Burden in raising a child

SUPPLEMENTAL KNOWLEDGE
Jhunie B. Wahayna

When a couple measures the price of childbirth by the cost of milk powder, diapers and school fees and sees this as "slavery," something must be wrong. To have a child and bring him or her up is never an economic issue. To see childbirth as hard labor and connect it with housing and car mortgage loans represent an erroneous attitude toward life. It is necessary to calculate the cost of raising a child, but it is unwise to complain about the cost of it and about high living expenses.

Parenting is the process of promoting and supporting the physical, emotional, spiritual, social, and intellectual development of a child from infancy to adulthood. Parenting refers to the activity of raising a child rather than the biological relationship.

The cost of raising a child is becoming greater and greater. But economic pressure is not the only reason that makes young parents "child's slaves." Their efforts to compete with each other in trying to provide the best possible living conditions for their children should also be blamed.

In order that their offspring do not lose at the starting line, young couples never hesitate to spend money on their children. Businessman know well that young couples only buy the most expensive things for their children but do not care about if what they buy suits their children. Therefore infant and child commodities become increasingly expensive.

To bring up children is not an easy job for parents. No matter how time changes, it is important to keep one's expenses within the capacity to pay. We know the hardship young couples experience, but it is unnecessary to exaggerate the difficulties facing them. While the emergence of "mortgage slaves" stirs up the concern in the whole of society about mounting housing prices, sensationalizing the pains of "child's slaves" is only amplifying young parents' anxiety.

Children do not come into this world as consuming machines. When parents slip into economic pitfalls because of their own vain mentality and urge to compete in providing abundance, it is unfair to blame their hard lives on their children. It is better to put a stop to unreasonable expenses for children than to feel worried about becoming "child's slaves"

In recent years, parents have taken it for granted that to bring up a child is to offer them better living conditions than others. Since they do not have enough time to spend with children, they hope to compensate for it with expensive commodities. The parents believe money is able to satisfy their children spiritually and materially. Guided by this belief, high expenses for children become increasingly common and as a result, parents reduce themselves to the status of "child's slaves."

Parents should prepare themselves psychologically and physiologically for the arrival of children and, more importantly, they must develop a way of rational consumption.

Living costs, especially in cities, are becoming a huge pressure for many people. This is the price we have to pay for economic growth. Those who call themselves "child's slaves" are mostly young couples who have just begun an independent life. The huge gap between the rich and the poor and that between their expected success and present terrible state has prompted them to blame all problems and setbacks in life on unfairness and the inequality of society.

"Slaves" generally refer to the young people who received middle or higher education and are from low-income families. They belong to the middle class, but some of them have lost the confidence of being a member of the middle class. This is a problem the whole nation should take seriously, because without a stable middle class, it is difficult for a society to operate well.

Raising a child is never just as easy as buying several bags of milk powder to feed her or him. For example, when a child goes to school, the door of endless demands on money opens. In many western countries, a highly developed social welfare system helps parents raise their children more easily. But in the Philippines, parents have to pay almost all the bills by themselves.

Pressed by hard lives, many young couples find themselves unable to afford bringing up a child. Jobs, health care, education, housing, gas prices, and so on, plague them. "Child's slave," along with terms such as "mortgage slave," "credit card slave" and "car slave," vividly depict the extremely passive state of today's young people.

The smartest advice on raising children is to enjoy them while they are still on your side. Once they reach adulthood and get married, they now go on their own life.