Although small and medium-sized enterprises may feel the blow of extended paternity leave, it is not wise to relax the rules on foreign workers to help companies cope ("Extended paternity leave a burden for SMEs" by Mr Francis Cheng; Wednesday).

A better way would be to offer extended paternity leave for the third child onwards, and make it applicable to Singaporeans only.

This would tie in with our national agenda to increase the birth rate, while not eroding the ethic of hard work.

Robert Lim Chuan Hock