I think having children are important. We can read all the books, watch tv and listen to friends or siblings sharing their ups and downs of parenting then pretend to be experts. Perhaps some of us can even lay claim to years of experience taking care of nephews and nieces or babysitting the neighbour's naughty toddler. It's just not the same thing. Only by parenting on day-to-day basis, experiencing every challenge and making each decisions for my child, I began to see life differently, at least a different whole light to the concept of filial piety.
When we were younger, many of us would recall how our parents lamented how tough it was to bring us up. Some parents even warned us not be forget our piety duties when we became adults. Many of us, being good people, already reminded ourselves to be good to our parents and repay them for their unsung toils for so many years. To many of us, filial piety is a duty. To some, even a liability in which they will still take ownership of.
It was hard to imagine our parents were once as young as we were. Their old photos did no favours other than drawing giggles and remarks about their funny dressing and hairstyles.
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Then the little one came staggering along with arms spread wide repeating, "Ba ba, ba ba." When she finally closed in to the man she was looking for she flung herself two steps too early at him, triggering his reactive instinct to break the little child's fall. His little lovely child. There he laid on the carpet while the toddler converted giggles into shrills of ecstasy.
They were young once. They did these catch us when we fell and lifted us in the air to delight us. They changed our diapers and took every whiff of our single defecation. It is timely for us to go through the same rituals of life as our parents prepare to go through their golden years. The more aged, they more they require attention like the little ones.
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The locals love kids, not just their own but everybody else's. Very often we encounter strangers stopping a few seconds or even a minute to tease Albany. I noticed in general, people here place children as top priority. We have school driving zones at 40km/h, adult traffic wardens who are authorised to stop traffic at children crossing zones. Baby pram car parking lots. Roomy, clean changing rooms in almost if not all every public toilets at the malls. Free delivery, free immunization, free child health nursing checks. Ok. Nothing is free, it comes from the taxes. I am not going into that today. Childcare services are expensive, no doubt. More expensive than Singapore? I'm not sure about that, after subsidies from both sides. I've not come to that stage. Schools are enjoyable and kids generally look forward to it, as far as my direct sources are concerned. From my observation, there is a genuine empathize on helping families grow families here. Everyone is serious about it. It is hard to explain it and listing little perks are not explanatory. I am sorry if I misled you it is all about monetary issues. It isn't. There is just a general, but very real, positive vibe about raising children here and it comes from everywhere and anywhere. Such as something like that which the nurse (bless nurses) who did Albany's immunization a few days before:
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