USEUROPEAFRICAASIA 中文雙語Fran?ais
    China
    Home / China / Society

    Second thoughts about a second child

    By CHEN MENGWEI in Beijing and LIU XIAOLI in Haikou | China Daily | Updated: 2017-02-02 05:52

    Second thoughts about a second child

    Liu Cuilan and her children. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY

    Despite policy changes, some couples are reluctant to have another baby

    The approach of Spring Festival, the traditional time for family reunions in China, saw many people making travel plans or preparing to go on year-end shopping sprees.

    Liu Cuilan used to do those things, but this year, she preferred to remain at home after giving birth to twin daughters a month ago.

    Liu, a 30-year-old English teacher from Meizhou, a prefecture-level city in the east of Guangdong province, and her husband Luo Yi, a bank teller, also have a 4-year-old son. They decided to have a second child after the government implemented the second-child policy early last year — but they didn't expect twins.

    "You have no idea what you will be experiencing with twin babies until you have them. It is a struggle to feed them, change their diapers and lull them to sleep. I am crazily busy every day," Liu said.

    Even working as hard as possible, Liu still could not cover every need, so she asked her mother-in-law to live with them and lend a helping hand.

    In October, the family — then numbering three people — spent the Golden Week holiday in Shantou, a city in Guangdong, and also visited relatives and friends in the countryside to spend some quality time with them.

    Preparation, exhaustion

    "I am afraid that won't happen again for about three years. There is a huge amount of preparation to do before we go out, and we have to take my mother-in-law with us every time because the babies need special care. Everyone would be exhausted, so the best choice is to stay home," Liu said.

    The arrival of the twins will also mean higher daily expenses during the holiday.

    "Milk powder costs money, and with the whole family living in the city, spending the Spring Festival at home will require more money to cover everyday expenses than if we had headed back to the village in the countryside. We can imagine our lives in three years — it will be very pressurized, and I will need to work even harder to earn more money," Luo said, with a smile.

    "But, we are lucky enough to have three children — this is the greatest thing ever."

    Their bittersweet comments are a luxury that few families in China can afford, because the country is aging fast.

    There are 1.3 billion people in China, and more than 220 million people, about 16 percent of the population, are age 60 and older. That figure set to rise to more than 400 million by 2033, according to the China National Working Commission on Aging. If nothing changes, by 2050, one-third of the country's population will be senior citizens.

    The relaxation of the national policy on family planning in January last year, which effectively allowed every family to have two children, was intended to tackle the long-term problem.

    However, it will take time until the benefits become obvious.

    Second thoughts about a second child

    A recent report, jointly conducted by the All China Women's Federation and Beijing Normal University, found that more than 50 percent of Chinese parents do not want a second child, while a further 25 percent are hesitant about expanding their families.

    Some factors were omitted to make the report more concise, but they also play an important role when parents are considering whether to have a second child, according to Wang Yun, a professor of child development at Beijing Normal University who led the research team.

    They are objective conditions — such as how many houses or apartments a family owns, how many cars they have and whether the children will have rooms to themselves, she added.

    "Obviously, the more you have, the more you are capable of raising a second child," she said.

    However, there are also other, less obvious, concerns, such as how people feel about their financial circumstances. That is far less tangible and measurable, because many people in Beijing, where average incomes are the highest in the country, feel they are not well-off, a feeling derived in part from fierce peer pressure and the excessive portrayal of the wealthy in some sections of the media.

    "This subjective feeling can play an equally important role as objective conditions in families' decisions, if not more so in some instances," Wang said.

    She suggested that the government should provide more public resources, such as easier access to childcare services, education and medical treatments, to make people feel more comfortable with the idea of having a second child.

    "It's not the second baby that traps people at home during the holidays — it's the lack of public services," Wang said.

    Contact the writers at chenmengwei@chinadaily.com.cn and liuxiaoli@chinadaily.com.cn

    Editor's picks
    Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
    License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

    Registration Number: 130349
    FOLLOW US
     
    日韩欧群交P片内射中文| 色情无码WWW视频无码区小黄鸭| 亚洲AV无码成人精品区蜜桃| 中文字字幕在线中文无码| 日韩国产成人无码av毛片 | 亚洲AV无码不卡在线播放| 色综合中文综合网| 精品无码综合一区| 欧洲成人午夜精品无码区久久| 中文字幕无码av激情不卡久久| 中文字幕久久久久人妻| 久久无码AV中文出轨人妻| 人妻丰满熟妇AV无码区乱| 无码人妻丰满熟妇区BBBBXXXX | 毛片无码免费无码播放| 国产综合无码一区二区辣椒| 最近中文字幕完整版资源| 无码AV中文一区二区三区| 亚洲欧美精品一中文字幕| 97碰碰碰人妻视频无码| 久久久久亚洲AV无码网站| 亚洲va无码手机在线电影| 老子午夜精品无码| 天堂Aⅴ无码一区二区三区| 乱人伦中文视频高清视频| 天堂网在线最新版www中文网| 久久精品中文无码资源站| 欧美日本道中文高清| 亚洲中文字幕无码一区| 在线天堂中文WWW官网| 特级小箩利无码毛片| 日韩中文字幕精品免费一区| 亚洲AV无码乱码在线观看牲色 | 久久久久成人精品无码中文字幕| 亚洲中文字幕不卡无码| 亚洲日韩中文无码久久| 久久久中文字幕| 免费无码一区二区三区蜜桃 | 国产亚洲3p无码一区二区| 人妻中文字系列无码专区| 精品欧洲av无码一区二区|