Page 221 - 梁文燕紀念中學（沙田）－青苗文集

The Creative Collection of the Budding Writers

Another reason is that the social status of females,
in fact, has increased. In the past, the social status of
girls and wives was much lower. Should mothers-in-law
force them to have babies, they had no choice but to
comply. Most had to spend the majority of their adult lives
raising children and stay home as housewives. However,
nowadays, since everyone is receiving 12 years of free
education, females have higher education backgrounds
and can thus make their own living. After finishing work,
many are too tired to take care of their babies. That
means, our society has helped reshape the traditional role
of females to be more than just a tool for child rearing;
they are now part of the workforce, and thus have more
leverage to say ‘no’ to having children.
The last reason is that relationships have become more complicated than
before. In the past, though relationships between spouses do not seem to be that
close, there were fewer cases of divorce. Most couples were willing to sacrifice
themselves for the good of their children. Growing up in healthy families, most were
looking forward to having children of their own as they had enough confidence to
manage their family well. However, we see broken families with divorced parents
on the rise. Children from these families, in turn, have no role models to learn how
to love their sons or daughters. Moreover, with the increased pressure from work
and family conflicts, some parents may even abuse their kids or leave them behind.
As a result, children growing up in broken families have less hope on, or concept of
having a family or raising children.
It is not to say that the concept
of wanting children is wrong, or old-
fashioned, but I have to say I whole-
heartedly embrace the mindset of new
couples as the cost of having babies
in this day and age is just too high. A
popular saying in Hong Kong has been
that it takes four million dollars to raise a
child, with expenses on education, health

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