Young couples encouraged to take 1st step towards parenthood
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Young couples encouraged to take first steps towards parenthood
SINGAPORE : Voluntary welfare organisation "I Love Children" wants to encourage young couples to take their first steps towards parenthood.
Its "Maybe Baby" campaign follows Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's recent call to couples to have more babies.
Singing out the joys of parenthood is one way "I Love Children" hopes it can strike a chord with couples.
The four-year-old organisation wants couples aged 21 to 39 to talk about having kids.
Its survey of 50 people showed that most wanted to focus on careers and being together. Some wanted more family support, while others said it is too costly to have babies.
The findings were from focus group discussions commissioned last year.
Joni Ong, president, "I Love Children" said: "The results show that, as expected, establishing their career, waiting for their finances to be built up, even trying to find more time for couplehood...those were some of the reasons that came up."
Commenting on the rationale for the survey, Ms Ong said: "The whole idea is it is going to serve as an impetus for us to have a quantitative study, some time towards the end of this year, where we are going to survey 1,000 young people on how we can help them...basically find out about their perceptions about parenthood, what are the barriers, what are their needs, so that it would better help us organise the necessary information, seminars...to help them to overcome these barriers."
Singapore's resident total fertility rate (TFR) slid to 1.23 last year - the lowest level ever.
This means the country was short of at least 10,000 babies.
To help couples get over teething fears, "I Love Children" has lined up several activities.
Ms Ong said: "We have a 'Maybe Baby' campaign coming up in April, May and we want people to start talking about parenthood. We want to talk about issues. We want them to come forth and share with us their issues, whether it be work-life balance, whether it be career establishing, and things like that.
"We want to have a forum to discuss such things so there will be seminars, there will be talk shows, there will be expert advice panellists."
The "I Love Children" bus was launched three years ago and while it used to be bright orange, it has been given a new lease of life with a recent revamp. From next month onwards, it will be making its way round Singapore to the heartland shopping malls as well as the community centres. And the public will be able to hop onto the bus to find out more about the joys of parenthood.
Meanwhile, a one-stop web portal will be launched in May to share parenting tips and the kinds of financial assistance available.- CNA/ms
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talk more abt e rising cost of living.
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fifi, when u going to make babies with me??
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"Murder Babies" campaign?
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Nice move but more need to be done.
Not only baby bonus. Still have other more things to consider.
If not, the rate will drop....
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Offer me $1 million SGD and i sure go sow babies for sg, dun worry
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Originally posted by Mr Milo:
Offer me $1 million SGD and i sure go sow babies for sg, dun worry
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can't afford a goddamned home, how to have babies?
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Originally posted by the Bear:
can't afford a goddamned home, how to have babies?
that's why i say give us $1 million sgd...sure no problem -
The baby bonus is total bs la
Who in the right mind will have babies for that token sum of money.
I think the main concern is
- Paying thru the ass for a home
- Time - You don't even have time to breathe and you need to nuture kids
- Lack of quality childcare
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Couples need to be cheaper, better and faster.
Couples need to increase productivity.
And we are just talking about careers here.
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Originally posted by charlize:
Couples need to be cheaper, better and faster.
Couples need to increase productivity.
And we are just talking about careers here.
And they expect us to do that at home too! -
curiously, how is it that people in those third world shitholes can afford to breed like rabbits in an income 10 times less than singaporeans in shanty shacks with no running water but we can't ?
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Originally posted by Fatum:
curiously, how is it that people in those third world shitholes can afford to breed like rabbits in an income 10 times less than singaporeans in shanty shacks with no running water but we can't ?
Their homes don't cost half a million dollars?
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Originally posted by charlize:
Their homes don't cost half a million dollars?
so I suppose you can be a prolific breeder too if you move to those third world shitholes ?
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Originally posted by Fatum:
so I suppose you can be a prolific breeder too if you move to those third world shitholes ?
They breed like rabbits because they have no money for entertainment and sex is like free you knowAnd I doubt they know about birth control too
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U guys maybe want to think about opening a childcare centre ? =D
All i see .. is opportunities. he he
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Originally posted by elindra:
The baby bonus is total bs la
Who in the right mind will have babies for that token sum of money.
I think the main concern is
- Paying thru the ass for a home
- Time - You don't even have time to breathe and you need to nuture kids
- Lack of quality childcare
Yes, agreed Elindra.
I have kids and I can tell you, baby bonus is not enough.
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Ban the use of condoms for 1 year...see how