Image credit: sg.theasianparent.com
There are countless joys in welcoming a new member to the family. A child’s cheery smile and mesmerising gaze have miraculous effects: they melt hearts and boil away the remnants of worry and misery.
However, raising a kid in Singapore is increasingly an uphill task. Singapore is known for its soaring cost of living and having one more mouth to feed does not make living in this overcrowded city any much easier.
In addition to the financial strain, parenthood also poses another competing use for time. Not surprisingly, it remains a constant struggle for dual-income households to balance work and family life.
Therefore, there lies no simple answer to the question of whether one should bear a child and, by extension, invest significant amount of resources, time and effort in the process of raising the child. Nonetheless, the flowchart below aims to delineate the emotional and financial considerations involved in parenting, though they are by no means prescriptive.
