More than a decade ago, I wrote this piece as part of my Masters in Education and this is the conclusion to my essay. I'm happy to say that I still stand by what I wrote and the ideas and facts that I wanted to share are just as valid today. If anyone wishes to read the entire essay, just message me and I'll be happy to share.
"My first-born is now seven years old and my travails as a new mother are now behind me. Along the way, I have had to reconcile and process my learning on child-rearing practices and infant development both as a parent and as an early childhood professional. At times, my needs and values as a parent are in conflict with those as a teacher. Whilst I have personally tried to raise my two children in accordance to what research indicates will best support their fundamental needs, I have had to work with children and families who have decidedly different child-rearing practices. I work primarily with infants and toddlers who are in the care of immediate family members and I have to maintain more of a distance than when I worked in an infant-toddler daycare situation.
I believe that child-rearing practices in Singapore are undergoing some fundamental shifts. The rapid economic changes in the past three decades have caused Singaporeans to lurch forward in their lifestyles. There have therefore been concomitant changes in child-rearing practices, the most apparent of which would be the move to engaging foreign domestic workers as primary caregivers whilst both parents work. There are however, some practices that remain from the past. It would be interesting to find out where Singaporeans in general stand on the issues of extended breastfeeding, co-sleeping and baby-wearing. That would then be a springboard for making the information on the fundamental needs of young children available to parents.
Another shift in child-rearing practices in Singapore would be the increasing number of infants and toddlers being placed in long-term daycare. There are some who argue that this shift spells disaster for the well-being of young children (Prescott, 2002). This belief is often based on the idea that a monotropic (one parent to one child at a time) bond is the ideal. This largely ignores the fact that most cultures entwine their parent-child dyads within an extended social network (Small, 1998). It may be more constructive to explore if infant-toddler care centres can incorporate practices that support the fundamental needs of infants and toddlers. For example, it may be as simple as creating nursing and pumping areas as a way to encourage extended breastfeeding, or it may need more thought and planning to enable babies to be carried on the bodies of the caregivers.
Fundamentally, I believe that any changes to child-rearing practices must first be grounded in an understanding of the fundamental needs of infants and toddlers, and rather than feel shackled by the constraints of societal expectations, I choose to believe that,
“Culture and tradition are part of our flexibility, and we can, therefore, change the dictates of culture because we are culture.” (Small, 1998)"
