Our birth rates are low. This is a well-known fact that has been going for years since the Stop at Two Campaign was so successful. That year was due to the high number of families and there was a lack of housing that were built fast enough to let any family move in. There were other reasons like the lack of education and health services too.
Now, we are in need of locals to form Singapore. However, due to mostly inflation, many are not considering giving birth. Some may be due to health reasons. What I would like to see is that the following are more supportive for working parents. It is incredibly expensive to send children to school and many other things.
Childcare Leaves
I have always felt that the childcare leaves are not well-thought out. The childcare leaves are provided based on the youngest child’s age. They are depressingly stingy with the childcare leaves. So, after the child has reached 7 years and above, the annual leaves are to be used. Not everyone has a 28-day annual leave. Children do fall sick and they fall sick often especially when they are in childcare centres.
Flexi work
This is at best, a nice to have but companies have long withheld the mentality that seeing the employees at work means they are working. My question is this, are they productive or just gathering at the pantry whenever it is time for a break to just gossip for 20 minutes about that one person whom everyone loves to hate? Sure, there are companies that allow employees to work from home but expect them to be on standby 24/7. So, the nature of the work is healthcare or monitoring the stock market? I understand if the job requires monitoring the servers require the alertness. These days, one cannot be too careful about cybersecurity.
Parental Leaves
There have been changes to the maternity leaves. I appreciate that. However, increasing the number of maternity leaves does nothing when one still has to bring the baby to the monthly vaccinations and the calculation of the leftover maternity leaves are calculated in such a way that it reduces the days left instead of using the balance. I will say that maternity leaves are also stingy due to the claims that the employer will have to submit.
Education Cost
Providing education is a must. So, I send my children to school. While I have subsidies for the schooling due to being a citizen, there are the costs of buying the school books and school enforced subscriptions to education sites. If not for EduSave, I doubt I would even want to spend money on those extra subscriptions and do homework with my children. I have no idea if I can even afford to send my children to further studies in any university later on.
Homework
This is a huge problem. The school will contact me if my children did not do their homework. I understand. But to make sure that they do everything when the textbooks do not provide the answers, I have to be well-versed in all subjects. I am not a trained teacher. The teachers are supposed to do their jobs. If they had done their job, my children would not need me to teach them and needless to say, using another method to teach Math in school and expect the parents to be updated? What sort of nonsense is this?
Tuition
Apparently, schools hate tuition. However, if the teachers had done their job, why would any parent want to send the children for tuition?
Ageing Parents
Besides children, parents do have living parents too. Those elderly are facing health issues and leaves are often taken just to take care of them.
