The Chinese "selfless parents" I meet on the train

After a while the mother took the child to the toilet I guess, and when they came back he couldn't fall asleep and was about to cry. Then.... she went back to stand on the aisle and the father moved to sit down on the floor. AGAIN! The mother soon started sitting on a plastic bag, and started sleeping, was woken up, fell asleep again, was woken up again... Then they switched places, and now it was the father whose sleep was to be disturbed almost twice every 5 minutes. Waking up people when they are about to fall asleep is a form of torture. If you have ever been in a similar situation, you would understand it that it must have been a devastatingly good way to torture someone. Think of the mosquitoes appearing only when you're about to fall asleep... and you get the idea.

Also on our train compartment there were other children sleeping on their parents' laps, but unfortunately for the poor servants next to me, their "king" deserved the best, which meant worse than staying up for his parents. You may like or admire their altruism, but unnecessary selflessness is.... not different from being idiots. Nagging to a child 10 years later, "We did this and that for you but you still don't obey us" won't change anything either and it is meaningless. And the child, is used to getting everything he wants by just sulking or shouting or pretending to cry is highly likely to make them suffer even more.

The mother and father were both very young, maybe the same age as me, in their mid twenties. I felt they were good people, but unnecessarily good to the degree of maybe being too selflessness.

Some people feel disturbed when they see couples being affectionate to each other, but I, on the contrary feel so happy. I don't know why. There were other couples on the train who were sleeping peacefully and comfortably as they were able to rest on each others' shoulders, backs or laps. I saw a woman with one of her legs on the man's lap, the man's head was on her knee, and their child had its upper body on its mother, and lower body on its father. They were all asleep, and I thought "This looks like a family.” Other people were trying to sleep but they felt uncomfortable with their partners' body weight while sitting on such uncomfortable seats, but still didn't give up leaning on or holding each other.

And there were others who chose not to get any sleep... Yes, those who were supposed to be sitting next to me. "At least it's not that common,” I consoled myself.

When the train arrived at my destination, I jumped to touch the father's shoulder and pointed him to my seat, and was happy to see that nobody was boarding the train. I was hopeful that they may decide sit and sleep side-by-side instead of letting their son lie down on a seat meant for 3 people.

The original blog: http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/blog-1348685-20851.html