A Family Should Have 2 Children

Hi,

In some countries, there are restrictions on the number of children that a family should have due to their own specific reasons.

Eg. China has such a policy due to their large population. Singapore used to discourage you from having more than 2 kids in the past.

Recently, I have been busy flying to and fro Penang to help care for my parents especially my mother who is recovering from her mild stroke.

My elder brother and younger sister, who are living in Australia, also flew back to take turns to care for them too.

During one of my trips back to Penang, my wife was explaining or updating my only son, 16 years old only, about our rotation duty or what I called as 'tour of duty'.

Surprisingly, Jason said that he is the only son in our family so how to rotate then.... if we need any care in our old age...?

This was discussed again when I was home over dinner and Jason finally said that hopefully, we will be living in the same country as him......!

Yes, it is indeed true that if you only have one child the responsibilities or burden will be very heavy on that one person.

In fact, a friend of mine even mentioned it to me when we decided to stop at one child.

Most of us always think that it is either too expensive to have another child or that it would not be fair to the second child as we are not already spending enough time with the 1st child so how to cope with another one....!

At least, this is typical of Singaporean lifestyle.........sigh

BUT, after my own experience of taking care of my parents, I think it is better to have at least 2 children so that the siblings can approach each other for help or discussion.

A spouse is never the same as your own sibling when it comes to your own family issues involving your parents.

Think about it....... seriously!

David

P.S. My elder brother is now in Pg for 3 weeks, followed by my younger sister for 1 month. My elder sister is retiring early so that she can go back to Pg to live with our parents from Nov 09 onwards. I have been flying back to Penang to monthly to take my parents for their doctors' appointment and also when needed.