Observations on Chinese Parenting

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Day 28

I am definitely falling behind on my blogging. A consequence of being extremely busy. I spend a significant part of my day writing, so when I get home it isn't really at the top of my list. I'm particularly excited today, since in exactly one month I'll be heading to the airport to meet my husband!

Disclaimer - I am not currently a parent, so I do not have any interest whatsoever in judging anyone's parenting style. This blog entry is merely about what I observed over the course of a day, and how it seems to differ from the way things would go at home.

A few Saturday's ago, one of my colleagues arrived at work with his 3 year old daughter. My first thought was "oh, hello, I guess you are just here until your mom can take you to whatever it is you are going to".

Turns out, that mom was at home, doing normal Saturday stuff, but baby WANTED to spend the day with dad. Apparently she was screaming, and crying, and followed him down the stairs. Ok - I'm sure that most parents have been through this at least once, where their kid doesn't want them to leave, but life is life, and work is work. This was the first time during the day where this cute little girl SHOULD have heard the word "no" but didn't.

As the day progressed, baby was actually quite well behaved and quiet (considering that she is 3) spent some time colouring, reading, etc... but as one might expect, she did start to get bored fairly quickly. Time for a snack! Dad jumped up and took her to the same recently discovered supermarket nirvana down in the basement. YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN WHAT CAME BACK! There was one of EVERYTHING. Breads, candy, cakes, fruit, puddings, juice, pop, milk, dumplings, soup, etc... etc... I couldn't help but exclaim "that is a LOT of food for one small little girl". Dad's response "it's what she wanted". Wow.

Pour a glass of milk, and mix in 2 teaspoons of sugar. I said "aren't you worried about her eating so much sugar?". Dad's response "she likes it". Again, wow.

We all got our work done that day, and as I mentioned, she was generally very quiet and calm for a 3 year old with that much refined sugar in her system, but one thing is certain, the standard of parenting here is to let children have and do whatever they please in the hopes that when you need caring for in later life they will remember and treat you well. Interesting theory.

I intend to write an observation on Chinese fashion as my next post, but this involves getting some key photos from the shops along my route to work. Stay tuned, it'll be worth the wait!

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