If you frequent r/asksingapore, you will come to realise that Redditors asking why people don’t want to have kids is a trend. Travel pops out as a common theme. Essentially, people don’t want to give up their freedom to travel.

I think with growing affluence and increased exposed to the big bad world, we Singaporeans have had our expectations stretched like a taut string such that most of us can’t imagine a life without travel. I am no doubt one of them, my legs just itching to dash to other places even when my hands have to hold the pram firmly at some child-friendly destination. 😂 Maybe I should admire my dad because he was born in an era where Singapore was making its way in the world. I have no doubts that he would have wanted to travel since he majored in Geography and History in college. But I think the desire for travel would come across as a grandiose ideal for him. As it stands, the first time he travelled was to Malacca with me in my mid-30s, and that was because my mum had passed on, so I wanted to take him out of the country.

After I had kids, our travelling escapades abruptly halted because if I don’t even have time for myself, I am definitely not seeking opportunities to travel with him. But he has never asked me about travelling. I’m sure that it helps that my younger brother has picked up the slack and gone on trips with him, but I also think that the urge to travel just isn’t that entrenched in the DNA of our Pioneer Generation.

I don’t know where I am going with this. I just wanted to make a note to myself that having this insatiable craving for travel hasn’t always been part of the Singaporean psyche, that I should feel privileged and grateful because my travel resume is an indirect reflection of the hard work of my forefathers.