S’porean says life in SG has convinced him not to have kids; doesn’t want the kid to suffer same living pressures

A Singaporean posted on the social website Reddit recently, admitting that although he has a good life in Singapore, the stress and pressure make it far “from an ideal” one, even for kids.

Life in Singapore has also convinced him that he doesn’t want to have children. Competition from a young age, one of the longest work weeks in the world, one of the most stressed out workforces, long working hours, the push toward productivity and upskilling to remain in the workforce until late in life, were some of the reasons why.

And then there’s housing. “Houses are getting smaller while at the same time, getting more out of reach for most. If you’re not lucky to have found love in your early 20s, have fun waiting for your BTOs. Of course, you could turn to the resale market where all your savings get turned into profit retirement fund for the lucky ones who got there before you (but don’t worry, only 1% of people own both a private and HDB property). No one questions why a resale market exist for public housing or why it’s doing the job of generating retirement fund, instead of CPF,” wrote the netizen.

He added that because of all this, “a kid is subjected to stress from a young age.” People work even past retirement “all for a 30 years mortgage on an apartment that should only be big enough to have sex and raise more kids.”

At the end of his post he asked, “Who the f*** looks at this and say ‘Wow, this is the life that I want my kids to have’?” adding, that even if he ignored all the ethical questions about having a child, he “could never find it in his conscience to subject a person to the life here.”

Many Reddit users commenting on Martin_Henry_’s Dec 4 r/singapore post agreed with him about the amount of stress in Singapore, with one adding that migrating to another country seems to be the solution.

Another, however, wrote that “Singapore is the top of the countries I’d want work in and raise my family.”

“I do agree with housing being out of reach and this is certainly a deterrent for a lot of things, let alone kids. You dont have quality of life when living with your parents who do things differently from you,” a netizen chimed in. 

One wrote, “Life in Singapore is a scam. End of the day you ask yourself what are you working so hard for. So that you can make companies rich?”

However, another Reddit user wrote that “it largely depends on one’s mindset as well as their family’s.”

“I don’t want to subject a kid to the living pressures we have here,” said another person on Reddit who didn’t have any children. 

/TISG

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