6 Months' Paid Leave for Mums???!!!

[Littleknown]

Evolve our society such that a sole breadwinner who is willing to work hard, bring enough bread to the table for his/her family. i dont mean food only, i mean enough for a roof over their heads, and up to tertiary education for the little ones, as long as they make the grade.

 

then, you wouldnt even need maternity leave.

 

 

 

 

oh wait, but thats like what it was 20-30 years ago. thats regressive. that would kill our economy.

 

can we?

 

 

Stressed sole breadwinner is a peasant problem.

 

Low birth rate is easily fixed with import of FT.

 

Seeing the pathetic half measures in place, gov does not really care, only pay lip service to give a reason to import more FT.

 

When time is up for Singapore, their own children will be overseas as most are overseas grad anyway.

 

What is it in it for our gov to have more expensive, complaining singaporeans vs the grateful New Citizens?

 

 

 

 

 

[Mysportwish]

by proposing 6 months, they are not understand the ground problem

 

having baby is a big committment, employer will not like 6 months maternity and also childcare leave or child sick leave

 

vacinnation in singapore is so expensive, unless opt for polyclinic

 

childcare is so expensive...

 

milk powder cost keep raising... last time a product used to be $68, not as high as $76 within a year

 

all this - who know?

 

ppl up there - do they wake up multiple times at nights to change diaper or look after baby/kid when sick? Or they outsource to nanny?

 

the baby bonus $$$ and CDA $$$ is not enough to cover 1st two years... my 2nd baby borned with a small hole in her heart and every 6 months require heart scan and each visit is around $400-$500...... I really hope every years govt give $$ into CDA account

 

if I am rich, I will want a lot of children.... but i am not rich so bringing them to this world dun know is good or bad for them

 

for me, i will continue to provide them the best in all I can.

 

 

 

[Lethalstrike]

I think it is high time that the mandatory paternity leave has to be implemented as well. Bringing up kids is not just the mother's responsibility, and how could the father be excluded from taking care of the newborn?

 

If the system isn't abused, the parents of the newborn can take turns to clear their paternal/maternal leave on a staggered timing. Such a system will allow flexibility and prevent the employee from clearing the leave at one shot.

 

I feel that 6 months for the mum is just right. But how about at least 3 months for the dad?

 

We don't see Europe's economy shutting down because of dads going on paternity leave. If the policy makers want to do something right, this should a baby step in the right direction.

[Poper]

Don't be fooled. This is just gahmen way of transferring maternity problem from themselves to employers. If they meant it, they should enforce it or amend MOM law to protect to be mothers. Otherwise, your wives kanna chop by boss (under the disguise of under performance), you still LLST.

 

I am just wondering when will our gahmen open up their (rather ours) piggy bank to provide certain level of maternity/child benefits to Singaporeans. Screw the medisave top up scheme or 1-1 dollar contribution crap. If sincere to help Singaporeans setup family, then give real help to us. After all, gahmen can loan IMF $5b and spend 300m on YOG; no reason that we are less worthy of help.

[Icedbs]

Usually those bigger families are non-chinese ma.

 

But if got free flat, I think any race will want 3 kids man.

 

Baby making activities will start to go up exponentially.

 

On the serious note, perhaps not free flat, but say gov. help to pay off at least 30% of the outstanding housing loan will surely encourage people to have kids.

Edited July 23, 2012 by Icedbs

[Nzy]

Evolve our society such that a sole breadwinner who is willing to work hard, bring enough bread to the table for his/her family. i dont mean food only, i mean enough for a roof over their heads, and up to tertiary education for the little ones, as long as they make the grade.

 

then, you wouldnt even need maternity leave.

 

 

 

 

oh wait, but thats like what it was 20-30 years ago. thats regressive. that would kill our economy.

 

can we?

 

Many females now don't want to depend on someone as well. They want to be able to survive independently. Even in school already see girls talking about how they want to be able to get their own career and make sure they don't have to rely on males before they start a family.

[Scoots]

It's not easy to strike a balance for employers & employees. If they want companies to support emplyees with such a plan dan they must also do something to support the companies. No point giving incentives to just one party and ignore the other. LOL...this kinda plan will end up very costly.

 

Make it harder/difficult for employers to replace pregnant workers

Encourage companies to work out flexi schemes for mothers to work from home.

 

Granted not all industries can be approached this way... but we gotta start with a vision/objective somehwere and work towards it.

 

For 1, to protect the women who intend to start a family, How about a blanket protection of 2 years pay in lieu if the company were to terminate her services at anytime of her pregnancy till the child turns 1 year old? Of course, if the worker was found to be really deserving of the sack (a burden that the company will have to prove) then the company may not need to pay this compensation

[Sosaria]

Read what's not said.

 

The article merely states "to start" yet the real reason for most of my childless married peers including myself is, the support infrastructure.

 

We are not asking to be spoonfed to hv kids. But why hv it if it's gonna be tat much harder. Eg fanily with car incentive. Ask any singles they say it's discrimination. Ask any carless parents, it's a bonus. ESP when public transport isn't what it used to be 10 urs ago. Ample seating and a more gracious society.

 

To the bros who said its a sacrifice so just do it. To us who hv a choice, we r calculating the sacrifice. And te irony is if we calculate it shows we dun really wan a kid tat badly.

 

I agree with what you said, i.e. "to start". Have one child, get started, then there is higher possibility of having another or more. Once the psychological barrier is overcome, and people find a way to fit taking care of a child into their schedules - adding one more later on is not such a big deal already. The first one - that's the big deal, and the one that causes the largest change in your life!

 

Parenting is not all a burden too - so maybe "sacrifice" is not a right word, giving the impression that it's one long, hard slog. Some days, your children do make you smile or beam with pride. Other days, not so good.

 

There's a scene from the movie "Gladiator", where a slave, when asked whether it was hard to do his duty, responds with "Sometimes I do what I want to do. The rest of the time I do what I have to." Bringing up children, feels something like that.

[Sosaria]

Many females now don't want to depend on someone as well. They want to be able to survive independently. Even in school already see girls talking about how they want to be able to get their own career and make sure they don't have to rely on males before they start a family.

 

This is very wise. And I'm not surprised more educated women think that way. So they don't have to tolerate any nonsense like infidelity, affairs, etc. Like what we see in the courts recently, always the wife have to LL "support" the hubby regardless of the husband's mistake that landed him in the courts!

[Nlatio]

This is very wise. And I'm not surprised more educated women think that way. So they don't have to tolerate any nonsense like infidelity, affairs, etc. Like what we see in the courts recently, always the wife have to LL "support" the hubby regardless of the husband's mistake that landed him in the courts!

 

I view it from another angle... it is always good that the woman can be independent..... cause touch wood, the hubby maybe suay suay up lorry early, left a a few young kids at home..... and he is the only one working... how???? So good the wife can sapport the family also...

[Porche]

the one who suggest this, a no brainer

[Nzy]

This is very wise. And I'm not surprised more educated women think that way. So they don't have to tolerate any nonsense like infidelity, affairs, etc. Like what we see in the courts recently, always the wife have to LL "support" the hubby regardless of the husband's mistake that landed him in the courts!

 

Yep. This is wise. But if you look at it from another angle, this is one of the reasons why many young couples don't want to have children.

[Mllcg]

You in back office job ?? Many jobs require customer interaction.. Not so possible.

 

email?

phone calls?

 

all can be done from home.

 

maybe once or twice a week go work file papers.

[Mllcg]

But if got free flat, I think any race will want 3 kids man.

 

Baby making activities will start to go up exponentially.

 

On the serious note, perhaps not free flat, but say gov. help to pay off at least 30% of the outstanding housing loan will surely encourage people to have kids.

 

free flat is one thing.

 

but if 3 kids and total combined salary <2k, raising the kids will be a problem also

[Maz0608]

Excuses, just excuses.....

 

The problem is not with long or short maternity leave. It is after maternity leave. If the argument is about taking care of the baby, then what happens after 6 months. You mean the baby can take care by himself/herself when 6 months old??? So does it mean that the best if we have maternity leave until the kid is ready for Pri 1? There is no end

 

Being a father of 2 children, I can say it is a matter that both husband and wife need to work it out themselves. My wife only have 2 months of maternity leave when we have our children. So, when she starts working, we send the baby to a babysitter before we leave for work and pick her up after work. During the time where she has to be fed during the night, we actually worked out that I go to bed early. So my wife fed the baby around 11pm before she went to bed. And I woke up around 4am to fed her again. And after that, I will do laundry, clean the house before preparing to go to work around 6 plus together with the baby in tow to babysitter place.

 

That's went on for quite a while. And the whole process started again when we had our second child. This time more tedious as we have 2 now. But we survive.

 

Therefore, is a matter of the heart. I don't see how longer maternity leave will get more babies...

 

Respect for you and fully agree that longer maternity leave is not the solution to have more babies!

The government has been increasing the maternity leave to 4 months and what is the result? Are they going to increase some more should the result be less than satisfactory? I think when someone propose a longer maternity leave they should also take into account how that is going to affect the company.

 

Few of the departments in my company have employed additional full time permanent staff because the departments are made up mainly of female. When nobody is on maternity leave, you will see them bah long long which is not productive at all...

 

It is always easy to give but if the result is not as expected, it will not be easy for the government to retract it. Surely there will be a lot of kpkb in the forum and ppl threatening the government. I think they have to do a comprehensive study on the root cause of low birth rate before proposing anything.

 

For me, not enough money or maternity leave is not a consideration at all for not having our own kids!

 

[Mllcg]

Respect for you and fully agree that longer maternity leave is not the solution to have more babies!

The government has been increasing the maternity leave to 4 months and what is the result? Are they going to increase some more should the result be less than satisfactory? I think when someone propose a longer maternity leave they should also take into account how that is going to affect the company.

 

Few of the departments in my company have employed additional full time permanent staff because the departments are made up mainly of female. When nobody is on maternity leave, you will see them bah long long which is not productive at all...

 

It is always easy to give but if the result is not as expected, it will not be easy for the government to retract it. Surely there will be a lot of kpkb in the forum and ppl threatening the government. I think they have to do a comprehensive study on the root cause of low birth rate before proposing anything.

 

For me, not enough money or maternity leave is not a consideration at all for not having our own kids!

 

increasing is one thing.

 

getting pte sector to accept is another.

 

unless pte sector gets fined for "removing" ladies on maternity leave, things wont improve

[Nzy]

free flat is one thing.

 

but if 3 kids and total combined salary <2k, raising the kids will be a problem also

 

IMO if the flat is free, 2k can still survive even with 3 kids. Main problem now is the cost of the flats that is why its hard to have kids at a young age.

[Eng40765]

IMO if the flat is free, 2k can still survive even with 3 kids. Main problem now is the cost of the flats that is why its hard to have kids at a young age.

 

 

Me and my wife both engineers, started work after degree. 1st 2 kids by 32 years old. Now the eldest is 11 years old, we decided to have the 3rd baby and my wife quits to stay at home to ensure they are discipline and most important - has good character, we are all happier, including me from bottom of my heart. Kids happier, Mum fulfilling her role, Dad happy, Grandparents happy. Can you believe it? I go home see kids is a real joy....disciplining them is a joy too!!!!!!

 

Still paying flat loan, maintained insurances, cut some costs like weekend school, piano etc.

 

Actually - our pay goes up over the 10 years years but when she quits, our household income halved! We sat, talked and managed, don't say cannot, can be managed, we all live in money world. Children are one big crazy fun, whichever way me and my wife sees it. Don't say easier said than done cos its possible. We still eat out, own a old car etc.

 

Someone mentioned that as long as husband makes enough, but what is enough, 10K, 5K, 15K, how long are you going to wait till enough? We can wait another 10 years but now is about time. One way it can be enough is when we live within limits, and dont chase properties and cars at 100K COE.

 

Its a choice. Depends on what priorities you have.

 

One last point - Kids (worse if only 1 child) with both parents working all their life is sad, when I was young, I have mother's time with me all the way, waiting for my labourer dad to come home everyday, always appreciates my parents for that, never angry (except during a brief teenage time) that they had no money. Yes - time has changed but Children are children no matter how the world change or time change. Do whats best for your kids.