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D & D: the Pitfalls of the Family

Recap: in the previous post, I wrote about how we  should start reading to our kids as early as possible. This is to make reading into a lifelong habit while they are still at a point where we can very much control or influence their lives. For those who say they cannot control their kids at this age...well, wait 'til they grow older. Trust me, it gets tougher. 

The unfortunate fact is that many parents chose to make the handphone or iPad into a habit. And when it is already a habit, it is almost impossible to wean because let's be honest - our mobile phone is our life.  If we as adults cannot stop putting down our phones, how can our kids who grew up on phones do it?

So, what are the other pitfalls that parents can do (or not do) that can be a showstopper for our kids' success? These are the 2 Ds: Divorce and (premature) Death

These are super obvious, right? While we cannot guarantee that our kids will do super well if we stay together, one things is for sure, if we are a single parent who needs to work AND take care of the family, life gets hard. The problem is that this happens way more often than we think. 

Divorce

We would think that in the country like Singapore with its Asian values, that the divorce rate should be fairly low, especially if we compare with a more open society, say the USA. 

Interestingly, the statistics say that the divorce rate in the USA is ~2.5 per 1,000 people. Singapore, which we assume should be lower, is 6 per 1,000 males, 5.8 per 1,000 females. So, the number is higher (yikes!). In the latest census, there are over 7 thousand divorces versus 28 thousand marriages recorder yearly...so a simple ratio is approx. 1:4 of marriages that will end up in divorce. To me, that outblook is pretty bleak, especially when the most cited reason (about 49%) is "unreasonable behaviour". Will talk about this on a future post.

(Premature) Death
The rate is fairly low for those aged 15-49, but according to the statistics we are looking at 2 per 1,000 people. 

If you add this number to the divorce rate, we are still looking at a not-so-good rate of close to 8 instances in 1,000 people who may leave and to have an effect on the kids they leave behind.  Obviously, if the cause of death is due to accidents, then it isout of our control. What we can control though, is our health.

So, in addition to just bringing up the kids, we actually have to put in 2 other things as well, i.e. to make sure we stay together as a family plus to to live long enough to help our kids in their journey. 



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