Raising a big family in Singapore

Singapore’s fertility rate has fallen over the years to a meager 1.14 in 2018, which is far below the replacement rate of 2 and lower than the previous years birthrate of 1.16, SingStats has also reported an increase in 3^rd and 4^th live births as of 2018. The numbers show that more families in Singapore are having their 3^rd and 4^th child but there are even fewer families having any children or meeting the replacement rate of two.

Year	2016	2017	2018
Total Live-births By Birth Order	41,251	39,615	39,039
1st Live-birth	19,392	18,570	18,211
2nd Live-birth	14,913	14,206	13,937
3rd Live-birth	4,927	4,721	4,804
4th Live-birth	1,378	1,380	1,413

Source: Registry of Births and Deaths as reported by the Department of Statistics, Singapore.

More than 100 families will learn the struggles of managing and supporting a big family in Singapore. On The Red Dot has outlined the struggles and joy of these large happy families in their 4-part series aired on Mediacorp Channel 5. Their documentary follow three large Singaporean families; the Hengs and their seven children, as well as the Lim family and their 5 children. Straits Times has also published an article featuring Madam Elliawati, her husband Mr Idwan Sa’at and their 10 children. It outlines their daily life and the struggles that they face having to raise and support so many children at a time.

Raising children in Singapore is not cheap and many of these super-parents have kindly shared their little tricks to making a single income work for their big families. One of the aforementioned is Mrs. Heng opting for Tingkat delivery service as a convenient and affordable way to settle meals for her big family. She mentions that constantly ferry her children to and fro school and tutoring them takes up all her time and she does not have time to cook. She has tried many brands and has many recommendation for the best catering tingkat menu in Singapore and according to her, Le Xin Catering is one the cheapest tingkat caterers in Singapore that provide healthier choice.  

Other challenges outlined by their stories is that the breadwinner of the family, the father, doesn’t spend enough time with the children as they have to work very hard to earn enough money to feed everyone. Mr. Heng realized this and found that a short getaway helped him convey that he cared and did wonders for their family.

One common denominator in all the big families is the teaching of frugality that is passed on effectively to their children. The children share toys and are mature enough to withhold their wants for the needs of the family like little Raphael Heng did when his mother makes him realize that a $2 loaf of bread is more value-for-dollar than the snack he wanted.

Having a larger family may seem like more of a struggle, but their stories have shared the many joys that a small household will never have too.