On kids...

Child rearing in sg seems like a daunting business. Or maybe having kids anywhere is challenging, but just more stressful in sg? While having bunch of in-mid-30s colleagues offers me this 'crystal ball' opportunity to see what I might be doing with my life some ten years down the road, somehow they have been more successful in scaring me of late... :P But when I point out how challenging/ stressful bringing up kids (properly) seem to be, ALL of them insist that the qualitative/emotional benefits of having kids is frequently unquantifiable/ cannot be easily expressed in words, so I only see a lop-sided picture when they commiserate abt the other realities of child-rearing. OK lor... :P

Nonetheless, here are some scary observations made recently:

i) Recently fly started bringing her cute lil fly to HDB child care, arising in increased frequency of contact with her when fly brings her back to office after office hours... I am particularly baffled by why adults, upon seeing NEW kids, usually automatically, quite instantly transform into high-pitched creatures (or maybe my motherly colleagues are an exceptional bunch!). They start to entertain the kid, to make the kid happy and ask the kid all kinds of questions. Well, xt once told me that studies hav shown that kids seem to be able to hear higher-pitched voices more easily... Dunno how true that is. (For one, I know that own boss prob thinks that of mrs boss haha, though recently dun get to witness that much anymore). Anyways back from tiny digression, I feel like I can never feel natural trying to be high-pitched and act their age so that the kid would take to me and play with me... Though I've successfully babysitted kids for an hour or so, do for one whole day, think will die leh.... So deep down I feel very doubtful whether if one day I have kids will they be so disappointed with their stone-stone mummy....

ii) With more colleagues' kids reaching p-sch age, the "in" thing is now parent volunteering. Someone is already considering buying ppty near XXX sch so that in like 3, 4 yrs' time son can go to XXX gd pri sch. Then apparently once you set your target on XXX sch, it's time to offer your valued services! And 2 years in advance is considered 'late'. I mean, everything just seems rather unpalatable. Taking leave to go and wrap library books with fellow parent volunteers REALLY doesn't sound too appealing :( Neither is sitting by sch gate to be "security guard" so that no trespassers enter the sch compounds. I just wonder how impt early childhood education is and impact of the 'gd sch effect' on the kid. Maybe it's all a matter of "face"... But maybe now I say everything unpalatable one day if I have kids I'd do exact same thing. Then again, I seriously hope not, cos I'd really prefer a happy carefree and inquisitive child to a "smart" but stressed out and unhappy one.

Say so much then I think... actually why so scared. Worrying abt something that might not even happen. Hehe, I suppose in meantime I should just treasure fact that I still have luxury of time & freedom to roam and explore the world :D