Taiwan Review
Date: November 1, 2015
By: LYNN F. LEE

Free recreational centers in Taipei offer engaging environments where parents and kids

Helping both parents and children interact with one another is one of the primary goals of the Parent-Child Centers. (Photo by Lynn F. Lee)

can interact and have fun.

The city of Taipei is dotted with parks and green spaces where parents can take their children to play when the weather is right, but even in this thriving metropolis there are about half as many kids playing on the jungle gyms as one might expect. People all around the country, not just up north in the capital, are choosing to have fewer children. Young adults are opting for education over offspring and placing professional prestige on a pedestal. The benefits of raising a family—emotional bonding as well as caregivers and monetary support in old age, among many others—are seen by some as secondary goals.

In order for a country to maintain the size of its population, women must give birth to an average of 2.1 children during their lifetimes, experts say. However, like many other industrialized nations, Taiwan has a substantially lower fertility rate. It was so low in 2014—1.11 children per woman according to the CIA World Fact Book—that the nation placed 222nd out of 224 countries and administrative regions, ahead of only Macau and Singapore.     [FULL  STORY]