Up and awake

It's now 3.33am and I'm still up, unable to get to sleep.

I'm mainly perturbed by the Government's choice of implementation date for whatever they announced during the Rally.

In the days leading up to the National Day Rally, there were rife talks about:

• the inclusion of fathers for child-minding (thus leading us to believe and anticipate that the number of days for paternity leave to increase)
• and about better perks such that more young couples want to give birth earlier (so we therefore hope for better baby bonus schemes, better tax reliefs, longer maternity leave)

On the day of the rally, GG and I turned up the volume of the tv (coz the kids were making a hell of a noise) and stood almost rooted in front of it, waiting for PM Lee to announce the PERKS.

When he mentioned that maternity leave was going to be increased from the current 12 weeks to 16 weeks, I literally jumped in elation and GG high-fived me! After which PM Lee talked about his days as a young father where he had to change nappies and stick safety pins into his babies without hurting any thus far, I turned around confidently and told GG 'he's gonna increase the number of paternity leave.'

Alas! We were left high and dry...

In the news report later, it was mentioned that the govt spoke to a 'group of women' and they felt that they would prefer to have the leave to themselves than to their spouses! Hey! Why didn't I get to speak to the PM?? I never hoped for the govt to increase the paternity leave to a whole month. What about increasing it to at least a week?? The current 3 days is really insufficient. In my case where I'm going for a surgery to deliver the baby, 3 days is really miserly. Each time we pick a surgery date, it has to be near a weekend so that GG can have more time to help me move around and for the baby...

This is of course not the most upsetting piece of news...

The extension of the maternity leave news is...

After the rally, I went on to the forum and knew many mummies would definitely be discussing this. To which I found out that the implementation date is to be set from 1 Jan 09 onwards. Then why announce this now, only to dampen the spirits of those who are currently pregnant and giving birth soon?

I do agree that the govt needs to set a cut off date. They implemented this earlier after the Aug 2004 rally. Then why the change now?

The worst hits are the first time mums delivering this year... In my case, after some calculation, I can at least enjoy 16 tax-free years. That's a mighty lot of savings.

Mummies on the forum are gathering names for a petition to change the implementation date. I seriously wonder if the govt will give in at all. However, after much deliberation, I decided to go ahead and do my tiny bit. If it does work, well and good. Should it fail, we can all only take it in our stride.

Like a mummy on the forum said 'The real gem is the one in our tummy now.'