Monday, August 18, 2008

1. Paid maternity leave will be extended from 12 weeks to 16 weeks, and the extra four weeks can be taken anytime during the baby's first year. It was previously extended from eight to 12 weeks in 2004.
2. More tax incentives to encourage mothers to work.
3. Childcare leave, which can be claimed by either parent, will be extended from two to six days per year.
4. One week of unpaid infant-care leave per year, and mums or dads can claim it until their child turns two years old.
5. More financial help for parents at childcare centres.

Other incentives that doesnt applicable for me:

1. Larger baby bonus for first-time parents. (Damn! I looking forward to my next child coz of the higher bonus.. now the 1st time aso get MORE!)
2. More financial support for couples who go for In-Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) treatment. (Pray hard i don nid tis support!)
3. More incentives for the fifth and subsequent children. (Quite encourgaging incentives. Esp for parents who like children, shd encourgage them to have more... N give them more financial support too, so their ratio can cover our 1.29!)

More details will be out when they finalised the incentives.

Too bad, no extended paternity leave.. How i wish the 16wks can be share wif hb.. i don wan to stay at home to look after babies for 16wks! Will get sick of babies... :(

Sealed with Love @ 10:45 PM

National Day Rally Speech

I've been looking forward to this year speech.. dunno why the urge? Mayb i in need of $. Or i'm in need of leaves.. I more keen on how govt will help us to raise our kids as inflation is rocking high now. Milk powder is so so so Exp! From $44+ jump to $51 out of sudden. Wen will my son teeth be fully developed, so can cut down on his milk intake???

I hope the following will impement:

1) We can use our child's MC to claim under our own MC leaves. As my son has recently fall sick too often, and i'm only entitled to 2 days of child care leave, i could not take enough leave to care for him. I asked my HR if i can use my son's MC in place of my MC leaves (entitled to 14days), she say CANNOT. I don fall sick easily, so 14 days are too many for me. But my son falls sick more dan 2 days a year. So if i can use my son's mc to 'bite' into my 14days of MC, it will be great! If not, it will end up 'biting' into my AL, which leaves me with very little break. :( Well, the govt bodies has impemented such a policy, whereby the staffs are allowed 5 days of child leaves, 2 are w/o mc, and 3 days are allowed with the produce of MC issued under the child's name. So hopefully Mr Lee. can help to implement this as mandatory for all companies in Sgp.

2) More childcare subsidies? Planning to send son to toddler/childcare soon.. so hope more subsidies...

3) More tax rebates? I still like the rebate schemes when i was studying tax in my poly. Where the mum is 27, 28, 29 yo, every child born will be entitled to a certain huge amt of rebates. Who know by the time i gave birth and wish to use the rebates, it's gone! Hai~! The rebate or reliefs is so little now! That time when i do my tutorials, i rmbr the women don nid to pay taxes for a few years.. esp if she gave birth to 3kids, she can skip taxes for up to 10yrs. For me, i still tax at a high rate after claiming all the child reliefs. So unfair! Inflation went up, but the rebate & relief went down. In fact, if that old rebate is back in use, it can help to motivate women to get married n give birth early. As the younger is the mum, the higher is the rebate value. It motivate me back then.. but no longer now.. Sob! Somemore i fall into the highest rebate value, age 27! Hai~ HaI~ HAI~~

4) More paternity leave. I may start to plan for a baby soon.. So hopefully they give daddies more leave since they now share more responsibilities as mummies now. Although my hb got plenty of leave, and he can anytime take 1 mth of leave to accompany me for my past confinement, i still hope that he has more leaves. He's planning to change jobs, so may not have the 1mth leave to support me in my next confinement. And also all the daddies wish to have more leaves to bond wif their dearest babies. It's impt to have the support of our SO during our confinement, esp when we are coping wif new additions (eg: babies & confinement ladies), so the physical support will be of Great Help!

In a his chinese speech last nite, he said "In the old days, the man was the master of the household. That era has gone." Lee is suggesting men should assist their wives with child-rearing duties and household chores. "The modern-day woman expects equality."

So will there be Good News tonite?

Sealed with Love @ 2:54 PM

Thursday, August 14, 2008

(~ Lazy to compile into 1 pic~)

Sitting on a grass slope.. n trying to slide down like a playground slide.

Ah Boy & the AH NU ge!

Sealed with Love @ 11:35 PM

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Sealed with Love @ 11:34 PM

Monday, August 4, 2008

Sealed with Love @ 11:33 AM