My mother was ten at that time, but she remembers the message until now. She’s in her late forties now. Imagine the impact. The decision to have two children, she admitted, have been more or less been affected by the policy. The idea of a small and manageable family of four became the iconic ideal family deeply entrenched in their minds. What left the deepest impression on her mind is the poster of a Family Planning advertisement, showing a family of four under one roof.
Gradually, due to the economy pick-up in Singapore, Singaporeans are becoming more affluent and enjoying a higher standard of living. Then comes the birth of career women who are to a certain extent influenced by the western ideologies. This led to a breakthrough in the younger generation as they embrace the new ideologies and began reshaping Singapore’s workforce. That saw the influx of more women entering the workforce, the rise of a conglomerate of women coming together to fight for their rights and unavoidably, the plunging birth rates.
As for me, my ideal family would be having two children as well – one boy and one girl. A balanced and manageable family, in my thinking. Probably because in my generation I have already been living in the comfort zones of my living room, and not running around in kampong with a big group of friends playing marbles. The Singapore today is vastly different from the past where Singaporeans live together, and hear (literally) everything from marriage squabbles to what your neighbour’s cooking for dinner. A big community living together, that is. We younger generations are just not accustomed to it. Rowdy is just not my thing.
Labels: General Affairs
