amazing small-mindedness...

I read something in the blog mrbrown.com and it completely pushed my rather low-blood pressure upwards and skywards!

He's a Singaporean blogger who apparently has alot of clout amongst Singaporean readers (and has also attracted some sort of international attention due to various run-ins with the local government). One of his recent posts was on the public transport system, specifically the tube/MRT. Basically the complaint was about how the trains appeared to be more crowded and yet the number of trains that are put on the tracks appear to be less. Hence, increased crowdedness, unhappy population etc.

One of his readers had the audacity to post this in the comments page:
"As if trains aren't crowded enough and to make things worse...
1) Parents nowadays simply refuse to fold up their prams/strollers when entering trains..."

WTF is he on about? How can he think that if parents fold up their prams/strollers, it will make it easier because oh of course, we'd not only be carrying the child, but also the pram, and the shopping and the bags..! I'm sure it's not even a case of not thinking his argument through, but more likely a case of small-mindedness and the quickness to allocate blame onto other people/situations. And I'm not even protesting this because I'm a parent-to-be (well, maybe a tiny bit) but because of the sheer stupidity of his comment!

It's made me feel rather anxious and defensive the next time we (as 3!) go visit Singapore in the summer. I'd imagine that baby will be in a Baby Bjorn type body-carrier as his daddy already loves carrying Vic around in that - but we will also be bringing his buggy to push him about - or maybe we'll just bring the car seat. In a child-unfriendly place, it must be quite daunting for parents to try and maunovere public transport and spaces!

It's made me more appreciative also of the child-friendliess (in comparison!) of the UK environment. Most cafes/restaurants and department stores have baby changing rooms and some even have a rocking chair for breastfeeding mums. All buses have areas where one can leave the prams parked (some don't even need it to be folded). People make space for baby prams - it's not seen as a nuisance, more as a necessity and part of life and so is quite acccepted really! And many restaurants now have baby high chairs or some sort of seat for baby to take a seat, with the parents at the same table.

Plus of course, the positive attitude of employers towards pregnant women, and women on maternity leave. Sure, the UK might still be lagging behind that of Europe and Scandinavia, but it's definitely way ahead of Asia and the US/N.America! At the moment, according to government law, we are entitled to 9 months of maternity leave which can go up to 1 year (I think it's 1 year). Of the 9 months, it depends on how the employer calculates it, but most employers will pay full-pay for a certain portion of the time, and then perhaps half-pay with statutory maternity pay (SMP) for the rest of the time. At the moment, SMP is roughly 100 pounds per week or so, so it's not going to make anyone rich but it allows the person to tide over, I'd imagine.

I opted for the package where we get 8 weeks of full-pay, and then 16 weeks of half pay with SMP and then the rest of the time of SMP only. Hopefully I won't have too many weeks of that since I'm hoping to get back to work for September 2008.

There's also child tax credits and childcare vouchers - which will come in handy when we put the pea in nursery. It basically does not tax you for the amount of money that you pay to the nursery. So if the nursery bill comes up to 400 pounds per month, the government will not tax that 400 pounds, so in fact, it's tax free.

For sure, if we are to have another baby, we'll definitely have it in Europe as compared to in Asia!!!

P and the blue pea
35+4

Edited on 28th Jan2008: turns out that there's a significant minority of Singaporeans out there who actually think that parents with small children should not be allowed on the trains with their buggies (I've since been slated twice for even thinking of doing that). Amazing. Civilised society I think not! *sniff*