Being Singaporean, I’ve been involuntarily forced to start Preschool hunting earlier this year, not because I’m Kiasu but living in Singapore purely powers you to get well ahead of the crowd or simply fall out. I refuse to be conquest.
Anyway, Singapore has been molding its citizens to be bookish and cultured but sadly, most of us fall short of even having basic mannerism for the reason that we’ve been forced to do what we didn’t enjoy since we started schooling. Like it or not, we’ve never been granted a choice to choose subjects that are in our favor like cooking, dancing, dressmaking, etc. We were taught that we had to entomb our heads in mind-bogglingly thick A-Math, Chemistry, Humanities, Geography and whatnot of textbooks – it’s also a proven fact that we infrequently apply what we’ve learnt at school in our workplace. Why bother, really?
Singaporeans are left with no choice. Our escape routes are sealed craftily with doors that only open to invite you through them if your parents, well, own a bank? Speaking about living in glitterati and being able-bodied to keep up with the hike in fares everywhere, for everything – how many of us can really cope with this without a scuffle? Fuel, food, electricity, water… now, preschool fees?
Preposterous or what!
News has it that most preschools are plagued with fee hikes of close to 50%. An $800 term now costs over $1k. How can parents cope with this sudden hike in the midst of a school term? Being Singaporean, there’s only 1 solution - to take on an after office jobs like working in a pub or driving a taxi. But really, how well-thought through is this? One moment, we’ve been plastered with pro-family campaigns, family days, “eat dinner with your family” movement and worse still, married couples are pressurized to procreate in support of our baby booming initiative.
Here’s what some Singaporeans have to say about that:
- “Our island still got space meh?”
- “Where got money for another baby? Siao ah?”
- “Babies? No way!”
- “Wah lao! Waste my entire life paying for my house! Where got money for holiday?”
- “CPF? Probably untouchable!”
- “Drive taxi at night, still got time to eat with family meh?”
Forlornly, we Singaporeans are not whiny complain kings or queens. We are forced to complain.
In any case, we are all sane to want to send our kids to the best schools, have the best meals, travel in the best styles – probably only a figment of our imagination in Singapore. Haven’t the committee thought of lower income families who’re struggling to make a living, yet having to raise 5 kids because we’ve been told that more babies = more baby bonus = more money = less struggle? Sure, that’s just a ploy. We probably hit a high of 1 million babies born last year hence, to stop us from procreating, they might have a bright plan of fashioning a blockade to stop proliferation instantaneously.
Desolately, there are people who’d tell me “Then just send your girl to a Government preschool then probably you’d stop thinking that everything is so expensive!” Sure, that’s an option but no, it’s not a solution.
My purpose of ranting about hikes in everything within such short bursts of time is just to reiterate that Singaporeans are not non-baby lovers, neither are we sore thumbs who’d just sit and complain about things, we’re not loser-fied school dropouts, we’re also lousy workers who’re “yes men”.
- Singaporeans are not non-baby lovers
Explanation: Our approach toward procreation is that the more babies you have, the more you’d spend. Baby bonuses are impractical. Sure, they’re good to have but no, they don’t help much. Outrageous preschool fee hikes, school bus fare hikes… yikes! Who wants babies?
- Singaporeans are not sore thumbs who’d just sit and complain
We’ve tried petitions, we’ve tried writing into forums, and we’ve tried strikes years ago. Trust me, who’d dare voice their opinions anymore when all that’ll happen is to see ourselves confined behind bars?
- Singaporeans are not loser-fied school dropouts
Yes, some of us may be smarter than others, may have gone to elite schools and SAP schools. This doesn’t make us any smarter than our neighbourhood school-goers or our ITE mates. Since we were kids going to school unseeingly, we never had an option to choose our favourite subjects to pursue. I’ve always wanted to be a Veterinarian but I never got the chance to because I was simply not given an opportunity. Many a time, a “lousy” school-goer is termed “lousy” because he/she fails her English, Maths and Sciences but if given an option to choose what he/she favors, like cooking, pottery, dancing at mainstream level, we might already have groomed a truckload of aspiring Food Network chefs and Voyage de la Vie acrobats. SOTA – Forget it! I mean mainstream academia that’s offered in mainstream classrooms!
- Singaporeans are not lousy workers who’re “yes men”
Because a single income family is simply non-existent in this millennium, everybody trots off to work with a fear of losing our jobs one fine day. Sure, we’re not the happiest servants and employees but we sometimes have to (well, most of the time) pretend to be contented with our jobs. I’ve been a very vocal employee since I started working 5 years ago and I was often telling my bosses what would work and what wouldn’t. Ever since my daughter was born, I kind of took a step back in being to argumentative and vocal with my boss for the fear that I might lose my job one day. This is a boundary for me to better prove my worth in the company (sure, it’s a no-no), but I came to realize that Singaporean bosses are hardly receptive to new ideas, so what the heck, in case I lose my job and fail to support my family as the 2nd income earner.
Singapore – where life overwhelms you with too many goodies.
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