06 Sep 2010
For the first time, U Family organised a dialogue session specially for children aged 10 to 14 years old with three community leaders cum Member of Parliament (MPs), Mr Lim Swee Say, NTUC Secretary General and MP for Holland – Bukit Timah GRC; Mdm Halimah Yacob, NTUC Deputy Secretary General and MP for Jurong GRC and Mr Seah Kian Peng, CEO of NTUC Fairprice Co-operative and MP for Marine Parade GRC, to discuss on issue that is close to the hearts of these children.
A total of 40 children participated actively in this inaugural dialogue session where they have a direct voice in the development and implementation of policies that affect them. Entitled “Give Me Back My Mummy”, the dialogue session provided an opportunity for young children to share their views and express their opinions on what matter most to them – about how their parents are balancing between working and personal lives, how they want to spend time with their families, as well as how they can best handle their academic works.
“The Labour Movement recognises that children are the future pillars of our society. They have their own views and want to be heard too. U Family believes that by organising such platforms, these children will be empowered to create a future that they desire,” said Toh Hwee Tin, Director, NTUC U Family. She added: “This platform allows our children to express their views and share the ways on how their mummies can find a balance between their work and personal lives. U Family hopes to create greater awareness among our stakeholders on better work life strategies and to also implement these strategies at a faster pace at company level.”
A straw poll conducted by the U Family among 23 children showed that majority of the children would like to see their mummies return home from work before 6pm daily while 48% of the mummies surveyed shared that they returned home from work after 7pm daily. Work and family are two most important aspects of people’s lives. Yet, they are often in conflict since time devoted to one role makes it difficult to fulfill the requirements of the other role. U Family’s goal is to build a community of "strong and happy families" in Singapore. It advocates pro-family practices at the workplaces. According to the "Marriage and Parenthood Study 2007", a survey commissioned by the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports, females spent an average of 5.5 hours per day looking after their children while males spent an average of 2.4 hours per day. This included time spent with children on homework, listening to their problems, playing and grooming them. U family hopes that fathers can also take on a more active role at home as studies have found that families that supported one another are also happier families.
U Family plans to organise more of such platforms annually as well as to help our children build their confidence level through participating in these platforms. It will also be an opportunity for the children to showcase their talents and potentials as future leaders of Singapore. A total of 40 parent observers and 3 resource observers were at the dialogue session too.
