Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Is Raising Kids a Fool’s Game?

How much money do parents spend on bringing up their children?

50 years ago, most people spent only a few years in school before they entered job market. In my time, more and more people had tertiary education. In fact, many girls did not even have access to education.

In the past one and half year, as I go back to school to take up MBA study, I discovere that many of my course mates have little or no working experience, and they are studying full time.

When I was a poor undergraduate student, I rode a cheap motorcycle to the campus. Today, vast majority of my MBA course mates drive, even the non-working ones.

My sister, who lives in Singapore, will move to a smaller, but more expensive, house next year so that my little nephew could enroll in a ‘good’ school.

No wonder a BusinessWeek article asks this question: Is Raising Kids a Fool’s Game?

7 comments:

  1. i think everything is increasing nowadays.. expensive to bring up a kid

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  2. Time change and everythings also change.....

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  3. keeyit/fattien,
    Cost has increased, so I think couples, especially Chinese, are more reluctant to have more kids...

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  4. i don't think its foolish to have children...they did bring joy and hapiness which money can't buy to couples!!!

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  5. 100K enough for 1 child?i think tis cost oso not enough...haiz.

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  6. kai,
    You are right. Kids bring joy to their parents. But these days parents are forced to have fewer children.

    christine,
    If you plan to send your kids to Harvard, 100k is not enough...

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  7. very interesting news article. Of course it speaks to the economics of having children, not the emotional and psychological benefits of raising our young. The article rightly points out that governments must change their policies to enable families to survive in challenging economic times.

    I found your blog via Buddha Diaries. Glad I did.

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