Latest TODAY column: Babies are the bonus
Excerpt:
SINGAPORE is looking for a few good eggs. If you are a fertile woman of child-bearing age, or you are a foreign talent chicken untainted by the H5N1 avian flu virus, please report to your nearest Residents Committee.
Babies due this month, who have been told by their mommies to tahan (hang on) a while more and stay inside mommy's tummy a little longer, breathed a sigh of relief, I think, now that the new baby package has been announced.
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Full column:
Babies ARE the Bonus
SINGAPORE is looking for a few good eggs. If you are a fertile woman of child-bearing age, or you are a foreign talent chicken untainted by the H5N1 avian flu virus, please report to your nearest Residents Committee.
Babies due this month, who have been told by their mommies to tahan (hang on) a while more and stay inside mommy's tummy a little longer, breathed a sigh of relief, I think, now that the new baby package has been announced.
Wow, was that long speech or what? I am really impressed though. Our new PM can really talk, man. More than three hours for his first speech as PM.
Much as I enjoyed this speech, if I may respectfully suggest, can future speeches be a little shorter? I was most impressed with his ability to sustain interest for that long. And as a practitioner with a professional interest in the funny, I have to say, PM Lee did good in the humour department.
But try not to quote me for another gushing headline please. (“PM’s speech wins over writer used to poking fun at the Gahmen!”)
That said, I think no one in Singapore was as keen to listen to the PM’s speech as my wife and me. We started listening to it on the car radio. Then we got home, and turned on the TV and watched that.
Then my three-year-old Faith, who was supposed to be asleep, opened her room door slowly, peeking out. She walked into the living room, rubbing her eyes the way you do when you move from a dark place into a well-lit one. That was her signal to mommy that she needed to mommy to sleep with her.
So mommy had to tear herself from the TV to put her little girl to bed. And just when PM Lee was getting to the juicy bits on the new baby incentives too. So, helpful father that I was, I ran into the study to get her Apple laptop, and found the website that was broadcasting the webcast of the speech.
The webcast was actually working, no hiccups, no chokes, no lost data packets. I was impressed.
I placed the laptop next to her as she lay with Faith (we have a wireless network in the house), and connected headphones to the computer for her to listen to the speech while doing her motherly duty. I took over her sarong rocker duty, rocking my infant son to sleep while going back to watching the TV.
From listening on the car radio, to watching on TV, to listening on a laptop streaming the webcast wirelessly: the power of technology. It would be hard to call us an apathetic and apolitical family, I think. I don’t think we were this “on” even when we were forced to listen to minister speeches to prepare for our General Paper.
It was worth it. I think the baby package hit the right note and balance. Longer maternity leave, child leave (although I think kids fall sick more than two days a year, but hey, two days is better than nothing), less cash up front for hospital bills, lower maid levy, all appreciated. I actually cheered when each point was announced. Like watching an exciting Olympics badminton or table tennis match.
I particularly liked the fact that there was an attempt to address the other part of the baby equation: work-life balance and education pressure.
Money can earn. Leave can take. But it all comes to nothing if we think that Singapore is going to be this pressure cooker for us and the kids, with a poor quality of life.
What’s the use of working like dogs and only seeing your kids when they are asleep in the morning and late at night? Or worse, on weekends only, after leaving them with a caregiver all week.
What’s the use of having children only to feed them into a grinder of an education system, where, to quote the PM, they are taught more but learn less?
What’s the use of having all the tax breaks, child leave, and subsidies in the world, if we have wonder whether our child will ever meet this society’s definition of success and usefulness?
Then the speech was over, and the PM does his waves to rapturous applause. Some of that applause probably from people with cramped butts, I am sure.
The wife comes back to the living room. The girl is finally asleep, reassured by mommy’s patting. I glance at my son, also asleep from the gentle rocking of my skilful sarong rocking. I turn the TV off with my other un-cramped arm.
The house is quiet once more. Speeches have been spoken. Promises have been made.
We look at our sleeping boy, wondering if it is a good idea for him and his sister to get another sibling.
Probably after some fine wine. Kids always sound like a good idea when you’re tipsy. We can buy that with our $95 maid levy saving.
mr brown is the accidental author of a popular website that has been documenting the dysfunctional side of Singapore life since 1997. He is waiting for the Government to announce the family-friendly Play-Xbox-with-your-Kid leave.
