Abandoning parents an emerging issue in Singapore

5% of the elderly at Bright Hill Evergreen Home have not seen their children for some time. 90% of some 140 elderly in the home have children who are unable to support them. Many of their children would cite reasons such as being busy with work, being ill or that they are having family problems to avoid visiting them & most importantly, paying the ward fees. Some never came even once.

Nursing homes are becoming more like a dumping ground. If this sounds like a prescription for disaster, it is. More and more report of such cases now filled the local papers. This is a social problem that bounds to happen and I feel that it will not end even with government intervention to legislate filial piety. Although surrounding factor plays a major part here, but being filial at heart is also important. If you really have no choice but to send them to Nursing home, please visit them frequently.

Sometimes seeing those Ah Ma and Ah Pek in coffee shop working and you will feel that what is this country? A First world country with a third world salary? All the lands are state own and people are being stuffed into HDB cubicles. Families become compartmentalized and there's no space left for old people. You can see from the HDB upgrading projects, are those floor tiles elderly friendly?

Youngsters nowadays are seriously in debt the moment they graduate. From having study loan to clear, to getting married, to getting house and renovate, to having kids. By the time everything is done, the person is around 30-35 years old and pocket already has a super duper big hole. By this time, parent should be coming to 60 years old and if they are jobless, where to find extra money to support?

Sometimes I don't know if we should blame the kid for unfilial or should we blame the way things are being run here. Although I can barely managed, some social welfare program are just full of stupid policies that does not help anyone. How I wish Singapore can learn from Scandinavian countries, or like Macau where children are a blessing to the country, everything is paid for rather than the half-hearted thing here.