CNA Budget 2023

Budget 2023 is expected to provide more support for parents to manage the pressures of raising children. CNA's Charlene Tan explores whether more paternity ...

[stepping up measures](https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/government-step-support-parents-raising-children-pm-lee-3220011) to support parents and help manage the pressures of raising children. Concerns about a stressful education system and the academic pathway to success also give rise to parental anxieties. Removing the binary decision between work and family could also pave the way for more women leaders who benefited from such arrangements to lead with empathy. [financial cost was the top reason](https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/marriage-couples-children-dating-singapore-population-survey-2999056) cited by married respondents for not wanting any or more children, according to the 2021 Marriage and Parenthood survey. HR experts agree that flexi-work remains important in the current tight labour market, but parents stay parents even it shifts to an employers’ market. Parents are currently entitled to six days of childcare leave a year. But with pre-schools also having up to six days of planned annual closures a year, childcare leave is very quickly used up. It sets the foundation for fathers to take on more equal duties subsequently. South Korea broke its own record for the [world’s lowest fertility rate](https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/south-korean-government-proposes-flexible-overtime-rules-some-fear-workers-may-suffer-3216581) in 2021, with just 0.81 child per woman. The cash payouts and Government matching on Child Development Account contributions have helped my family offset months of full-time infant care. In no less stark terms, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in 2019 that the country must make enough babies to “secure our future”. We had already been married six years then and I was old enough to have what is sometimes called a “geriatric pregnancy”.