What's missing
The other day, in the Jusco babycare room, Myles asked me a most heartbreaking question. "Why don't the other babies have older brothers and sisters?"
I've mentioned before that we currently live a fairly affluent Chinese neighborhood, so we are around every day many Chinese families that have more than one child. Myles hadn't noticed the one-child phenomenon before because our Chinese neighbors' families often resemble our own.
However, in Jusco, Myles was completely struck by the fact that he has never seen an older child hanging around the change tables. Certainly, if some of these babies had an older sibling, in the middle of the day that older child would likely be in school. Most of our neighbors send their children to all-day kindergarten starting at the age of two or three. But it is also very likely that most of these families we encounter at Jusco are one-child families.
To Myles, it was unsettling. And it should be. It isn't natural for every family to be the same size and that size be one-child. Outside of China, families come in all sizes--from zero to twenty kids. I think he's too young to hear the absolute truth of the matter. But he is so perceptive to see that something is really missing here.
I've mentioned before that we currently live a fairly affluent Chinese neighborhood, so we are around every day many Chinese families that have more than one child. Myles hadn't noticed the one-child phenomenon before because our Chinese neighbors' families often resemble our own.
However, in Jusco, Myles was completely struck by the fact that he has never seen an older child hanging around the change tables. Certainly, if some of these babies had an older sibling, in the middle of the day that older child would likely be in school. Most of our neighbors send their children to all-day kindergarten starting at the age of two or three. But it is also very likely that most of these families we encounter at Jusco are one-child families.
To Myles, it was unsettling. And it should be. It isn't natural for every family to be the same size and that size be one-child. Outside of China, families come in all sizes--from zero to twenty kids. I think he's too young to hear the absolute truth of the matter. But he is so perceptive to see that something is really missing here.
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