Bringing up a child is no child's play
Updated: 2007-12-17 10:04
Imported milk powder: 500 yuan a month, diapers: 300 yuan, albums made by professional studios for a child's birthday: 1,600 yuan. The list can go on. Young parents in cities and towns need all this and more to bring up a child.
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A teacher in a Shanghai prep school teaches children to read a picture. According to the latest census, China has about 70 million under-three children. About 11 million those live in urban areas and a large number of them are likely to be admitted to prep schools to learn to get along with other kids and pick up basic knowledge. [China Daily] |
"You've just cost me 3 yuan more, my child," says a mother in Shanghai every time she changes her 1-year-old son's diapers. Liu Hong, mother of a 2-year-old boy, spent more than 5,000 yuan to attend classes on how to be a better parent. "I'm ready to spend as much as possible to give him a better life," she says.
It's parents like Liu that prompted Xu Zhening, of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, to conduct a study on under-three children's education. She found 68 percent of the young parents had sent their children to preparatory schools. The toddlers spend most of their time in such schools, playing with experts and other children because that "helps develop their language, mathematical and other aptitudes and improve their motor skill".
Zhu Lina, manager of an English prep school center says there's strong competition in this field. "Many English schools for adults have branches for children, too. It's not important for a toddler child to pick up what we call educational skills here. What's important is that it learns to get along with other children, enjoys the learning process and becomes interested in the language."
An average Shanghai family spends 8.3 percent of its monthly income on early development programs for their children. "The less affluent spend more - up to 28 percent of the family income - on such programs," Xu says. Although all parents agree health, personality and morality are more important, they spend most of their money and time to develop their offspring's intellect, including artistic skills such as drawing, music and calligraphy.
Gymboree is a US-based institute that has set up more than 90 prep schools in Shanghai in the past five years. It's general manager Nick Shiah says: "Our survey found 13 percent of Shanghai's parents with under-five children had attended our classes or approached us for consultation. We let children access a lot of things and help them develop balance in various fields."
Gymboree classes can cost 8,000-10,000 yuan a year, but that doesn't deter many parents. "Usually mothers are more involved in the early-stage learning of a child," Shiah says. Some fathers even argue "there were no such learning programs when we were kids, but we still are healthy and smart?" Once an angry man snatched his wife's purse and left the Gymboree office just when she was about to sign a contract.
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