Not all is rosy, in the land of plenty - sequel to 'My Neighbours'

The Singapore government has recently announced a new 'Baby Bonus' package which includes increasing the length of paid maternity leave to 16 weeks (as opposed to the original 12-weeks maternity leave) and other financial aids to be given to first-time parents, as well as parents of more than 1 child.

However, it seems like many women still don't find this new package enticing enough to have more children.

One of the reasons cited was 'money still not enough' and 'time still not enough' (especially for the many working moms).

Earlier this month, I posted something regarding how many American moms can hold jobs and still managed to take care of more than 1 kid on their own. I had a friend who asked me the same question of how exactly do these moms cope?

While we all know that the U.S. is a welfare state, many would ASSUME that it's a very pro-family environment here, and people had great 'quality' of family life, and that's why they could achieve a birth rate of 2.1 in 2006.

However, in an article which i read today, the U.S. actually has one of the worst family-friendly policies as compared to many industrialized countries. I was really quite shocked at what they DO NOT have. *Here in the U.S., working mothers DO NOT have

1. Paid family leave (with the exception of California whereby either parents can take up to 6 weeks of partial-paid leave of 55% of their weekly income, up to USD882; and Washington whereby parents can take up to 5 weeks of paid leave, with a benefit of USD250 per week)

2. Paid sick leave

3. Affordable quality childcare. In fact infant care is rather expensive here, easily coming up to a 4-digit figure. It's also hard to get a space in a quality childcare here, as from our experience of looking for one for Ariel.

And yet, it's paradoxical how the U.S. can hit a birth rate of 2.1? What do they have, that we in Singapore do not have? They have:

1. Almost 100% tax relief for childcare (here in Oregon).
2. Flexible work schedules.
3. Sympathetic co-workers and members of society who see the benefits of children.
4. Supportive partners.
5. Resource and Support groups for working mothers.

According to fertility experts, economic prosperity, immigrants and better job security for working mothers contributed to more births (source: USAToday, dated 12/20/2007)

Other than pt 1, all the other factors that helped are actually non-monetary factors. These are 'soft' factors, which I personally feel is lacking in the Singapore's 'Baby bonus' package. Getting married and having children is a personal decision. While giving financial aids will help in some ways, to truly create a pro-family environment takes a lot more than that. It involves changing mindsets of people (to that of having children IS a contribution to society); setting up support groups to help working moms and SAHMs cope; and of course educating employers that the same level of work efficiency can be achieved even when staff work from home.

Perhaps contrary to what many believe, it's not all rosy too, for moms in this supposed land of plenty. Moms struggle too. The only difference is perhaps, they know where to get help.

*Some of the Info above are taken from Metro Parents, May 2008