jingkids

In China, baby-proofing your home doesn’t seem as much a thing as it is in Austria. With my first son, my in-laws laughed over our attempts to put dangerous stuff away and put a lock on lower cupboard doors. Why would you need to put things away if you watch your child closely all the time? There were lots of things I’d consider dangerous they didn’t put out of reach of a baby, and later a toddler. They also thought it was perfectly safe to have our son play on the bed, instead of the floor. The floor, after all, has cold qi. They were used to having a Kang, the heated bed aka common area everyone would sit on during colder times of the year, so putting baby on the bed was the natural thing to do. Their apartment is tiny, and to them, watching my son’s every step closely was what was needed to make sure he was safe, not putting stuff away. And safe he was. It might have caused a meltdown when he couldn’t play with that red pair of scissors he set his eyes on, but otherwise their method worked to keep him safe. It’s a common method in one-child China. If two grandparents are around to watch the child, one can actually do stuff while the other closely follows the child. My parents-in-law had a great routine when my son was at their place. My mother-in-law was the person mainly responsible for watching my son, while my father-in-law was responsible for cooking and cleaning. Once my firstborn turned from a baby into a toddler, he’d request his yeye tell him bedtime stories before his nap after lunch, and ask nainai to clean instead. Otherwise, their routine would stay the same on most days.