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| The modern "Alice In Wonderland" from the Singaporean fairy tale campaign. Her crop-top says "YOLO" and her license plate reads "live fast", reflecting her reckless lifestyle and rash behavior. Image Source: thesingaporeanfairytale.com |
A government-backed campaign in Singapore recently started a project with aims to raise awareness about the benefits of starting a family at a relatively younger age rather than waiting until after 40, at which point childbearing risks increase and fertility drops some 95%. The campaign has rewritten fairytales, given them a “modern” spin, and targeted all women, particularly those ages 21-30. The new fairytales can be found online and are also being distributed on University campuses. Examples include a revamp of Alice In Wonderland, now a story of a young carefree woman whose rash decisions and actions take a toll on her health and cause complications when she decides to finally have children. Each story’s moral explicitly educates women about different risks that come with certain lifestyles and the benefits to having children before it’s too late. One such highlighted benefit is the ability for younger parents to keep active with the children in their early years. The government has already launched many campaigns and backed projects that in essence teach its citizens to flirt and promote activities like speed dating to help increase the younger population. In one of their publications, they have coined the term SNIP, “Singaporean New Independent Princess” to describe the country’s corporate women today.
So, why is this a pressing issue? Why is the government concerned with promoting relationships and starting a family? To find the answer one only has to look at certain social statistics: Singaporeans work the longest hours of any country worldwide and many corporate women are more concerned with furthering their careers than starting a family. Even those who want to start a family have difficulty finding the time given the heavy workload and responsibility in their jobs. For many, the issue is an afterthought and an eventuality that doesn’t necessarily require their full attention because they feel everything should fall into place in due time. Unfortunately, some are hit with the harsh realities of how fast time flies and the population is ageing fast with low birth rates. In addition, the government has passed a bill within the last month that grants citizenship to more foreigners and it is projected that by 2030, native Singaporeans will only make up around half of the population. It appears the population is truly at a critical stage, yet one can’t help but find the idea of government intervention with dating a tad…unnatural.
In many societies today, we hear jumblers* giving their own viewpoint on marriage. Opinions differ, but it seems that there has been a significant shift towards waiting before settling down. We want to cultivate our individual path, enjoy our youth and focus on building our careers before worrying about such a definitive and serious step. After putting such effort into our studies and accruing debt from student loans, it is only right that we give priority to our careers and supporting ourselves before anything else. What’s more, we are always hearing horror stories about high divorce rates and marriage trouble which seems none too appealing, at least not any time soon. Most of us require a certain level of financial stability for our couple, wanting even to own a home, before moving forward with marriage- let alone children- and this takes time to build. It’s clearly not just a matter of deciding to have children once we’ve hit a certain age, yet it is somewhat common to hear that jumblers* do have a general plan.
For many the plan is flexible, maybe a general aim of being married by 28 if we’ve met the right person. For others, particularly women, the plan can be quite strict because they do take into account the “biological clock”. Take this for example: a woman who hopes to have four children and wants to space each child two years apart might plan on having her first child by age 30 in order to still be under 40 when she has her last child, since she is aware that complications increase at that age. That being said, she doesn’t plan on having children the first year of marriage, but rather wants to allow for one year of marriage without children. Furthermore, she doesn’t want to jump right into marriage with just anyone but wants to be certain of her decision, requiring at least three years of dating before getting engaged and one year for planning the wedding, etc. In order for all of this to go as planned, she would ideally start dating her future husband by age 25. With the difficulties that come with making relationships work and finding someone compatible enough in the first place, one wants to allow for a certain cushion of trial and error. Given that the average age of graduation from undergrad is around 21 (keeping in mind that a good number of students opt for higher degrees and may not choose to date seriously while in school), this allows for about four years of “trial and error” before arriving at the deadline to have met a suitable partner.
Needless to say, just listening to (or reading about) these plans can be overwhelming, and it’s much easier to just have faith that things will work out. It is important, however, to note that plenty of young adults make the conscious and educated decision not to get married or not to have children, which is ,of course, fully within their right. At the same time, for those who do plan on starting a family, the current situation in Singapore reminds us that time is still of the essence and we may need to take more control than we’d like to, even if it feels a bit forced.
N.W.S
*"Jumbler" is a new term more directly describing the age-group between the open-ended “young adult” and the broad “adults”. A jumbler is an intellectually sound and aware 17-27 year old with opinions and genuine concern or interest in the world around him/her as well as the issues affecting its communities.
This blog, JumbleTalk, and our news source website www.jumbletalk.com are completely run and written by jumblers, giving them a voice and outlet that reflects their influential, relevant opinions and their strong abilities and skills.
Sources: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/22/singapore-fairytales-warn-declining-fertility#
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/27/singapore-fairy-tales-female-fertility_n_2956993.html
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