Commenting on why families are generally stopping at two children, SMU Dean of Students and Professor of Sociology (Practice) Paulin Straughan said, "There's this frenzy of calculating the cost of giving everything to your child (to help the child excel). So people police themselves to have few children. Perhaps we have gone to the extreme in terms of intensive parenting."
When asked if the recent trend of more couples having four or more children would encourage other families to do likewise, Prof Straughan said, "These families speak to those who are not averse to having more children but are just too scared to try. When people see positive role models, where children are happy, healthy and where there are close family bonds, they know it's possible to have large families with their existing resources."