Ms Josephine Teo is encouraging young couples to have kids earlier. Read this article from the Straits Times.

Her advice is for women to put their careers on hold to have children first. The reason? It’s because life expectancy for women are longer. The Straits Times article quoted her as saying

‘If we think of…85 and beyond being a likelihood, what is the hurry to do the things that can be done later?’

I doubt that young couples not having kids is because they are ‘rushing’ to establish their careers. Those who are interested in being established in their careers first would not choose to marry early. Those who choose to marry early usually believe in the importance of family over work.

However, while these people might believe in family over work, the inclusion of kids in the picture usually takes a back seat until a later date. From my own perspective as a young, married man, I think there are a few major reasons for this.

Marrying early means that the couple can enjoy a few years with each other before the arrival of the baby. While I do think that babies add joy to a family, at the same time, babies will disrupt the relationship. I want to enjoy a few years of quality couple time before I think about babies so I don’t think I’m going to be a young parent.

Besides, cost of living is escalating rapidly. Keeping myself alive with some savings for emergencies is already a challenging task. Even with the monetary incentives from the government for having babies, it’s still a huge financial cost. Of course, I probably shouldn’t be so calculating when it comes to having kids but it’s not that I mind the high cost of having kids in Singapore. I don’t want to happily produce a football team only to tell them years down the road that I cannot afford to send them for tertiary education.

And, I wouldn’t want my wife to give up a career now to raise kids. She’ll be substantially disadvantaged later on when she goes job hunting. Ms Teo makes it sound so easy to have kids first and go back to work later. How many employers would be willing to hire?

There are many disadvantages to having kids early, or even having kids at all. This is probably not what the government wants to hear, but it’s reality for young couples. Is there a solution? I don’t know. I only know that the number of kids I am willing to have is the number that I feel I can afford to give a decent level of comfort to in their growing up years.