Tougher to raise kids in Singapore

I have two young daughters age 7 and 3 years old. My wife is a Singapore PR from the Philippines. Prior to the current company, she was working as a part time cashier at Fairprice. The flexible working hours there allowed her to work while my daughter was sent to the childcare centre. After the birth of our 2^nd daughter, I tried to bring in my mom in law into Singapore so that she can take care of our children as my wife wanted to find a full time job.

We know that the government is encouraging Singaporean married couples to have more babies. But to my dismay, the policies are not accommodating enough to the married couples. I tried several attempts to apply for a Long Term Visit Pass for my mom in law to stay in Singapore. However my application was only approved after a long and painful process of obtaining a 2^nd appeal letter from my MP.

The Long Term Visit Pass approval was only a short term relief to my family because the validity of the pass is for a maximum of 2 years or till my 2^nd daughter reaches the age of 3 years old whichever is earlier! That means my mom in law has to go back to the Philippines soon. By then, I am only left with 2 options. Its either I get a maid or my wife has to quit her job. Both are unacceptable options to us.

Out of the 2 options, it is more likely that I am forced to find a maid. As a parent, I am sure everyone would like to have their children taken care by someone whom they trusted. We have read about the many ill-effects of what maids can do. Maid industry needs a cleanup is another recent article that gives me little confidence about getting a maid.

Here are some questions that I want to pose to the policy makers. I know the government is trying to cut down on the approval of foreigners to stay in Singapore recently. The thing is regardless of whether I bring in my mom in law or I get a maid, the number of foreigners here will still be the same. The only difference is I am paying a levy with a maid. So can I pay a levy to bring my mom in law to work as a maid here in Singapore? Or can the government do something about the immigration policies of ICA to help Singaporean married couples who want to bring in their foreign relatives into Singapore to help look after their children?

Looking after the children and maid issues are some of the problems that need to be addressed if the government is serious about increasing birth rates. After the recent in-flux of foreigners working here in Singapore, more and more locals are marrying foreigners.