children.

i was watching a show just now, and i thought it pulled a heartstring in me.

i dont konw, i may be, i seem to be wrong about this, but i (used to?) be very much against the babies campaign in singapore.

for one, i could not agree with the past campaigns.
especially the one (before i was born) in the 70s encouraging singaporeans to get into the mood of baby-making because the nation needed them.

how heroic.

but i hated to think about who were the ones that responded to the campaign, with fervency.
the middle class singaporeans then were barely educated (seriously). many couples had troubles finding means to meet their own needs, much less any other body in the family.

i hated to think that many of those babies made (and partly because of the campaign) were victims of parents who went into making them (and succeeded) without having pre-birthed anything concrete in plans for the future upbringing of the children. they had been called to give birth, but had they been adequately educated at the same time about the realities of parenthood?

i hate to have thought that many of them came into this world with an unfair burden they had no choice about bearing.

fast forward a few decades, i still was uneasy about the same thing that is being advocated.

yes, the middle class struggles may have become less hard, but i still cannot bear to see any child being raised in our modern age today with some basic necessities still deprived from them. i have to admit though that our social security is strong, and i therefore cannot point a finger at basics like education and nutrition. maybe im a little idealistic, but what about other items not cared for like insurance protection and some painful child-raising financial plans? in this society that we live in, i could not bear to think of the absurdity of not seeing these as important, and the plan B of 'taking a step at a time' after the child is born concerning them. i used to think these should have been prepared for even before the process of baby making took place.

i remember hearing a minister calling for singaporean parents to 'not adopt an over calculative approach' when faced with this issue of child bearing. i used to think, how not to, and if that was a responsible remark at all.

and it seemed to me the other intangible factors were not making up for the lack of the real needs. i'd worked in a children's church, and the few examples of how those innocent ones evidenced the lack of family support and love caused me to helplessly want to represent their unfair position. but of course, i must be caution that the few exceptions that i witnessed could have led to my hasty generalization.

and we still see examples in our society today depicting under-privileged families saddled with more children than they possibly can handle. i did not know who to blame, if any.

i may be wrong, in fact, i am sorry. i guess it is a selfish argument that i have presented, and i had placed insufficient value in the gift of children God has given to all who so desire. i have to change some things within me and my own thinking.