{"id":78345,"date":"2026-08-21T20:43:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T12:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=78345"},"modified":"2026-08-21T20:43:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T12:43:10","slug":"no-bandwidth-left-for-the-family-why-many-singaporeans-want-to-be-child-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=78345","title":{"rendered":"\u2018No bandwidth left for the family\u2019: why many Singaporeans want to be child-free"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">As <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/singapore?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">Singapore<\/span><\/a>\u2019s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong prepares to unveil plans to ease the strain on families during his National Day Rally speech on Sunday, a new survey points to a difficult question behind the city state\u2019s <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/week-asia\/lifestyle-culture\/article\/3359339\/super-ageing-singapore-headed-population-decline?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">record-low fertility rate<\/span><\/a>: what if a substantial share of residents no longer want children at all?<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Nearly one in four Singaporeans aged 18 to 44 surveyed by YouGov in July said they had no children and did not intend to have them in the future.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Zahir Latif and his fianc\u00e9e are among them.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">For eight years, the couple have returned to the same question: should they have children? Each time, the conversation has ended in the same place.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">They worry about money, time and the fear of losing themselves, Zahir, 42, said. The unstable income that comes with freelance work \u2013 he is a content creator and his fianc\u00e9e is a writer \u2013 has also made parenthood feel incompatible with the life they have built.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Taking on a stable 9-to-5 job could mean giving up any semblance of work-life balance, he added.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cBesides money, time is something Singapore struggles to give back to its citizens,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you want to get enough sleep, your day is pretty much over in a few hours after work.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/week-asia\/lifestyle-culture\/article\/3364760\/no-bandwidth-left-family-why-many-singaporeans-want-be-child-free\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As Singapore\u2019s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong prepares to unveil plans to ease the strain on families during his National Day Rally speech on Sunday, a&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":78346,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=78345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/78346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=78345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=78345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=78345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}