TWO is enough and no official sweetener can sway the Naylors to have more children.

The reason: Their hands are full running a Web design company and parenting a toddler and a three-year-old.

'If only there were more hours in a day - let's see if the Government could fix that,' quips New Zealander Andy Naylor, with a chuckle.

Nodding in agreement, Ms Mae Lyn Urquhart, his Singaporean wife, recalls the demands of running Nokomai, their seven-year- old company.

'A month after I had Elliot, clients were calling me. In fact, when my water bag broke, I was online with a client.'

Elliot is now 15 months old; his older brother is Aiden.

The couple started a family soon after they got married in 2004.

That was the year the Government handed out its pro-baby basket of cash bonuses, tax reliefs and longer maternity leave.

'Nice perks,' says Ms Urquhart.

But even without them, they would have started a family, she adds, 'because we were ready to be parents'.

However, quitting to become a full-time mum is not an option for the 32-year-old, who is the accounts director of her company. 'It is easier said than done because a lot of our business is tied to the relationships I have built up with clients.' They include Samsung and the InterContinental Hotels Group.

The company has grown from the initial husband-and-wife team to a staff of 10 and revenue has jumped tenfold. Two months ago, the Naylors teamed up with a friend to form another firm - Nokomai Ambient - to produce interactive media experiences for the outdoors.

Despite the ties that bind them to Nokomai, the couple do not work late and have diligently developed a family-friendly culture at their workplace.

'We work hard during office hours and leave on the dot at 6pm. Our clients know we don't work weekends,' says Mr Naylor, a permanent resident who has called Singapore home for 13 years. They live in a four-room Housing Board flat with her parents, who look after their children while they work.

Although she does not stand to gain, Ms Urquhart wants the Government to consider giving stay-at-home mothers a monthly allowance like France does.

It gives 750 euros (S$1,600) to a parent who stays home to look after the third child. The amount, given for a year, is just over half that of the country's minimum wage.

On top of that, parents with two or more children receive other cash allowances and subsidies. These incentives are given until the child becomes a teenager.

Ms Urquhart believes such perks can go a long way in supporting families, compared with Singapore's one-off baby bonus of $3,000 and $6,000 for each specified child. 'Just Formula milk and diapers will set you back $200 every month,' she points out.

Her husband, however, dismisses money as a potent force in winning over potential parents.

He blames the rat race culture here for couples' reluctance to have a brood of children. 'If we were living in New Zealand, it's likely that one of us would stay home with the kids, as people there are more laid-back and less focused on career,' he says.

Both New Zealand and France have total fertility rates of around 2.0 - among the highest for developed countries. Singapore's rate is 1.29.

In Singapore, the norm is for both parents to work to support a lifestyle that would include a car, an annual vacation, and music and other enrichment classes for the children.

Two-child families are the most common family configuration here. Some 33 per cent of married female residents have two children, according to the General Household Survey of 2005.

The Naylors say none of their friends has more than two children. The one time they met a woman with three, they heard an earful of complaints.

'She was moaning about all the additional expenses and inconveniences, such as having to buy a bigger car or not being able to get a table at restaurants,' says Ms Urquhart.

This article was first published in The Straits Times on July 12, 2008.