Response to April 16, 2007 TIME magazine’s article: ‘Dad’s Dilemma’ by Liam Fitzpatrick

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1606878-1,00.html

Evaluation:

On the issue of parenting, Fitzpatrick has reported that fathers all over Asia share that sense of guilt over their inability to balance work and parenthood. However, it was an epoch-shifting change for the role of a father. Responsibilities of the sole breadwinner could be ceased the moment he crossed the threshold of his home, but today, with the emancipation of women, he has to stimulate their children intellectually and emotionally just as much as mothers do. Therefore, incentives and assistance are provided by the governments to encourage fathers to make the dramatic shift. Most importantly, Fitzpatrick brought out the point that dealing with the myriad commitments, being ingenious in time management, accepting that being a parent means being responsible for both the material and emotional welfare of your children is the new way of Asian fatherhood.

Analysis:

In today’s Asian societies, fathers find it extremely hard to be fully involved with their children because of several factors. One of them is their hectic and busily-scheduled working lifestyle. Due to business commitments, fathers would often at times be summoned for business trips to foreign countries. Hence, this rips off the quality time which the fathers could have spent with their children. As mentioned by Fitzpatrick, when stress goes up for a father, it affects not only the quantity of time he spends with his children but the quality. I agree with Fitzpatrick because the abilities to rationalize and prioritize between work and family diminish with the deep job commitments, fear of getting retrenched as one’s career responsibilities increase with age and the belief that slogging as hard as possible equates to quality life for the family.

To eventually close up the relationship gap between fathers and children, a higher authority should take the initiative to make a change. As suggested by Fitzpatrick, it is the boss who leads by example, the person who can convince men to spend more time with their families. When Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) or department heads try to balance their own lives, instead of merely urging subordinates to do so, then everyone benefits. Any change in attitude works best when the tone at the top stipulates what the corporate culture will be. On an individual scale, each father can improvise ways to boost the time they spend with his children like gathering the courage to negotiate with his boss to adjust his working hours or have a less demanding job to perhaps get home in time to have lunch with his children. Each and little insignificant effort can amount to a radical change eventually.

Relation to Singapore’s context:

Due to Singaporeans being so methodical and conscientious in their professional lives, as expressed by Fitzpatrick, the firms and the government has introduced incentives to encourage men to balance between work and family – to spend more time with their children. At International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), 70% of the 3000 mostly male employees regularly participate in the firm’s “mobility program”, which lets them work from home as long as they can be contacted via email or phone. In addition, fathers are allowed to work twenty-two half-days in every six months if they use that extra time for family purposes. Furthermore, the government has implemented the five-day work week since January 2005 in a bid to allow more quality time for the whole family. Also, establishments, especially the larger ones, grant paternity leave to their male employees. Most importantly, in a meritocratic Singapore, there are monetary bonuses which place emphasis on family ties for workers so as to relief their stress and burden from supporting the family.

With more involvement in the family, fathers are much closer to their children, work productivity and efficiency increases. This is because men who play a fuller role at home often find it energizing and cheering rather than an additional cause of exhaustion. Thus, they are able to focus and contribute during work at a much higher rate than before.

In the final analysis, this has not only made the achievement of the 5Cs – Cash, Credit card, Car, Condo, Career - the criteria which determine the social wealth of Singaporean so that family will have a higher quality of life, more effective, another C – Children, can be added to the list. Both Singapore and its people benefit in the long run. Why not?