn everything if nothing is done to ease the tension.



Haiz...tired already....see what the outcome few years later, feel sad that i do not have the power to speak for the people.

Answer 246

Need employers to be pro-family as well. I have worked for many firms while some employers understand why you need to time off to bring your kids to see a doctor or see your child's teacher, some firm just insist that you need to take a day's leave. In such busy work commitment, taking a day's leave for 2 hours appointment means that you will be stuck with work when you are back to office as the work will not go away. Our employers should be more understanding in this aspects & manage staff by work objectives & not by whether you are physically sitting in office or not.

Answer 247

Ideally speaking, we should all get married around 23-25 & have childen 2 years later. In which adds to be 50 years old by the time your kid begins his/her life in the working world! They are just starting off their career & I hope to ease off on financial burden. NOT everyone is born with a silver spoon...



Most of us stablises our finances in approximately 5 years time, say 30 years of age. What next? Marriage and have kids? Which means by the time I'm 50 years old, my son is still in the SAF & my daughter is still in the University! Man, I'll be worried and still slogging my life away in the work force.



So truthfully speaking, please kindly give me another good reason why I should step into that bottomless hole of starting a family and getting into everlasting appointments with bills & stuff like that?



From the bottom my heart.. I do love Kids...

Answer 248

I have a 2 years old son, and my wife is a frequent traveller for

oversea job assignment.



She is back to work half year ago, and we have plan to have 2nd child next year.



Yes, childcare pay $700, diapers $, milk powder $, parents pocket $, HDB $, etc etc on and on and on.



My wife and me bring back home $4000 to $5000. If we thirfty

enough, save a bit , no hoiliday, no car, no maid, no ex restaurant,

and no this and no that... no problem we like kids, we want

2nd child.



We enable to raise another kid for next year, BUT BUT BUT



this year June 08 , I had just finished my IN-camp-training

for 10 days, so my wife took leaves to take care of him, when I was in camp.



This coming NOV08, there is another 12 days in-camp-training. I ask for derferment,but was not approved.I was very dissapointed, OUR worried is who going to take care of my 2years old son. My In-law all working shift, my parents cant take care due to old age. maid, no money, so my problem,,

they reply in general said that's your own business, country first..... Ha Ha.



They said they give you ample time to find parent, relative or friend to help.... Ha Ha what a joke again,

This person In mindef or my camp CO must be a single or sit down there ,cut and copy send to me. Army mah,

they dont care your family issue, who cares.Ma ju la sing apore first .



In the other hand, GoV PROMOTE family value, give birth

quickly. no time liao. what a joke!

There thought my wife company

is belong to HER's AH GONG . WHERE got

so many leave to apply.



GOV said give birth give birth, but when ask for help, thats

your problem, die for your country first, NO country where got

Family. NOW< NO money, no family=no children, no people, NO country. ASK PR and foreigner to fight for Singapore better, they come here stay, so they must go first....you know what it means, now you ar thinking...

SO now, country population isn't everyone problem. Think

about it.... WIll you die for your country first or save your family

first....



No money, who cares, give you $200, $400, 500,

a lot????



No wonder, singaporeans so stupid, ......to believe....

Answer 249

The problem is most people already have their family. Most of us have mum, dad & siblings. If we in 20s most of our parent in 50s-60s and not that educated and earn less than S$2,000.



After 20 years of living in poverty, u definately will decide to have a better life in the future. Your parents too want you to success in career and more concern about you giving them more money than more children for them to take care.



As for myself, I am married but we don't dare to have children coz both of us still supporting our parent that both unemployed. Paying our own home bills, our parents home bills, food,medication & other expenses is already a big burden to us.



Even though we earn a total income of S$4,000 we still have no saving after 4 yrs of marriage.

Answer 250

I feel that too expensive to raise child in Singapore; some couple don't even afford to buy a house after married. So, who dare to think about "Child"? Every-things so expensive...now the government said want to give Husband for Maternally leave when the wife give birth....more worst. do you think that, man will get the benefit from that new rule?? I don't think so lor....

Answer 251

If I can turn back the clock, I would rather not have kids. Having them means NO time for yourself. No couple time. Everything is about the kids. Worse when they fall sick. Sleepless nights, catches whatever viruses they gets. Stress from the Bosses who simply dun understand. Black face from the in-laws who wants to have a break from baby sitting. My mom in-law used to time me by the seconds. What's worst is, there's no money left for yourselves. No holidays.... coz money have all been spent on the kids .. either the doctors or the maids or caregivers.... It gets worse when you need to get them into schools... homework, tuitions.... it's just endless.. till they gets older.. puberity??? pimples, BGR...??? I don't my responsibilities will ever end :( All these money can't help... I used to weep a lot... my eldest falls sick very frequent when he was young... Hubby needs to travel regularly, I am left to face my MIL and my baby... It was really bad... ??? All these money can never help!!!

Answer 252

Hi ,



I am 44 with 2 kids. Wife retrenched 7 years ago . Not working. jensen c correct to say there is no more security in spore. How to have some more kids? Also gvt says to give more $$ incentive to encourage sporeans to have more kids. How is gvt going to finance all these ? Fm us poor working Sporeans again. More tax , more gst, etc etc.



Anyone wishing to have kids better have enough $$ on yr own first . Don't depend on gvt handouts. It is never free.

Answer 253

The "Smart" ppl up there need to use their brain harder. When economy was good....wah..."Smart" ppl self declare 20% pay increment to themselves, when ecomony bad as of now....they tell companies not to raise pay as that would not help "Anything" at all.



Then "Smart" ppl tell us to donate more to charity when we are having harder times to cope with the raising price of daily necessities, whereas the "Smart" ppl are not lifting even their toe nails to help. Then now "Smart" ppl want us to have more babies to help with the growth of population in SG.



With the ever increasing cost of living, they want us to donate more $$, make more babies, take the crappy "1st Class" public transport by putting up more ERP and don't expect a salary adjustment. We really have "Smart" ppl leading the country.



Those "Smart" ppl up there, STOP smoking crackpots. Cheers.



P.S To those who fully agreed with "Smart" ppl.



My guess is that you are either:-

1. You are single and ignorant.

2. You or your family are well off.

3. You don't even know what's it's like to support a family with kids.

4. All of the Above.



Please by all means go get a life, get married, get a house and make tons of babies then come back and talk.



Stop barking in this thread. This thread is not suitable for ppl like you.

Answer 254

If you have a kid in P1 then you can understand what I mean here. I think only pre-schooler in S'pore needs tuition before he can qualify to enter into P1, else, he will struggle throughtout the 1st year of his school life.

As parents, we need to spend at least $600 per month alone to send him to kindergarden. Then we still need to fork out $200 per month for tuition ( Phonic & Han Yu Pin Ying ). The P1 subjects are so difficult if to be compared to our time. Students are so stressfull at the high standard of education and parents are so stress to earn money to pay for the tuition fees. I can bet 80% of the parents send their kids to tuition.

In UK and other European countries, they have so many graduates, lawyers, doctors, engineers and so on... how many of them need tuition in pre-school and primary school ? The answer is none. Is S'pore education is really good that produce lots of genius or just a bunch of bookworms ?

Answer 255

Firstly my next generation has no future as too much

foreigners already established and sink their roots here.

Not much goodies for native singaporean and maybe

my gene could not match them.We cleared the kampongs and built a Far East New York for them to enjoy comfortably.

so the roots have to end here from swatow as no more

switzerland in this motherland (chocolate and the bank)

are secret for their own people only.

Answer 256

The govt need to encourage the companies to support child birth as well. I have 2 girls planning for another one and realised my husband's company does not provide benefit for the 3rd child onwards. The most interesting part is that this company is one of the Temasek own company. Perhaps the govt should encourage big local own companies to review their HR policies to support child birth! By providing benefits for 1st & 2nd child ONLY contradicts govt's ideal plan.

Answer 257

Lets not talk about having a new kid to raise. What about our own parents? They are getting old, which means more medical bills and health-care costs. Nowadays everywhere is talking about $$. The main issue here is that the living cost in Singapore is too high for us to sustain.

Answer 258

Prices of many items have gone beyond reach for many keen to start families and babies...

The rich is getting richer and the poor is getting poorer.

We have no choice but to make ends meet daily.

Be your self and do not over commit or else more worries

will embark on you, stay peace and when opportunity arises

do try again..

Answer 259

I paid $26,400 for daughter's 4 years of pre-school ( after discount) and it is not even higher end pre-school education in Singapore.



Pre-school education is expensive. After getting a discount of $200 per month from my children pre-school, I still paid $ 26,400 in total. This is more than half the fees of my MBA course.



There's no cheaper pre-school as I paid only $550 per month. Any cheaper pre-school would be taught by teachers who can't speak with proper grammar and seriously, 3 hours per day is not enough for a developing child.



The government should do more.

Answer 260

Yes I agree... it's too expansive to raise a kid nowadays. Lets start with the basics:

Hospital bills, diapers, milk powder (raising prices), insurance, monthly-about twice ill need to see doctor. next comes along with childcare (both parents need to work in order to support family),education. And now the newly raising prices for getting HDB flat. How are we, newly weds with a child able to buy a flat and raise more children as encourage by the government?

Answer 261

Super regretted having a 2nd one. Tot properly he will spend more time with the children, who knows it actually drives him to work more OT. Now worse, everyday is 8 to 12 midnight or 2am. Should I call MOM to complain on the company? How can a person be allowed to work so much OT?

Answer 262

wah lao eh getting married, open so many tables i gona be bankrupt! don open tables in hotel my face also bankrupt! money here money there, maybe i m just not smart enuff to be earning big bucks..haha



anyway. i believe that one should not make it the responsibility of others in the pursuit of their own happiness or whatever. u c, it s always easier to blame than to accept the fact, take charge & do something abt it and move on.



i live a simple life, i have 1 concern only; and that is how to make the best out of what i have;)



give thanks:D

Answer 263

hey everyone..



well,from what i have read so far...cost is on the top of the list..its true..being parents,our paternal instinct is to give the best to our kids..every opportunities to succeed..but all these cost money...gone are the days,when growing up..the moment we finish our homework..we explore the neighbourhood..have fun with kids from the neighbouring areas...we grew up as a whole & not juz academically..now,from the sch work i have seen the kids these days bring home..its out of this world..yes,as a whole we need to go forward for a better future,thus education level will increase...but we also need to slow down...the govt. is looking to attract outsider to beef up the population..thats is a sad way to go,we the local have been reduce to statistics..juz an I.C number...I really feel sorry for the future generation,who will have to compete with the 'NEW' citizens...honestly,the current batch of MPs...esp,the younger ones..most of them come from well-off family...they are not in touch with the common folks...they don't feel the struggle we have to endure...all of us do eventually want a family,to carry the family name...but not at cost,of struggling to put roof over our head as a family & 3 decent meals on the table..our kids deserve better than this...if this trend continues,i am sad to say that eventually S'pore will end up with a big gap between the haves & the haves not...middle-class no longer exist...& guess who will most occupy the 'haves' class...the 'NEW' citizen...we are left to struggle to make ends meet...the govt. shld halt the intake of new citizen...let the local breathe easy...adopt a work/life balance...if things work out well,you will see an increase in population...don't put too much stress on the local..apart from financial constraints...stress,from work,being competitive so that others can't take our job away from us..somehow is to blame too...the fear of not able to give the best to our family...

Answer 264

Lets face it, 9.99 out of 10 answers are due to the cost of living, in short, $...



Mr government, obviously you know a hawk from a handsaw, it's not as if you didn't know the answer. So, unless you're really throwing out a big candy this round, stop addressing an issue just for the sake of addressing it. You're just making people feel you're talking through your hat & making people piss off..

Answer 265

Seriously, living in Singapore is too expensive. I'm not married, early 20s now,always dreamt of getting married, having 3 kids. To my horror,watching the working parents around me struggle, I am scared to have kids! Having both husband and wife working, 1 mth earning at least $6000 is just enough to cover their 2 kids' diapers,milk, pre school,1 maid, 1 car,1 HDB flat. So I have decided, it's either I have no kids or maybe just 1 kid though I wish to have 3, or simply migrate oversea to have 3 kids. It's really stupid that we have to slog like mad just to support 1 kid, 1 car, 1 normal HDB flat in Singapore.

Really, no point just talking about it, do something about it!

Talking about it is just infuriating!

Answer 266

I had the same concerns too when I got married. But one day I just decided I want kids. And the rest is history. I feel that when the right time comes, couple will naturally have kids.

Answer 267

Childcare subsidy should increase to $600 and infantcare subsidy to $1000 to ease our financial burden. Maids can only provide custodial care.

Answer 268

I am single.Although i do hope to find a partner i find that there are very limited chances to get to know opposite sex.And well, the living expenses is so high is not good to set up a family too.....i also need to support both my old parents.

Answer 269

I think there are still a lot of people tryng to get conceive. If more support are given to this group of people, I think birth rate should improve. Getting pregnant is really not as easy. Other than support after child birth, maybe should consider conceive stage too.

Answer 270

Daily Expenses, Utilities, Marriage, Pregnancy, Hospital bills, Diapers, Milk powder, Toys, Insurance, Medical Fees, Infant Care (killing me), Educations etc etc

Answer 271

Too many bad marriages around me cause me to have phobia of marriage and my 10 year relationship to end.



The society here has lost its family values, and people are stressed and prone to temptations.



Its not really about the money. For those who have felt the pinch since the inflation, you are probably already married.

Answer 272

Primarily, child care fees should be heavily subsidised. Maid levies reduced to $100 instead (with terms n conditions)?Companies must be supportive enough to implement compulsary child care leave in all companies, be it SMEs or MNCs. Family days anuually on a weekday to build parents-child bond besides monetary?

Answer 273

I am a Singapore citizen who have four children, but my family and I do no live in Singapore. I just want to say thank you to our government's support to citizen like us who live in oversea with many children. As the government, allow my kid to sit for iPSLE in Shanghai and my kids are most welcome to go back to our country to continue their studies anytime they wants.



I am a full time housewife (But, currently I run a shop in Shanghai as all my four kids are in fullday school with Shanghai Singapore Intl Schoolafter this summer holikday). I spend planty of time to teach my kids who were born in Hong Kong our Singapore's culture & value. I cook Laksa, mee pop & satay for them, as I want them to grow up in our Singapore way. This much more than a childcare job. As a Singapore family, people from different paart of world give us a respect and truth. My neighbour (Swiss government officer) like my four children very much.

My husband and I had overcome financial contraints, busy work schedules and lack of children support (To me the new born baby cried every night, like explosion of atom bom is the most terrible experience) , all these problems and have a very wonderful life with out four children.

Answer 274

My concerns are, gettin married are already costly and having a baby are worst. Our parents and in laws who can't take care of our kids are the issue and maids can be very expensive as well. In overall, having babies are expensive. Couples who settle down prefer to give themselves financially stable for few years before thinking of havings babies.

Answer 275

to be honest, having a family and kids are wonderful. however, bear in mind the financial stress especially if you are living in a highly competitive environment like Singapore. Living expenses are rising. From accommodation, transportation to education. Especially if you have kids, it takes $$$$ and time to groom a champion.

Answer 276

Contract worker like me don't even get marriage leave!! How the hell do i get married then when even the government does not have legislative to force private company to give marriage leave to their workers..... The reason these companies would give to the government are these worker are working temporarily, but when comes to the weight of the job that we are doing, they are expecting the same commitment from temp worker as of perm worker. Is this the living standard the government want the citizen to be in.... Please do something.......

Answer 277

Which couples do not want to have children? My friend have been trying for a baby thru IVF 3 times but failed, and a lot of money were spent. And me and my hubby love children and we have tried many months and been seeing gynae and also alot of money were spent, what did government did to help? We love children. Think government should offered some help to couples who want to have children but having difficulty to conceive or financial.

Answer 278

I think even going on dates now is also expensive. What's more, Singapore really does not provide the mood and space for dating, given the stressed and busy lifestyles of all. Will you think of dating when you are already very worried about how to feed yourselves every day?

Answer 279

I am married, but feel that it is not easy to start a family in Singapore. Singapore society is so fast paced and demanding that it is almost impossible for us to have time to take care of and care for our babies.

so demanding is this society that most of the time, both parents are working. Studies have shown that the first 12 years of a child's life is very important and determines his/her attitude for the rest of the child's life, till he/she grows up. As such, it is ideal if one parent is able to be continually by his/her side. But now, society is so demanding that we are often out working. Even as singles, we are already putting in so many hours of work. we hardly have time for anything, what more another life.

To encourage family building, Singapore needs to slow down its pace and be selective in areas that she wants to improve, instead of wanting to be the best in almost everything. We need a life too....

Answer 280

Married alre want to enjoy life also cant .Everything so Ex. Want to get a car for family to enjoy also ex ...Imagine have 2 kids and you need to take bus n mrt to go out...sure sian... Relationship sure turn sour..later husband in work place kana BS n wife become stress sure divorce..Then in the end the children suffer..Y cant the garment give us a break dont make evrything so ex..(house ,transport food and MILK POWDER n DIAPERS) We dun want to be so call a 1st world cou ntry i didnt see any different except the price list..Just plain and simple life will do..

Answer 281

I am expecting my first girl this year and I was really shocked when I went for the antenatal course that was conducted by raffles , my wife and I are considered the youngest among them , I guess this is to show that the younger generation would like to put their careers as well as making money infront of them . Having a children is now like a secondary thot . I guess many of us thinks this way , I guess in this modern century , this is how we are educated to think ....

Answer 282

THERE ARE HIGHER CHANCES OF INFEDELITY....LACK OF SEX IS THE REASON BEHIND THIS.....STESS IN THE WORK AREA & LACK OF UNDERSTANDIN BETRWEEN BOTH THE HUSBAND & WIFE IS A HGHER RISK OF DIVORCE RATES....



THERE ARE ACTUALLY MANY REASONS OF CONCERNS OF GETTING MARRIES & HAVING A FAMILY....JEALOUSY & POSSESIVENESS ALSO IS ONE OF THE CONCERNS......



NOW DAYS THERE ARE MORE DIVORCES THEN MARRAIGE & HAVING A FAMILY IS NOT IN THE WOMENS MINDS THESE DAYS...IT'S ALL ABOUT MAKING MONEY, THAT IS WHAT THE WOMEN ARE ALL THINKING OF DOING....



IN THE WORLD WHERE THERE IS 600 BIRTHS EVERY MINUTE WHO WANTS TO ADD THE THE POPULATION??



BOTH THE PARTIES HAVE TO WORK TOGETHER AS A COUPLE TO MAKE THE RELATIONSHIP WORK & EVEN IF ONE IS NOT DOING HIS/HERS JOB PROPERLY THE RELATIONSHIP WILL BEGIN TO FALL SLOWLY....

Answer 283

No doubt that these measures are beneficial to pro-create. But what about those who have adopted the entrepreneurial spirit? For sure they cannot go on a '13 months maternity leave' as compared to a salaried person.

Answer 284

I rises two kids born in the mid1980 and early 1990, At that time we are young and have the energy.

The stresses of Kids Schooling, procedure in education, streamingin primary, Chinese language complusory, its really eat up our times and the stressful and expensive living standard in Singapore then.. We have no time for ourself and we "work for just for our Kids.". Now at least its less burden, but the prices of general comsumers is no better.

Answer 285

i agree with wat most of them act say abt cost is high and verry ex. even though i am not married yet and has no children but i would truly reconsider having any as the rising cost is act too much for us to bear though there are 2 of us working together as there are also other things like housing loan, bills, insurances, income tax, car loans, road tax, erps etc etc... all these also need money. how can we provide for our next generation when we dun even have enough money for ourselves. not having enough money act deprives us and our futire kids a lot of things. esp now even when education are so ex. u have to give them tution which again adds up the cost. furthermore u have to let them learn other ECA during their lesiure which also incurs money. in short, no money, even if u got the meansd to give birth, i would consider twice.

Answer 286

Financial Contraints - Costly Medical Cost

Should make it compulsory on 5 days work week

Answer 287

hey,why do i only see negative feedback??

Guys out there,please don't be selfish!!!!



A lot of the older generation had more than 2 children during their times.Not all will turn out to be great doctors or lawyers, i m sure most are law abiding citizens who contributed to our society today.These children might not have taken a plane till they reached the age of 18 or 20..Never taken piano lessons or ballet before, but they survived too.



While i have 3 children myself, i must admit the cost of living is higher den before. Its the values that is impt and not how much is needed.We live in exec. flat with a maid + 1.5L car.

Electricity bills on average is $150(4 adults + 4 childrens).

we go for sales and buy no frills products.no a/c @ home but we survive too!! (we don earn 10k per mth but mthly expenses only requires abt 3K) I have never heard of anyone died bcos of no a/c....but i heard ppl saying .....charm,a/c spoilt...cant sleep 2 nite...must sleep @ my mum's house 2 nite. This is too much!!



So tell me, watz so diff abt having @ least 2 children??

cos ppl are thinking more of their own comfort level and do not wish to sacrifices.



Mummy A said $8000 is needed to receive a newborn.

i begg to diff.....!!!

$2000 for antenatal is optional

$1000 for confinement expenses??? if only u need to eat bird's nest for dessert. otherwise could be cheaper.

$1000 for baby expenses....can opt for hand me down stuff or visit yahoo auction for 2nd hand products.



instead of taking 1 bedded room which is more costly....take 2 bedded room.



If you r so 'atas' (high class in malay)......8k to receive a newborn oso not enough la!!!



if you live modestly...8k can do wonders!!!



I have 20k of tax rebate from. gov. My eldest child is already 8 and i have not used up a single cen out of this 20k. would b good for gov to gv the rebate in the form of CASH....if not fully used up within the allowable period.

Answer 288

I personally feel that we are getting more practical when come to getting married or having a family..



Reason being everyone like to have a balanced life but think about it, who's going to take care of your kid if you are going to work? Would you like to trouble your parent or parent in law again when that's the time they should enjoy their retirement..



Don't you think it's kinda bad if we trouble them to take care so that we can earn our salary , have more money to pay for our children living expenses as we can't afford having 1 person working & taking care of the spouse & kid & maybe parents..



I feel that it's kinda hard unless the remaining one spouse working earn a good salary...

Answer 289

Basically, the high cost of living and our busy work schedule. We can't afford not to work to take care of children and therefore, we do not have enough support to look after our young children or infants.

Answer 290

Everything is goin up but not our salary.Even the baby milk also expensive.Not like our time.Nowadays babies doesnt want to drink cheap milk.Wit my recent income i will never think of having a second child.Its true that we get the baby bonus.But how much only?Can that $750 last for 2mth?Rubbish.

Answer 291

If i really look into marriage,we all know the costs incur.houses(HDB) is expensive.the medium and low income really cant do it.HDB are mend for medium and low income bracket,but today,i dun know if we can affort it as its prices are really crazy for one to buy. The goverment is trying hard,appreciate.Have to be very real in life...Everthing in this country is so expensive,yet alone starting family and having kids. Lots of divorce case are simply to due one's financial position.Consider a typical salaries an employee takes home,just barely enough for himself.

Answer 292

It is all about addressing the root of the problem. People are becoming less optimistic of the current economic situation in Singapore. I for one, am not sure if i would have been replaced by FT 3 years down the road. Job security is not there for citizens. There is also the ever rising cost of living in singapore.

Answer 293

Cost, stress, support, no time...



One point that alot of people might not realise.... stress in Singapore causes alot of people to have difficulity in conceiving or problems during pregnancy, resulting in premature children.



I got a premature kid, and her hospital charges alone before she was discharged was already $10K. I know of other parents, who have hospital bills of more than $50K! How to have 2nd child?



Is the govt reading this anyway? I don't think so.

Answer 294

The rising cost of living in spore is too high, like japan? Its ok for e rich la, they can afford to have few kids but still they're not! I wont be having 2nd one, too costly...no one to take care, maybe the government wants all women to hv more kids then stay home..like in e 70s? but cant, nowdays mummies R too well informed, more modern.

Answer 295

My concern over getting married and having a family is very simple.



I cannot imagine (fear) what will happen when I have 2 secondary school kids, a homemaker wife and I got no job. How?

Answer 296

Bacially, singaporeans have adopted a thinking of their own. That is, "Marriage + Babies = money"

Is this the doings of the society or is it due to the beliefs of parenthood?

I have friends who earned $10k/mth and still claims that they do not have sufficient cash to get married, not to mention babies.

So what's causing the problem in singapore. i believe its the standard of living that singaporean are fighting for that leads to the low population.

Wanting to buy P.Condomium or landed property and also to drive a "branded" car increases the amount of cash outflow.

How can one still afford to get married and have babies at the expenses of losing the luxury that they had earned before marriage?

To get married is for life. Be prepared to do some sacrifices to yourselves. Simply hogging on to all the luxuries and sacrificing or delaying the time of pregancy is simply being selfish. Selfish as to their parents who are eagerly waiting for their grandchildren to be born and also selfish to themselves. imagine getting prenant at the age of 35, aren't u ladies being selfish to yourself? for the sake of the luxury life, putting yourself in danger at the age of 35, is it worth it?



Of course, i am arguing about people who can afford to start a family but are not willing to give up theis living standards.



This is the doings of the the people, the society, the nation.



Are foreign talents really that important to singapore as to take up such a huge percentage of the population in Singapore? I believe they are important as they boost the economy of singapore.



And the problem lies here. When expatrats come over to singapore with their families, their children will also come over to study. The next thing singaporean parents will have in their mind is," OMG, my kid gotta fight with that foreigner for first place in school???"



With this mentality, not only it adds pressure to the parents and disuading them from giving birth, it also adds pressure to the child that is already suffering in the midst of their studies.



If situation doesn't change for the better, by 2070, singapore will only have half of her population now, excluding foreigners.



Is that what singaporeans want? If not, please buck up and start a family have more babies. Be opptimistic. Things aren't that bad as you think they are.

Answer 297

Cost of living increasing. Long working hour, employers cant even close one eye when employee late for work or need to leave early to pick up kids..but stay late after work or work on sat... Due to chemical in food, gene not so good, married late, fertility drop... More help need for couple trying for use assist method. or maybe KK hospital can extend it service for mothers on sat...

Answer 298

lack of childcare support since hiring a maid to take care of baby will cost us abt $500 each month. that is really alot of money needed.

Answer 299

Financial commitments, giving up living a quality life and freedom are some of the factors that are the main concerns today.

Answer 300

I dun think the govt is seeing the big picture here. Besides the costs of living going up (!), the society morals are corrupted. I dun ever want to see my child having sex b4 puberty! It's too stressful! So what if there are incentives given out, is it enuf? Of cos, it'll never be enuf, as costs of living continues to escalate. So what the govt does is to trick us to giving birth now, then we are stuck with the child 4ever, when we dun have the means to raise him/her up the way society deems as enuf. Raising a kid these days no longer means sending him/her to primary, secondary, JC/poly and Uni. It also entails enrichment classes, abacus classes, piano classes, tuition, phonics classes... the list goes on. The society demands have gone up, to push your kid to be one class up above other kids if they stand a chance to be above middle class in the future. My 5 year old niece asks my cousin to shift to a condo! Huh?!? Gone are the days whereby a HDB flat, a decent sedan are sufficient. Kids in schools are comparing the kind of apts they stay, what cars their parents drive. Omigod! Too spoilt? The incentives for me to give birth... no thanks. I rather stay sane.

Answer 301

Well, i have read most of the replies to this question and I think I'll just give my personal 2 cent's worth, so here it goes.



I think what we have to ask ourselves before embarking on any serious thoughts would be, "what is our expectation of life?". As a Singaporean, I too have gone through the necessary male Singaporean lifestyle, going through NS and then University. Though I would agree with most, NS have taken up 2 of our best years. In retrospective, if NS wasn't in place I think another flag maybe flying above us right now. Of course many would compare our country with many abroad, but then, taxes abroad are killing. Of course their welfare system are better, but in an old chinese saying goes, "the fleece still comes from the sheep itself". Meaning, the money still comes from the working class people, and end of the day the working class people still suffers.



Now back to Singapore context, i wouldn't agree to all of the government's policies, and trust me I'm no government person myself. I am finding financial situation of an average joe in Singapore IS rather ok. There have been talk about housing being expensive, no doubt thats true by international standards. However, how many have gained from reselling their flats at much higher prices? those at the current age of 35+ will understand what i mean, they would have bought a flat and have resold for a hefty sum if they have been cautious enough. and buying of HDB flats, we are using CPF money anyways, thus it should be in our topic of adding to the finances. however, its the younger folks that I pity. Those embarking on their first HDB property are finding it tough to swallow.



Current situation of 7.7% est inflation IS a problem though, then again i must reflect one thing, spend within our means. If spending excessively even for our children without thinking we still will be digging our own graves. However, i still see lots of people complaining "money not enough" and yet we still see them dutifully buying 4D, TOTO, soccer bets, horse bets amongst other vices. Their excuse will be, "We are buying a glimmer of hope". little do they know the investment for all these will always end up negative returns, regardless how many times they struck 1st, 2nd or 3rd prize. I have seen many who earns $2000 a month buying LOADS of numbers... EXCUSES EXCUSES.... Maybe its more worthwhile buy milk powder, or diapers or even bare necessities that the family needs?????



I am not an elitist and I come from a humble family background, I do have a daugther of coming 2 yrs and am in the mid 30's. Coming from a single parent family, my mum set us a very good precedent, take care of children no matter what happens. Good chinese saying again, "got rice eat rice, got porridge eat porridge". Its just the way how life is seen, many people backs away or complains about everything including the system whenever they can. however, trust me, noone will come to your aid. SOLVE IT YOURSELF!! And I can say, been there done that....



Work life has always been and will always continue to be tough, being in Singapore with nothing but people.... What else can we boast about? one of the best port, airport, cleanest city.... But what does all these mean? we've got nothing but people and the only way to make everyone HAVE A LIVING, is to MAKE SURE that there IS a liviing.



Ok thats so much of my pro SG, my con sg... well the same usual gripe, ERP la inflation la petrol la HDB prices la earn not enough la... well... All the same....



In my own opinion, it just how we adjust our lifestyle or strive towards building a better life towards the mid to our retire age that matters. If you decide not to have children so be it, and may I add, some people who are quite well off choose not to have kids. its not always the money problem, the same sentence i guess.... Spend within your means, What your neighbors have, is their problem. If everything is calculated, there is always a silver lining behind every cloud and a pot of gold at the end of every rainbow. It the joy of kids that will enrich our matrimonial lifes and may well be the only reason why more peopple are not getting a divorce, because of kids.



All said, I have no wish to fan any flames, neither do i want to force my opinion on anyone, it is just my 2 cents worth and in MY OWN opinion only. To you guys, good luck in whatever you choose to do... However i will say... stay away from 4D, TOTO, soccer, and horses :):P have a fruitful life.



Regards

DO

Answer 302

Its not that easy to think abt a kid in this increasing cost. Day by day the cost of living in singapore is hitting the regular budgets of every family. In today's busy schedule even taking care of kid is not easy, though every new couple is thinking abt having a kid, they are not able to decide due to heavy increase in cost of day to day consumables.

Answer 303

not being able to spend more quality time with my family even on weekends as one has to work extra hard so as to maintain a certain standard of living. the high cost of living plays a part as everthing is expensive in Singapore.



the only time for one to enjoy the fruits of the labour is only when retirement comes.



even so, more elderly are also working again as they do not want to burden their children with more living expenses.



so there...hmmm....

Answer 304

I am 37 weeks pregnant now, first baby due next month. Its amazing how expensive I realised pregnancy and raising a kid is going to be.

My hubby and I are considered middle class working executives, living in a tiny new 4-room HDB in central area and we do not owe a car. Our incomes are just enough to cover our expenses, travelling, etc. Now that I am pregnant, we bought all sorts of baby stuffs, etc and these are not cheap. We also got to realise that infant care is going to cost at least S$700 per month, after being subsidised and including food, etc. Let's not forget the increasing fees of milk powder, diaper, etc.

Me being pregnant, wanting to take MRT to work, got to know that the so-called considerate Singaporeans or maybe foreigners working in Singapore will not bother to offer seats to pregnant women and everyone is just pretending to be asleep. Taking taxi these days to work is wow, amazing with the 35% surcharge, etc.

Thinking of after my baby is being delivered, we have to prepare for her insurance, medical, school fees, etc is horrifying. Stories we heard about sending kids to good primary schools are so tough that parents have to do voluntery work, donate money, etc are scary. Thinking of shifting to a bigger HDB flat for our bigger family is also another bigger burden with the cost of our HDB flats now.

At the rate of Singapore lifestyle cost now, why would us consider about having more than a kid in here? We don't even know if our jobs are secured enough for us to feed our kid for the next 18 years.

Answer 305

MONEY is most wanted for this matter,but what abt time if we both are running after the money then who is going to run after our kids, if goverment is talking abt average Singaporean then its very hard unless our wife stay at home to raise the kids REMEMBER MONEY ALONE CANT BRING UP THE KIDS LOVES ALSO PLAYS PART,IF YOU HAVE TIME TO STAY AT HOME THEN ONLY YOU CAN GIVE LOVE,IF NOT OUR KIDS WILL BE TAKEN CARE BY OUR GOVERNMENT SERVANT SUCH AS POLICE ,MCD OR BOYS HOME No hard feelings yeow ppl

Answer 306

ERP. We are penalized for going home before 10.30.pm and leaving our house after 7.30. Reach home so late then must wake up so early.. where got mood to have fun? Unless, of course, we pay our spouses financial incentives or set timetables.

Answer 307

Pricing of essential basic things (housing, transport, food, cloting, education, healthcare etc) just climb faster and higher than income earned. The income gap is getting bigger and bigger. Closing income gap of low/high income should be able to give some solutions to the probelm.

Answer 308

I feel that by giving more maternity leaves will does not aid or encourage me to give birth at all. This will only lower down our chance in advancing in our career. Whenever i go for interviews, interviewers will ask me if i have any "family plan".

I think what can really encourage us newly-wed to have more babies are to give heavily subsidy/free on our children medical fees, infant & childcard fees. This will certainly encourage us to give birth.

Answer 309

I'm 23 this year and i just got married. my wife and i have already drained up all our savings for wedding and honey moon. and we are expecting our first child on feb next year.



to me, i feel that goverment should provide free schooling from preschool up to secondary. since most of them belongs to the goverment.



baby bonus of $300-500 a month up to 24 months.



free medical at all poly clinic and goverment hospital up to 18 years old

Answer 310

To my concern, in s'pore to start a family isnt easy. having the rising cost in singapore, no family can hardly make ends meet. Don't even mention small family of 3person!



Kids now-a-days everything is costly.. medical.. education.. house.. insurance.. food.. transport.. everything!!

Answer 311

I've a son of 34 yrs. telling me ,today's ladies are not mend for spouse because almost are carrer women. With the slightest anger u divoce. Futher more having & bringing up of children are expensive. Their futures are worriedsome even if they are u graduate.

Answer 312

BASIC PAY OF MOST SINGAPOREAN IS VERY LOW AND SO HAVE TO WORK OVERTIME TO MAKE ENDS MEET. HUSBAND GOES FOR NIGHTSHIFT AND WIFE GOES FOR MORNING SHIFT AND THUS NO TIME TO HAVE SEX WHICH LEAD TO NO CHILDREN. BOTH PARTIES COME BACK HOME TIRED AND SLEEP.

don't understand why basic needs like public transport is very expensive. I wonder whether TV moble, CCTV and LED digital light is necessary to spent on bublic bus and then raising the bus fare.

Answer 313

The commitment between both partner to over come all obstacle, Family issue, even financial status.

Is not easy by just saying i love you nor you love me as both of them must be prepare to accept both family nor each other.

Even starting a new family of a couple need alot of discussion as all of us know we need to commit by being a caring parents, financial status as i mention earlier on. Please consider!!!!!!

Answer 314

I have a baby girl. Putting baby at infant care centre cost at least $700 a mth. Plus diapers,milk power, see doctor, injection, clothing, toys, and others add up to $1000. If got 2 babies mean every mth about $2000. Both of us cant afford to lose our jobs. everything is just so ex. How to have second one????????

Answer 315

Personally, i feel that i would start a family only when i get a job with good pay.(so as to be financially secured of course)

Answer 316

Perhaps I may be one actual sample of whats going wrong about getting married and having children in Singapore.



First many/most of the girls do not want to have children, and anything to do with children/family (at least those I dated/met.



Some girls even wanted to married their wrong men first to expereince marriage failure, before marrying their right men (I hope they were joking).



Two girls wanted their careers more than marriage/family?



None of those online wanted marriage/family, just dating only?



How sad and miserable for bachelors like me, simply can not be compatible with any of them

Answer 317

I am getting married next year but because my husband is a Malaysian. and I heard it maybe diffcult to apply for PR if the income is low that is our main concerns.

As for giving birth two shall be enough for us as the living standards are very high.

Answer 318

Hi All,

I read through the answers posted by the rest of you and I agree that it's very tough to survive in Singapore because financially we're drained. Everything is expensive... Work takes up too much time. Our savings have been drained paying off our debts, loans, bills, installments etc..



Here is my question ...Who is the selfish one?

1. The one who doesn't have a child because he/she is focusing on being financially independent by putting his/her heart into building a comfortable life first before having a child so that he/she doesn't deprive the child of his/her happiness in later years? Even though this might mean the risk of not having a child at all because by the time the couple is ready to have a child, they may be too old... or may not be physically able to...

2. One who has a child without considering the cost of raising a child, gets taken aback when one finds out that it isn't cheap. Ends up burdening one's family because one needs help to raise the child, pay for bills, milk powder etc...



Question is : Who is the selfish one?



I was pregnant 2 months after i was married. Being newly weds... you know how it was like... We just bought the house, just embarked on our careers and seriously, we didn't plan it.



After much delibration, we decided to give up our baby. Even though we know that when the time comes, our families will step up to help us out. Be it, taking care of the child, easing our financial burden etc... We really didn't want to. Life in Singapore is already so tough... We didn't want our parents who slogged so hard all their lives to raise us... and who can't retire due to rising costs of living... we can't bear to burden them even more.



So here is my answer :-

Cost of getting married and having a family is way too high.

Here is the estimated cost of getting married, buying house, renovating the house WITHOUT having a baby



Wedding dinner : $30k (Car rental, make up, flowers, etc)

Photography : $5k

Downpayment for a house (resale market)/Legal Fees/Agent fees etc : $10k

Renovation for house : $30k

Furnishing/Electrical Appliances other misc : $15k

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Say this works out to around $75k

Here is the question :

Say a couple earns around $5000 monthly, after deducting CPF, they bring home around $4000.00

If they save half this amount, $2000 monthly, how long will it take for them to raise $75k?



So this is my next question : Most of us will take on loans, apply for credit cards etc... our monthly commitments are so high. Where to find money to raise a baby?



Okay... I rest my case.

Let's hope the schemes are attractive enough for me to want to be a mummy...

Answer 319

I believe this issue is mainly due to level of commitment. The degree of commitment to have babies i believe has to do with social and peers "pressure".



For example, when one mix with singles, one tends to remain single. vice-versa.

For example, when one is overly committed to work, he/she puts family in the KIV tray.



I believe such behaviour generally is juz another "side effect" of modern society.



My wife has a very tight working schedule, she works five days a week, BUT her company "encourage" her to come back to work during both off days. Those who did not work OT, will have work appraisal high-lighted as poor commitment. The OT hours clocked is more then the MOM stipulated 44 hrs per week. but the company HR department is smart as they do not allow this recorded in black and white instead the extra hours will be carried forward to next month. Months after months......... This shows how family friendly our employers are.



Higher Pay = Higher Productivity does not = more babies. I think Singapore already know this formula by now.



On one hand the company wanted to cut cost by not wanting to hire more permanant staff and the most cost saving method is to increase productivity. It is more cost effective to pay OT then to hire more staffs. CEO has only the bottom line at heart, not the generally well being of his staffs. Juz like Japan, people are so stress and being cornered until they take thier own life (or recently, take others life!)



Due to this, we put our family plan in our KIV tray. Because i do not want my childrean to be brought up not close with anyone of us.



Most Singaporeans work long and odds hours, low birth rates is our opportunity cost.



We are obligated to work in order to pay off our housing loans. But are we obligated to have babies in Singapore calling? Will Singapore take care of old and needy citizens without childrean? We may have enough money to see us trough old age BUT don't forget, we need assistent to many simple chores when we become old and weak. Can we count on Singapore??



Under such working environment, juz how much motherly love can a mother gives to her child, less say to give birth!



Our society should ideally be more family friendly. juz like how smrt now had lifts to make wheel-chaired consumer a little more convenient, otherwise would they even consider smrt?



IF OUR MINISTERS ARE OBLIGATED TO WORK 5 DAYS + 2 DAYS OVERTIME, I THINK EVEN OPPOSITION WILL KINDLY REFUSE IT.



** IT IS NOT THE SHORT TERM SOLUTIONS TO GET PEOPLE TO "BREED" BUT THE LONG TERM CONDUSIVE ENVIRONMENT ISSUES TO HAVE HEALTY FAMILIES UPBRINGING FOR THE CHILD TOO!!!!

Answer 320

The govt should also focus on issues faced by couples who have fertility problem. To look into providing incentives and subsidies for such couples who need to seek medical treatment, eg IUI or IVF etc.

Answer 321

unfaithfullness, $, are top on my list. they would be concerns of mine because once the trust is broken everything is ruined in a family and especially the partnership not necesarily a marrige.



but i do agree in general with the survey

Answer 322

My concerns over getting married and having a family is money. Wedding dinner, rings, photo shoot, etc and later on baby delivery fee, hospital fee, milk powder, etc. Everythings need money.

Answer 323

everything is so ex in singapore, so even if they give more baby bonus, it only help a few years, while the family have to provide the baby at least 20yrs.



Its so hard to get new flat now, and resale flat need a lot of cash upfront.



We bring babies to this place, and in future he suffer, i rather not.

Answer 324

My concern is its human nature to breed, look at China, we need to have a realistic veiw of the future and to grow within our means instead of adapting to or having to look for assistsnce from the state.

Answer 325

its just not worth it!

u spend all your life slogging out at work, eating maggie mee, squeezing with pple in public transport, sometimes moonlighting just to save up some money.. then finally get married.. OK.. MONEY USED UP..

then.. buy house.. the cycle re-starts itself..

then.. wife pregnant... repeat the cycle again.

then.. baby is out.. long term investments.. and the cycle repeats itself again.

or can try on every mon, thurs buy toto...

if lucky.. heng la..

if not so lucky.. repeat and work harder at it.

what the garment doing now is take out money from our left pocket, put into our right pocket.. so in the long run... haiz.. good luck :)

Answer 326

I really dont think that the Singapore gov't want our real answers. If they did, they would do a simple study with most people who are struggling to make means meet & cut down ERP, taxi surcharges etc..

Answer 327

Need to support our parents, ourselves & even the government e.g Income tax, road tax, property tax etc... Where got enough leave for our child??? Unless govt give rebates on all taxes & fees if we have baby... If not don't even dare to think about another mouth to feed....

Answer 328

My concerns are singaporean men now only think about themselves and they don't think about how we women will feel. They are more irresponsible and put all the burden to women. Women in Singapore rather marry someone in other country.

Answer 329

getting married = deeply in debt.



having kids = lock down, tie down by more debts.



easy for ask for more births, but who is going to raise them - any help to lesser the burden ?



Work is demanding, life is getting more stressful - who would want additional stress to their already stressful lifes.



singapore culture is about being the best or at least giving the best => more money needed.

Answer 330

M - made in singapore not cheap

O - old by the time you earn enough to start a family

N - not enough support from the government

E - expenses getting ridiculously high

Y - y is everything so expensive!!!!!

Answer 331

We face inflations, controlled taxes and ever rising standard of living so having a piece of our future generation is becoming a liability even if it is our human nature to reproduce and the willingness to see our next generation.

Answer 332

singapore is already packed with so much of crowd...dun und why the need to increase the population???

isnt the govt already contributing to the population by bringing in pools of foreign talent to replace existing ones....

sadly, singaporeans are depressed lot who cant voice about how they feel....suffering in silence

how miserable that incentives have to be provided to one to have their own life settled with marriage and child.

it just shows that life is so systematic and robotic in singapore.

unemployment and insecurity in any profession, donkeys years of eduction which is always insufficient compared to foreign talents, high medical fees, never to be owned flats/condos, miserable public transport fares which are ever increasing.

every bills keeps increasing, PUB, ERP, GST, TAXI, MRT, except our SALARY.

Why the need for public survey...are we heard???? firstly where are the singaporeans...i cant even see them nowadays..they are just one out of 10 people we see out there. Sadly I dont even feel home over here anymore.......

Answer 333

high prices or not I'm still gona have a big family because i come from a large family were everybody helped out no matter what age

Answer 334

the busy work schedules is very hard to be managed, i mean larger family means more time to manage it, and with the work on hands how to have a career? i mean everything is on the rise in cost yet the pay check has not, so where is the extra cash for the kid.....



singapore is not a good place to have many kids unless u r very rich

Answer 335

We get married b'coz

- to prevent more sin (eg: sex before married,unwanted pragnancy,etc)

- to have a partner to share our life & old age.

- society pressure

Cost to consider to get married:-

- wedding banquet cost & etc

- Buying a house

- House renovation



Having family means extra cost, examples:

- antenatal cost

- delivery cost (pls take into consideration pre-term/complication delivery can cost up to SGD50K)

- milk & diaper cost

- confinement cost

- infantcare (abt $1.5k/mth) /childcare(abt $600/mth)/babysitter($550/mth)/

after sch cost($500/mth) & maid($800/mth)

- education cost (eg: enrichment couse, pri, sec, etc)

- children's hidden cost (eg: foods, transportation, entertainment, toys, medical, insurance &etc)



These can't be judge by monies & need to look into:

- Parent less sleeping time

- Parent spend less time with children when they work.

- Education, emotion & mental pressure & stress

Answer 336

No monthly cash subsidy from Government. Unlike Europe or Australia. Once Singaporean have baby, you are on your own.

Answer 337

the government should also look into helping those couple trying for babies but requires medical help. trying for babies medically requires support both emotionally and financially. while emotions can be left to the couple themselves to manage, the high medical treatment expenses i think is where the government can play it part to help.

Answer 338

Immaturity, not committed to solving problems together, rather run away from problems than compromise. Couples taking the easy way out.

Answer 339

The price of the house are too high already.



some of us really can't afford to keep up the rising price of the flats.



when we save enough the price went up again we save up it went up again. How to afford?



without a house we can start a proper family? How to have kids? we can't really stay with our parents always. We must have our own space too.

Answer 340

There needs to be a paradigm shift right from the govt to the grassroots and to the heartlanders.



1) Escalating cost in all aspects of living standards.

when this happens, people have no choice but to work longer, harder to "live it up". We are force to live superficially,

"being in debt, yet living in luxury". Instalments in car, condo, purchases, holiday etc.

Suggestion: When hiking up cost, look at the entire social fabric. Businesses will always come once there is real social security, harmony, unity and peace. Families with 2 kids or more should get a tax rebate.



2) Academic excellence as the only all important goal in life. People in the 80's strive to be in the university so that life would be easier. However the sole objective of this pursuit created a spiral of social problems. Those with university degrees are taught to "put what they learn into practice" in the marketplace. Hence A) there is no other pursuit more worthy of a career. Who would stay at home to take care of the well-being of a child? B) Competition based on academic pursuit pushes parents today to send kids to best academic courses. Such courses are expensive. No wonder institutions are charging exhorbitant prices to take advantage of the situation. No wonder parents have to work like crazy to cover that cost.

suggestions: Change the mindset that academic pursuit are the only way to success. Everyone is gifted in one way or ther other. In craftsmanship, music, arts, sports etc.



3)Employers prefer working mother than part-time/temp mother.

Children cannot take care of themselves. Maids are not trained to love and care for a child like a relative or own parent does. I often hear many mothers who feels that it would be great for them to work from home and take care of children and not worry about income. I also have an experience where company who hires freelances do not pay their employees.

Suggestions: Create profitability and accountability structure on part-time or freelance companies so that mothers who decide to focus on child-caring can help to bring in some income under a secure and profitable scheme. Incalcate family values with real support for the long term. Encourage women to be the nurturer of the family. Women are made this way. Is this something within Govt's capability?



With pressures highlighted, it would require alot of sacrifices for a family with kids to work. An ideal situation would be this: Father takes in more than $6K month at least, don't drive a cr, don't live in condo. Wife doesnt work take care of 2 young kids. Once a year, they save enough to relax at nearby resorts.



This sort of family lives frugally, don't dine in fancy restaurant or send kids to specialised, expensive schools. Realistically, can Singaporean live like that? Is Govt promoting such a lifestyle? With non stop advertisements of condos, holidays, luxury items, media drama series, articles and vision. What is Govt's role in this??



These are the top 3 issues that Singapore has. Once that changes, it will bear fruit for a long time to come.

- Children that come from good family upbringing are upright in their character (this comes from family who has Time to spend with kids and not slave over Money). When they enter the workforce, they do well in business, they earn good reputation and will attract global partners. Singapore will prosper.

- Parents will focus on grooming their child where their potential rise. There will be a more evenly spread distribution of institution that offers various courses. The society will be less competitive, more accepting and more open to different kinds of people. Creates a harmonious society, more time for leisure, enjoyment of each other gifts, music on the street,

artists by the river, sports champions etc.

- There will be less vying for upgrade. People will not be enslaved by money and hence are able to focus on family values. Take care of the family and the nation is taken care of.

Answer 341

I've been married before so I would definitely make sure he was the right one...on having children absolutely

Answer 342

i have a 1 year old boy & really want to have a 2nd one as my wife is not getting younger..



but looking at the cost really puts me away...i really appreciate if the government can really subsidies more on the child & infant care...we cannot depend on family members too much to take care of our child..we have to work & child care is really so expensive ....plsssssss help....

Answer 343

It is damed expensive to raise the kids -

with tuition and education just to keep them up.

of course we can don;t send them for these classes and let them run their own course- which they will end up in the lower rank of the society - but is that what u want your kids to be?

Answer 344

to illustrate the cost of family, let you know how much is needed to raise a child and concerns of parents:

milk powder $33 per can => $200 per month

diaper $12 per pack => $100 per month

Child care $450 per mth (mid range)

schoold bus $100 per mth (per trip only)

Other enrichment $200 per mth

Without recreation - cost per mth = at least $1,000

Outing to zoo, Flyer, hotair balloon - child need a ticket

Take taxi - max capacity is 4 adults with 3 children = 2 adluts. Family with 3 kids and and a maid will not be welcomed by taxi driver. Driver are concern being booked by traffic police.

splitting into 2 taxi - imagine the cost with current rising taxi fare.

Taking MRT - forever packed with no seats available after 2 stations from beginning of track. needless to expect seated passengers to give seats to parents with children and stroller.

Taking lift in shopping centres - strong and young will stand infront to go in first

Pregnant lady - how to go home from work during peak hours with packed buses and taxi. I always have to sympathise and pray for them.

both parents working to meet ends. who looks after children? Parents are aging and too weak to help. Hiring maid? Have to pay for levy. Govt not even considering waiving levy for those with more than 2 children or twins to help them cope with burden. Average utility bill for home with couple only is about $70/mth. With addition of baby, the bill can escalate to $200/mth. Who is willing to help. It's easy to say having more children for the good of our future. Who would ever consider that if parents have to work extra hard with presence of children, they would have less time to spend with children. If these children are neglected and grow up with wrong values, it may create further social problems. Isn't having more children going to create further problems in future than helping the economy? Able group of society can say don't spend so much if we cannot afford. But who are the parents who give birth to more children? Are they the upper income gorup? How many percent of upper income have more than 2 children? Why aren't these people having 4 or 5 when they can afford? Are they concerned about cost? That shoudln't be problem for them. Are they concerned about time and effort? With the income earned, they can 'buy time and effort' by 'outsourcing'. Why aren't they willing to have more babies? Should the education of pro-family start from this group of society? If they are not producing, how else can the less fortunate do?

Answer 345

Getting married, and family. Hv u thought of the wedding ring and the middle finger will be your suffer ring.

Answer 346

u gave birth to baby in singapore

unless u have $$$ to raise him



if u have no $$$ to raise him

its mean that u are taking his childhood away



look at it kids in singpaore dont enjoy childhoods

3 years old have to start going to childcare, learn ABC , studys, learn this learn that . totally killing their childhood away



u might as well as gave birth to a robot better

Answer 347

Could it possibly be that people are not having kids not by choice, but rather more of taking a longer time to conceive?

Answer 348

If the govenment is not coming out with incentive that has the "WOW" factors but still coming out incentives with string attach, it is going to be futile again

*Terms and Condition applies*

Answer 349

AS MY MOM SAYS- YOU BREATHE ALSO NEED MONEY. I MUST SAY THAT SIGAPORE IS VERY URBANIZED AND IT ALSO HAS VERY CONVINIENT TRANSPORT, BUT THE PRICE IS, TO SAY IT VERY VERY NICELY, AT THE WRONG END OF THE SCALE. FIRSTLY, THE COSTS OF BUYING A HOUSE IS ALREADY SKY HIGH. NEXT THERES BUYING A CAR. COE, GST, ERP, ETCETC. THEN YOU CAN FORGET CHILDREN. UNLESS YOU HAVE A STAY HOME WIFE/HUSBAND, OR MA OR POPS, THEN YOU CAN JUST FORGET ABOUT THOSE BUNDLES OF JOY.

Answer 350

Dear brothers and sisters

i am not hear to answer the question

get married early stage as possible

Answer 351

i m married since 2003 and have no child cos of money problems i suggest some couples have some plms they find IVF too expensive...so i suggest susidy so that Singapore will have a lot of babies rates...

Answer 352

Is there ENOUGH benefits to have a baby. is the gov doing ENOUGH for the citizens . HDB price is like condo. hospital bill are so exp. In singapore nothing belong to us so why we should have babies . in SINGAPORE you can die but cannot afford to get sick.

Answer 353

there is not enough time to rest by the time people got home, so how to make babies? to avoid ERP have to go out early, that's still okay but can you image you are refrain from going home which you have spend you life working for it cos the ERP is until 10:30pm, by the time we got home is already so tired already, they better choose between ERP and babies.

Answer 354

All parents will get a back payment of 10K each for each child - up to the 5th child upon birth (PINK IC) - tax free.

Answer 355

No kids? Import foreign talent to become citizens lah. That's what we are doing for a long time. NEXT!

Answer 356

Everything is so XXXXXXXXXssss~! All rises except for our salary which is always down .... How to survive even with mthly savings of $500? Tell me.

Answer 357

Mine bigest pet peve about it is going to work and only seeing your family in the after noon

Answer 358

1) High cost of living

2) Eligible partner ( Sg gals prefer foreigners or rich guys )

3) Low wages

4) Long working hours ( need to do overtime - refer to point 1,3)



You take 1st letter of each point and what do you get ?

HELL

Answer 359

I cannot barely support my other half and having a kid will only create burden and misery in the household.

Answer 360

Hello Mom , i didt choose to Born here , oh shlt....... THEY get ME , im in deep trouble now , born to be a slave here . Why take the Mouse Trap with Roti ( bread ) not Cheese . Dun gamble with them the Banker ( GOV ) always win , player always lose! ! ! Thats the way THEY make money.........

Answer 361

We spend too often in the Office than Home.Salaries & high cost of Living is very very high now.perhaps we could no want any children at all...

Answer 362

My concern is $$$, hand stop mouth stop, this's typically singapore lifestyle, hoping gov can help more, everything is going haywired nowaday.....got more babies means more expenses, I do hope to have more babies but think back.....living in singapore......better not.

Answer 363

yes its true that it's hard to raise a child now a days. having only enough salary to support your own needs can picture out that it's damn questionable if you can raise nor you are ready to raise a child.

Answer 364

Not enough money. medical expenses too high to afford a child. Every thing increase but not my pay.

Answer 365

The HDB is too expensive and I don't have my own place, so i won't consider to have a baby before i buy my house.

Answer 366

rising cost of living and educ cost all on the rise ...today $1 is equal $0.50 in 10 years time how to cope ????

Answer 367

Job security and the understanding of the company.

Answer 368

Oh.....No......!!!! How to have more babies, in case if the babies here are causing a congestion on the roads,lifts, walkways....... ERPs will soon be installed here and there across the roads for baby Prams !!!!

Answer 369

bb bonus should b given with no conditions.dont force us to save dollar for dollar.can hardly make ends meet yet must save dollar for dollar for the so call 18K tat we are getting.the truth is, if we do not save dollar for dollar....we do not get full 18K as annouced.

Answer 370

A good paying job

A good house over your head.

Enough family time

Answer 371

Its the factor in the cost of getting a house, maintaining it, giving birth and etc. The lifelong security in S'pore is not there, the standard of living is very high. With the constant rising cost in Singapore, even marriage is very costly. The newly wed couples would definitely want to give birth as early as possible just like me.

Answer 372

It's simply too expensive to raise a child in S'pore! .

Answer 373

They make us so sick , now they want Baby . give us $1 million each , cheap HDB and everything FREE !!! , When we get Happy We See See.............. Now our mental , body , Pocket so weak!!! GOD Save us Pls............. ( i did't choose to born here it just happen ) oh Shlt ! THEY get ME



They give you a Mouse TRAP with a piece of roti (bread) not cheese :)=

Answer 374

i'm married for 10years, wanted children but can't conceive, maybe have to do IVF but the problem is IVF is so expensive, government only subsidies 6k, 5k to 4k for 3 times only, still need to pay CASH of 3-4k cos one treatment cost 8-10K, wat if not successful, how ?? need to pay full amount in CASH !!!

Answer 375

The world is already over-populated.

Answer 376

to support government

Answer 377

I will never get married and have children in singapore.

Answer 378

well don't have all your children at one time because that will be very costly at one time; have them like every 5-10 years.

Answer 379

Fear of being de-valued at work, losing job, short maternity leave.

Answer 380

wanted children but can't conceive so maybe have to do IVF but the problem is IVF is soo expensive..can government subsidies or at least allow us to use medisave for a big amount at least 3/4 of it?

Answer 381

Lower the Maid levy....

Answer 382

Locals are just too scared to have kids with the

EXPENSIVE cost of living in every way.in other words.......'No Money No Baby'

Answer 383

lack of childcare support is my top concerns

Answer 384

yes to all. bcos of these ppl hv to think twice before commit themselves in marriage

Answer 385

ya marriage is real eye opener,it means full of responsbility,if u think u can make it just go ahead.

Answer 386

I agree that indeed it's too expensive to raise a kid these days...tough

Answer 387

Getting married is SOooo much easlier than having a child.



I was working for a semi-govt company. Getting marry, Company say nothing. But having a child means I have to totally RESIGN within 24hrs with no PAY, Maternity benefits, etc... Which means loss of income. How to survive?



I tried to apply for job when I was pregnant. NO Company WANTS to employ me.



They gave me lots of reasons:



1. When you are going to give birth, I got to hire another person to take over yr job.



2. Company don't want to pay the maternity package.



3. (I tried to apply for a 2 weeks promoter job and was turned dw bcos they said 'is my 1st pregnancy, they dare not take the risk to employ me') Wat a joke!!



Giving birth + medical check ups can cost more than $20K.

After giving birth, every month will cost you $1K- milk powders, Diapers, diaper creams, etc... (every half yr, price rise)



Even those whom make it back to work after giving birth, they still will check yr records, and make sure you maintain yr 8.



Wat abt those whom wants to go back to the work force after 1 or 2 yrs as SAHM?



I tried to apply jobs, guess what are the answers: 'OH, you being away from the work force for almost ***yrs. This is how much I can offer you'.



Most of the company is SIN when they heard that you have a baby, they will try to reject you.



Cos they nod you need to apply leave very often, late for work, etc....



I had hard time to apply for job as well as getting some1 to take care of my baby when I wanted to go for interwiews.



I managed to attend the 1st interview but the 2nd or 3rd interviews I had problem. Cos I can't get some1 in time to take care of my baby when I was asked to come for the next interview.



I don't have enough $$$ to even to have a comfinement lady, don't said a Maid or childcare.



Sometimes I wish in the classifed Ads, those advertising to hire people would write down if they don't mind mothers.



It really waste of time to go for interview and found out that they don't want to hire 'newly mothers'.



After I found a job, my company practice to book yr leave in 1 yrs advance. That's fine.



But when I need leave to take care of my son or when my HB in camp training, I hv no more leave left. Cos planned advance mah!



All quoto taken up aridi and as if I nod when my baby is going to fall sick. How to chg, how to get more leave??



GOVT SHOULD LOOK INTO ALL COMPANY IN SIN TO GIVE COMPULSORY LEAVE FOR CASES LIKE HFMD, SARS, ETC. AND NOT BY USING OUR ANNUAL LEAVE.



Like this yr, my parents are shifting house,

my sis is going to overseas to further her studies, my mother is going to follow her,

my HB is going for another 12 days in camp training (finished the previous 18days in June)



I only have my HB and my mother to take care of my son when I am working in overseas.



Now both of them needs me to take care of baby when they are away.... And my company said Sorry I cannot change yr leave: no quoto, leave rejected!



In this world, is so cruel. You can only choose having family or yr job. Cannot hv both.



Qian bu go yong!

Sigh!

Answer 388

As at 28 July 2008, another 49 days more and counting to my estimated due date, 14 September 2008. It seems easy for many pregnant ladies out there but definitely not for me and my hubby. My baby has been detected with one of the Congenital Heart Defect-single outlet heart on 25 April 2008 at a gestation of 19 weeks. He suffers from a hole in the heart (Ventricular Septal Defect) and an oxygen heart vessel which cannot be detected (Pulmonary Atresia with multiple Mapcas).

Our world came crashing down as we want a baby so much. Now that we have one on the way, we face this rare defect that no operation can be perform on him if the vessel goes undetected. Since then we start to goggle for answers on this through reading sites on the web, we understand that United States of America (USA) is the only place where our baby can be save. With the article published in My Paper on 21 July 2008-My Lifestyle Moment section-Grow New Blood Vessels In Mice (A17), we believe there’s hope for him. However, our funds are low and borrowing from the bank is insufficient to cover the operations if required.

We sought a 2nd opinion in another hospital but the answer we got remains the same-there is not much hope. However, the doctors and nurses at National University of Hospital (NUH) have showered us with more compassion compared to KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital Pte Ltd (KKH). Though KKH was just a street away from my home, we chose to travel a longer distance to see the doctors at NUH for the positive mindset they cultivate. Though we are encouraged to terminate our baby’s life before week 20(Singapore’s law legally allows termination of a pregnancy before gestation week 20) but we cannot bear to do it. We could see the development of our baby’s hands, legs, body, head and even his playful side of blowing a bubble, sucking his thumb as we went for the growth scan. We decided to keep him and stay positive in the hope that his missing oxygen vessel will develop before due his delivery.

Each time I go for my consultation, I envy the smiles of many parents as they have a healthy baby due soon. Behind my daily “mask” is a reservoir of tears stopped from flowing out by the invisible dams and a smile I had to keep up. I have a hard time balancing my emotions, mental health at work and at home. Numerous nightmares haunt me and I suffer many sleepless nights. I shun myself from pregnancy conversations from the people around me. Sad to know there is no support group for similar case like ours. We sought the help through NUH doctors but to no avail too.

I have not much support as I left my family 10years ago. My only support is from my hubby. Even his family is kept in the dark as his parent is already in their mid 70s. We cannot bear to break the news to them for the fear they would be unable to take it and we may encounter worst scenarios.

I have to downgrade my consultation to enjoy the subsidy rate at the hospital as we will not be able to afford the huge sum of money required for baby Ayden’s operation if any. However after numerous growth scans, the doctors still cannot locate the missing vessel and informed us that no operation can be performed. Once he is born, baby Ayden will be rushed to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) where doctors and nurses will try their best to keep him alive. Since no operation can be performed on him, he will be left to his will to survive. The news slapped us hard and I could not hold my emotions anymore. I have had many tearful nights and suffer insomnia.

Recently, there were many newspaper articles about monetary incentives given to parent to boost the birth index and many suggested longer paternity leave for husbands from one week to a month. There were also articles about having more children instead monetary encouragement from the government. To many parent, having monetary incentives is sure a sweet bonus. However, is there any welfare for parent facing problems with birth issues such as mine?

Ayden wants to live on and see this beautiful world. I know it.

Answer 389

...married at 25 and have three teenage boys 15,18 and 19....to all Muslims out there....remember tat Allah is our Sustainer....so...live simply and raise as many as u like...have faith in HIM....

Answer 390

financial stability, parental consent

Answer 391

simply financial issue

Answer 392

Too expensive to have even one child as IVF cost is too expensive, and there is no "PGD - Pre-Genetic Diagnostic" , Surrogacy Mothers policy and Chromosome Studies allowed in Singapore.



What's more the IVF/ICSI/IVM/IUI success rates are too low in Singapore, only money are concern by doctors here....



What's is the point of getting married as their husband (EXAMPLE : working in Airline as Technician) needs to work 12hrs odd and overtime just to cover the living cost here, and (WIFE) just can't find a stable job or securing in Administrators as (Citizenship in Singapore).



Even if, had a basic lousy pay job as customer service officer; there is no time to have sex because when the WIFE was not working, Their husband is just too tired from working and MOST OF THEM only have sex (Once in 3 mths) in Public Sector Company compare with government Sector.



Nowaday, the "Male Factor" are more problems than female as they also have defective in "Sperm Motility", "Pathetic poor Sperm Counts", and "Genetic or Chromosome defects" problems.



How to have kids for "Male Factor" testosterone count and LDL cholesterol is high too, making love is just too tired for them who married late at 35 ?



Female factor also a main concern as 1 in 3 persons having menses related defectiveness from married late at 29 - 38 and in high living cost today. By the time, wanted to have babies.....it's just too late to discover that they have so many problems from the IVF centre mentioned below:-



Female factor like born with "no menses at all", "Hypothyroidism", "Hypoglycermia", "Hypogonadism" and "LDL cholesterol high for PCOS" abnormal white blood cell versus red blood cell counts due to "Very Active Natural Killer cell in Uterus" and Genetic/Chromosome problems.



How to have kids with so many problems in Female factor fertility and Singapore is "NOT ALLOWED" to have blood related treatment like "Heparin Treatment and Surrogacy Policy" ?





Hopefully, the cost of IVF/ICSI/IUI is cover government at least 8 times like SGD 7k, 6.5k, 6k, 5.5k, 5k, 4.5k, 4k, 3.5k as the clinical success rates and real take home baby/babies rates is pathetics very very "LOW" in SINGAPORE even for couple married by age 25 and plan to have babies by age 27.



The last option for those who give up IVF/ICSI/IUI treatment due to cost problems, ADOPTION fees to be reduce or government subsidise is allowed for LOCAL / Overseas babies to come in easily for health-

checks could be subsidies at polyclinic AND application for "Dependent Pass" to be shorten and done within 1 week.



The procedures / non-paper enviroment friendly "PDF format" link with court, polyclinics and MCYS for reducing cost and to reduce the tree being cuts down, the fees to be shorten and done by another 3 weeks. Altogether for "Local Adoption" is 1 mth and "Foreign Baby Adoption" is 3mths.



The "MATERNITY" and "PATERNITY" extention to at least "6 mths and 3mths" OR "ADOPTION" to at least "2mths" should be a standard practice (SME - Small and Medium ) company as they tends to FORCE the working mum to resign once pregnancy confirm, the Malaysia, Hongkong and China part-timer to be allowed in Singapore to relieve the transition period during maternity / paternity related problems.



Last but not least, the childcare support subsidise by government is way too low recently and hopefully there is a adjustment allowed "Example are (SGD 300 - working mum / SGD 200 - non working mum) " as their salary is too low to support even 1st or 2nd child. Don't mentioned about 3rd and 4th child big families........





Hopefully, above suggestion will come true by 2010 (Bravo ! Singapore)

Answer 393

simple straight forward answer.

"high inflation rate".

the rest is up to your imagination :)

Answer 394

is my life FREE from the SG Government Dogs yet?

Answer 395

No Money $$$

Answer 396

Making the marriage last.

Answer 397

because of the cost of living.

why still ask?

Answer 398

Marriage is ok. But giving birth and having children? No thanks. We are happy with 二人世界，还有my mother-in-law. Well, 家有一老如有一宝.

Answer 399

No concerns in paritcular.We have the best system in the universe.It guarantees an excellent life to all its people and their families.I don't even understand the logic behind this survey.We are number ONE.We have the best foreign talents money or power can buy.So why are we compraining?

Answer 400

the overall conclusion is NO MONEY.

Answer 401

I hv only one child and married for nearly 7 years. Seriously it is indeed very expensive. One simple example, I was fine $5 for picking my daughter 5 mins late. That exclude the effort I took to rush out from work at 6pm sharp from Tanjong Pagar where my office is and ran like a mad woman to the mrt, squeeze during peak hour just go get into the mrt. Then reach woodlands mrt at 6.50pm and took a cab which cost me $5.60 - $6.70 (peak hours charges) to my daughter childcare which is just 5 bus stop from the mrt station. Do you think any boss will want to keep you as a staff if you need to go off early frequently? Plus, I couldn't come to work early as waking children up early is already time consuming and emotional hard what is more to prepare them! I once wrote to the childcare to at least extend 30mins (they close at 7pm - SHARP) they said all these will involve cost and so, if we arised anything $$$ hv to be pump in. It's that expensive. Food, bills, public transport, child education and basic expenses alone is enough to to swipe CLEAN my husband $2.2K of mthly pay. My take home is only $1.2K which is just enuff to finance myself as am paying for my supplement (to reduce side effect of western medication - this hv not exclude hospital bills) to maintain my health as am a kidney patience. Help from Family? Well, no money no talk. When my daughter is 2 mths only we paid my in-laws $250 she complaint too little. I quit my job and take care of my daughter myself. When my daughter is 1 years old. I paid my mom $600 a mth. Pls note I took my gerl home daily without missed. No babysit services during weekends and my husband and I never walk or go out dating or anywhere without our child. That exclude the pressure of complaints given by family (sometimes lead to depression) and then my mom demand for a maid to help her which of course i can't afford! I then place my daughter to childcare at the age of 1yr 8mth. If my daughter is down with fever my husband and I hv to take turns to take leave to nurse her. Childcare sick leave is given but frankly speaking do u think 3 days a year is enuff (hv anyone came across child fall sick for only 3 days in a yr)? Plus will hv bad record if you take too frequent but we all knew children fall sick easily. If the school is closed. Then we parents hv to take leave. School will close 5 days in a year. Child leave is given only 2 days in a year. Not only expensive but really v tough to hv a child. One also must include the effort to teach and gave guidance to the child to give a good moral to that child. This exclude the expenses to nurse and dress the child up. I never buy branded goods for my daughter. simple things already make us think twice before we buy. Now, we are looking for a watch for her which is the analogue type which not only indicate the hrs number but minutes. 1st we found is at causepoint $49.90 (on discount). 2nd at bedok cost $38.90 .. We hv yet to buy it cause it is still expensive. all the $2 and $20 kind do not indicate the minutes number only hours number. Now is this enuff to explain how expensive it is to bring up a child. No only time consuming, lots of $$ involved and lots of commitment. My daughter wish to hv a sister or brother, but frankly speaking with my husband pay that is always sweep clean and no support from any single soul I told my husband and daughter, cat or dog? Cause, cat and dog dun need to be babysit (save $) while we are working, no need to spend time to teach things, no need to bring to doctor if got fever and no need to babysit if the cat or dog is sick!, no need to buy them any clothes, just give them eat anything la.. dun matter.... if die just pick any at the void deck lor.. Oh that remind me, I was warded 11 days in hospital for due to my chronic condition and my daughter slept with me over night thru out the 11 days. Cause, both my in-laws and my family gave reasons that they got their own life to lead cannot help to babysit. While the doctors and nurses there kept telling me that it's not healthy for my child to stay but what could one do? I just cannot give my daughter to some organisation bodies to take care, cause there is no promise that she won't be molested or rape! (look at the newspaper report). I don't want to push my luck. from my story one should understand how stress the pressure is to bring up a child in singapore. Can the government gave us a good childcare without increasing the fees fo the childcare. Infant care can just sweep half of my pay clean after the government help? So what is there to eat? to save? please note that my family do not have any insurance as we dun hv $$$ to set aside. This exclude marketing $$.. we need soap to bath our kids and wash their clothes right? This exclude all the outing of the sch that we need to pay and their extra activities e.g. computer and drama $$$.. if we nvr place or include our child in it .. she will be left out and she will tell that you why mama you nvr pay for me? my fren all go.. when we said no $.. she will point the $2 in my wallet and said there got $$ what? my daughter draw family pic at sch.. which consist of 4 person, my husband, my daughter self, myself and "HER SISTER". Like i said before She is the ONLY child. Teacher asked me if am expecting I said no. Teacher said is about time to hv another one as my daughter kept saying she want to hv a sister. I told teacher am already like a mad woman bring her up what is more another one? My daughter once told me that her fren got a brother and sister. I told her sorry to feed and nurse her is already super tough for daddy and mummy. Please understand and resign to the fact that you are our only child.

Answer 402

NO TIME, NO MONEY, NO SLEEP