No Choice?

I have to say that some of the recent forum comments I've come across over the topic of maid abuse make me feel rather pissed (Pardon the bluntness here).

I am empathatic with the fact that some families simply do not enjoy the same extent of luxury when it comes to childcare matters e.g. familial and financial support. I truly am. Not everyone is lucky enough to have parents or in-laws to assist with looking after their kids while they go to work. Not everyone can afford or find good suitable childcare services. For those of us who do not have to grapple with such problems, we really ought to thank our lucky stars (or equivalent), recognize and acknowledge that we are, indeed, blessed.

The thing that I have an issue with is that people have this tendency to gripe. Don't get me wrong. It is perfectly fine to gripe. I do that myself. All the time. What gets to me is when some of these people gripe that "they have no choice". I'm really cheesed off that these people appear to be blaming everything else, other than themselves for their predicaments. Ok, "blaming" may be too strong a word to use for some of these chaps, but basically they are all pointing their fingers at all sorts of things (society, bad luck, family structure etc.; as long as it is not themselves) in an attempt to prove one point - that they have got no choice but to do what they have done.

The reasons put forth to justify why they have got "no choice" typically includes stuff like:

"Both me and my hubby are working so no one at home with maid"
"We have two/three/x kids that needs to be taken care of"
"We've got lots of loans to finance"

Pleeeze lah.

Can earn a bit less or not? Sure, quality of life won't be so good, but isn't it still a choice?

Cannot ah? Cos got housing, reno, car, whatever loans to finance? Isn't this a choice you've made upfront, to take up all these loans?

Oh, you HAVE TO take these loans cos need to cater to x kids so small house/car/whatever wouldn't be suitable? Come on lah. Whose choice was it in the first place to have x kids?! Did someone kenna raped x times?

What I want to say is: Don't bite more than you can chew. If you have a broken jaw and can't chew at all, then don't bite at all until your jaw is fixed.

I guess many of these people just want so much to get that picture-perfect future. So much so that in their attempt to get there, they end up sacrificing the present. Hugely unwise, IMHO.

Anyways, before all these hoo-hahs, I had already penned my thoughts on this topic in a previous post. I still feel as strongly about this now as I do then.

Ok, enough griping already. It's CNY for goodness's sake!