In between busy work schedules and daily routines, spending quality time with family can sometimes take a backseat.
This is why the Families for Life (FFL) Council is helping to build a Singapore that celebrates family life across individuals, communities and workplaces as part of its new game plan.
Speaking to the media on Tuesday (May 12), the council’s new chairman Keith Magnus announced three pivots that will be shaping the next phase of the FFL movement.
They include expanding the definition of family in Singapore to strengthen the “village of support” around families, and reinforcing the idea that raising and supporting families is a shared effort.
“Families today are supported not just by parents and children, but also by grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles and extended family members who play an important caregiving and support role,” he said.
“As Singapore’s population ages, older persons should be seen not only as dependents, but also as contributors who provide wisdom, care and stability across generations.”
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Moving forward, the National Family Festival (NFF) will focus on new areas such as helping youths form and navigate relationships with others, as well as strengthening inter-generational relationships.
This will be done by equipping families with skills that strengthen relationships through programmes and resources that cover beyond marriage and parenting.
Next, the council aims to cultivate a culture of families helping families through peer support and mentoring, growing support networks within communities, and encouraging civic responsibility through family-based volunteering.
The third pivot is building a whole-of-society family culture.
This includes helping Singaporeans reclaim the joy and meaning of parenthood, creating a culture that is more family-friendly and championing family-friendly workplaces.
“Conversations around parenting should not focus only on stress, sacrifice and pressures, but also the joy, love and fulfillment that family life brings,” Keith said.
While raising children comes with adjustments and responsibilities, it also gives families purpose, connection and meaning across generations, the father of three explained.
These pivots come after the recent announcement of Singapore’s total fertility rate dropping to a new low of 0.87 in 2025.
As for the struggles that the “sandwich generation” — families who have both the elderly and young to care for — Keith recognised that “the pressures are real”.
“This is exactly why we have these pivots that we are also making, for families that don’t have the same pressures to be able to help others who might need it,” he said.
“While we don’t have all the solutions today, we want to make a start, and we want to make a push towards building a better Singapore.”
National Family Festival
Across the month of June, the FFL council is encouraging Singaporeans to make family a priority in everyday life with NFF 2026.
This year’s theme is Family Begins with Me — with the message that strong families are built through consistent, everyday actions such as showing up, staying present, sharing meals and making time for one another.
The festival will kick off on May 30 with the NFF Family Carnival, which features an immersive experience to help families connect, reflect and build stronger relationships through shared activities.
Some highlights of the carnival include the 100 Dinners Exhibition by local filmmaker Royston Tan — a video exhibition showing how simple moments such as shared meals can deepen family bonds, and reflect the diversity of Singapore’s social fabric.
Another highlight is the Grow Well SG x Screen Smart installations at the My Bonding Moments zone, where families can take part in interactive activities and learn parenting tips on healthy habits, screen use, online safety and screen-free bonding activities among other family bonding activities.
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Beyond individual efforts
While an individual can make efforts to strengthen family bonds, FFL recognises that the society also has a role to play in supporting family life.
It encourages employers to take the lead in developing family-friendly cultures and practices that enable employees to better balance work and family commitments.
According to Keith, the movement calls on workplaces to better support both fathers and mothers in their parenting roles.
Being a committed employee and a present parent should not be seen as competing responsibilities, but mutually reinforcing ones, he said.
“Loving a child at home creates more motivation to excel at work, because you are providing for the family.”
FFL also encourages ground-up efforts and mutual support in the community to create family-friendly neighbourhoods, as the environment families live in can shape the habits they build.
These will be done by cultivating workplace family ambassadors to champion work-family balance, as well as empowering FFL volunteers to lead and design community family activities, in addition to the corporate and community events that will be happening throughout the festival.
NFF 2026 is co-organised with the National Trade Union Congress, National Youth Council, People’s Association, Prime Minister’s Office Strategy Group and Sport Singapore.
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