And after all that anticipation about the new Parenthood Package! Its nowhere NEAR what those Swedish families enjoy (read their policies here!) nor their Dutch counterparts (read their policies here!). Did they ever speak to the likes of those on the 11th floor of Shaw Towers of child-bearing age and understand where our actual difficulties lie?
For yours truly, these policies below would give me more motivation to jump between the sheets with Mr Daddy:
1) Medical
For yours truly, these policies below would give me more motivation to jump between the sheets with Mr Daddy:
1) Medical
As 1st time parents, the thing that caught us offguard was the cost of immunisations and medical. There are 20 mandatory jabs a child has to go through from birth to age 12, as reflected in the Healthbook. Each costs about S$50 on average, total it up and there goes a large chunk of your Baby Bonus. Give free vaccines!!
The other thing is infants and toddlers get sick a great deal from the sniffles due to haze to fever bouts due to wonky climate change. Every month I take my girl to see a doctor, and each time a trip to KK costs me S$75. Provide free medical (until they're 6 years of age at least)!!
2) ERP
One of the reason I stay in office until after 8pm is not because my work can't wait til tomorrow to complete (well, sometimes it warrants that). Its to avoid having to pay S$1 extra at the 2nd ERP gantry along CTE on my way home from work. (On that note, why are there TWO ERP gantries on ECP for the good citizens going from town to Bishan/AMK/Yishun/Woodlands? The jam is same as ever with or without the gantry). We're talking being able to avoid funnelling S$260 of my hard earned annual income back to the government. Where is the motivation to get home early to spend time with my girl? Banish ERP gantries from 7pm onwards!!
3) Parking
Grandparents time- wat dat? I am not motivated to sleep over at tot's grandparents' house on Saturday nights for a bonding session because I keep having to buy parking coupons. Hello! As it is, I'm already paying S$90 for season pass for my MSC, S$140 for season pass at office... I still need to buy parking coupon for day parking and night parking? Why can't we all just buy 1 season parking per month.. its still only 1 car parked at 1 spot irregardless that the spot on Saturday night is in AMK and not Woodlands. Provide free parking on Sat and Sun at all HDB/HUDC carparks!!
Sorry? Did I just hear someone say- if you're whinging so much about owning a car, give it up then!
Ahah... that takes me to my next point:
4) Public transport
So we are poor people who can only afford to own one car. We make way to accommodate each other's schedule but there are times when I would like to get home early rather than wait around for hubby to come pick me up. So I trot off to the nearest MRT station at 7pm, hoping to get home within the hour. And I wait, and I wait. In my heels. For a full 5 minutes. Watching crappy TVCs on the plasma (oops, we made some of those TVCs). And ooh what's that... the train is finally here! Except the cabins are so chokeful of people they're all sandwiched in there like tunas in a can. I breathe my last breath of fresh air and squash myself in with the other pleibeians. Because waiting another 5 minutes for the next train is out of the question. Taxis? I now pay double of what I used to pay before the price hike. The wait is just as long, the taxi still stinks of pandan leaves and the driver is still rude and drives like a maniac on speed, at the same time making anti-government comments which I do not condone. :}
And yet they DARE to increase fares public transport??? How about giving us a more comfortable ride FIRST, or some reason to justify paying more for the same shite deal. MAKE PUBLIC TRANSPORT MORE AFFORDABLE (and quicker)!!
5) Baby bonus
Its now paid in 4 instalments but adds up to nothing in this day and (inflationary) time. The problem firstly is you get such a small portion each time that it doesn't mean much and secondly it would have stopped before you realise how expensive children can really get (usually after their 2nd birthday when they start school).
Each Swedish child gets a support of 950SEK/month (S$210/mth) up until age 16. That's approximately S$40K per child in allowance. Now compare that to the new exciting S$4K for 1st child... what do you get? p-e-a-n-u-t-s. In the Netherlands, each child receives a minimum of 60 euros/month (S$125/mth) and this rate is incremental which means the older the child, the bigger the expenses, he more he/she receives. GIVE MORE BABY BONUS!!
Oh and while I'm ranting, thank you for upping the maternity leave by a month (we're now on par with Sweden and Netherlands on this point- hurrah!) and the childcare leave by 4 days and the baby bonus by $1000 (which will go to paying medical refer pt 1). But whats that about 1 week unpaid infantcare... I can take that of my own accord, thank you much. Was that meant to be the fake cherry on top of the bitter icing on a stale cake? You decide while I wallow in disappointment at our policy-makers. As someone said wisely "Want to give, give properly laaaa!"
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