It’s also one of those unique things about being in Singapore – that grandparents are typically ‘roped’ in to help look after the next next generation.
My parents for certain joke about it a lot when they’re asked what their job is these days: “looking after grandchildren”. It helps too that space is aplenty at Lentor, and it’s large enough that if need be the both of us can easily move there and stay for as long as need be.
The requisite though is that parents will need home helper assistance to do the household chores at Lentor i.e. we’ll need to engage a maid. But there’s ‘risk transfer’ too since the helper will primarily be staying at Lentor, and she’ll never be alone at home there. And mum has plenty of experience managing home assistance over the periods my four nephews and niece were at Lentor.
It’s a tempting option to be sure with lots of wins in many respects. Parents enjoy Hannah, lower risks of helpers running amok, and double-income! Mmmmhmmm…
But there’re potential challenges too. For starters, my parents aren’t getting any younger. Secondly, the both of us are a little unsure about moving to stay at Lentor long term. Ling will feel a little awkward initially at least, and me; well, I’m wondering how would I bring over my Plasma TV, my PS3, all my blu-rays and DVDs, all my photographic equipment, all my computers and notebooks etc. etc. I can’t live without my precious toys…!
Jokes apart, that we haven’t placed the first option as our preferred choice has to do with our conviction that we should try to bring Hannah up ourselves and seek a balance between care-giving and income without looking to parents as the first resort. And as much as they enjoy Hannah, I think they should be looking after grandchildren at their convenience – and no matter how one chooses to look at it, full-time looking after grandchildren is an inconvenience to their retirement years.
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Alternatively, we could continue to stay at Rivervale but bring Hannah to Lentor every day and pick her up on our way home from work. But it turned quickly into a non-starter as soon as Ling worked out the necessary wake-up times to expedite that arrangement. Ling must be in school by 7:20 am every morning, and the traveling time works out like this:
Rivervale to Lentor – 20 minutes
Lentor to workplace – 35 minutes
Workplace to Ling’s school – 25 minutes
And that’s the most optimistic estimates assuming no traffic holdups. Translated into wake-up times, it works out to 4:45 am every morning. I’m fine with that since I’m already waking up every morning at that time. But not Ling – it was difficult enough waking her up every morning before birth at 6:00 am LOL.
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There’s also the option of Ling choosing to teach in a school near Lentor. That’s a possible workaround since it’ll cut traveling time somewhat, so we’re keeping that option in view.
All that said, the option we’re leaning towards is Ling going on half-teaching load and we’re engaging an infant care-center around Sengkang to help take care of Hannah in the mornings. More on this later, and I’ll ask Ling to blog about that.
Hi Chek Yang, yup J and I are also wondering about the logistics of caring for baby after starting work… We’re trying to find a place near my parents’ so that traveling time is cut down, but finding a place within our budget sure is tricky at this time! We pray for God to open doors (literally!) for a suitable place to bring up kiddo.
Thanks for sharing your and Ling’s journey as new parents… It helps me think about how I need to be prepared too! Especially looking out for where we can get economical baby accessories and equipment. God bless!! :)
Hi Lisa,
You’re very welcomed :)
Sounds like we are having through similar concerns as new parents :) If you have any questions about any other baby items, we might be able to share our experiences with you – hee hee. :P BTW, we have a spreadsheet of baby items to buy before the arrival of Hannah. Let me know if you’d like to take a look at it. :)
hey,
I nearly fainted when I saw the schedule your worked out!
Well, just to share a few points that I found from leaving my son in an infant care. To leave a baby in infant care, it starts to function at only 7 am. Ideally, your infant care must be near one of your work places. Why? If there is anything wrong with the child you can come and pick the child up ASAP!
So if Ling gets the car, the infant care should be near her school. My neighbour left her girl in baby planet in katong and her child was quite happy.
Hi Wenyi,
Don’t worry, the plan is to have the infant care centre near my workplace. I’m contemplating to do adjunct teaching and hence can choose a school near home.
But thanks for sharing about the need to pick up Hannah fr the infant care centre if she is sick or something. Didn’t think about that. Oopsies. :)
Hi Ling,
Actually I have alot of things I’m curious about… e.g., do we need both a cot and a playpen? Where’s the best place to buy a cot, is it Kiddy Palace? What mattress did you say was most suitable for our weather- was it latex? Baby sling or one of those ergonomic carriers? And the list goes on… :-p
If you don’t mind, I’d love to have a peek at the spreadsheet you were talking about, so that I can have an idea what’s the ‘damage’ to expect, and start saving more, heh.
Thank you!!
I’ll say one thing, Lisa – start exploring your purchasing options early, especially when it’s still less tiring to move around before the last trimester. The actual purchasing isn’t as problematic as before, as there are now online outlets based in Singapore which you can buy from too.
We bought most of our large items from just one place, and specifically Kiddy Palace about 4 months before Hannah popped, then over the next few months slowly accumulated the smaller items. There were just four ‘big’ items for us: the pram (http://chekyang.com/musings/2009/08/18/baby-pram-and-other-big-baby-items), the car seat, play pen and cot (http://chekyang.com/musings/2009/02/14/baby-storehouse), blogged / described in those entries. Our cousin also bought us a baby rocker.
That said, most of the decision making lied with Ling in our case – all I did was endorse the price tags, and choose the, erm, colors.:)
I’ll see if we can email you the spreadsheet we had, or if Ling thinks is a good idea, post it up here altogether.:)
Hi Lisa,
I was advised that having a playpen can allow the baby a safe place to play in in the daytime. Also it can be placed in a cooler part of the house for the baby to nap if the baby’s room is warm in the daytime. In addition, it can be folded into a portable bag to be carried to say, parents’ place, if they are going to take care of the baby for a period of time. Of course, baby can also sleep on a floor mattress at parents’ place as well.
We have trained Hannah to sleep in her cot from the start and now she seldom associate the playpen as a place for sleep. She just lie in there to enjoy her mobiles. :)
I bought a sling. Hannah likes it and tend to doze off in it as I walk her over to the nearby coffee shop to buy lunch. However, it can get quite warm inside for her. I’m considering to get the bjorn type later. :)
Ya, should buy the latex mattress if you can. And remember to buy the correct type of waterproof sheets (see my notes in the excel spreadsheet in my next post) to keep the baby reasonably cool besides protecting the expensive mattress. Your baby will SURE wet the bed wan! The waterproof sheet should be placed beneath the bedsheet.
One other thing, get those fitted bedsheets instead of those that come with a zip. You save time and energy using the former. Ya! :)