By: Ben Matchap
“You need a very small space to have sex” – Seriously?
Look, while we all know it is possible to have sex under the bed because your parents are in the house, or at the staircase landings because your parents are in the house, or in Hotel81 because your parents are in the house – there are more reasons than just sex, for couples not wanting to have kids.
This mentality of squeezing Singaporeans of everything has to stop.
Firstly if you are having sex right, there’s going to be a lot of noise and HDB flats aren’t soundproofed. While one can ignore what your next door neighbour might be thinking, it is pretty hard to get an erection knowing your parents or partner’s parents are in the next door, hearing every detail. In fact, even if you do it quietly, it is a little weird knowing your parents are just next door.
Secondly, it really isn’t all about sex. Animals get stressed when they don’t have their own space and might not reproduce because of that. Many Singaporeans are just too stressed to even think about starting a family. The government has to stop trying to squeeze 3 generations into one flat. Not many people want to live in a cramped 4 room flat with the grandparents, parents and children all in one flat.
Thirdly, (I am responding to Josephine Teo comment, “In France, in the UK, in the Nordic countries, man meets woman, tonight they can make a baby already.”) young people in those countries can make babies quicker because there is no stigma attached to singles women getting pregnant there and have lots of social support. It could also be because they most likely have their own (rental?) apartments.
Trust me the birth rates will go up if we allowed singles to move out earlier and get their own places. Why not bring back 2-room flats and encourage singles to buy them? Then, if I met a girl there may be a higher chance of us sleeping together to make more babies.
Please don’t give me the argument that Singapore can’t build 2 room flats for singles because we are land scarce. If we are really land scarce we would not be trying to increase the population to 6.9 million.
Let’s face it, if young adults moved out earlier they would become more independent and more accustomed to their adulthood and consider the possibly starting a family sooner. But if we continue to try squeezing 3 generations into one flat nothing will change. We need to understand that times have changed and people are no longer contented to raise 7 kids in a 4 room flat.
What’s most important is, the younger generation must have more options open to them for housing – and these options will make a big difference to those that are considering a family. The government needs to snap out of the mindset of squeezing as many people as they can into one single flat and give the younger generation the space that they need.
I agree that you need a very small space to have sex – but you need a bigger space to raise a family.