Kid culture

Most Americans think that it is the law for Chinese families have only have one child. That is not the law, per se, rather it is the most fiscally sound option as, from what I have been told and researched, you are taxed a hefty amount for the first 16 years of your second (and any additional) child's life if you do-- in fact--live in an urban area. As recently as this year, married couple who have only one sibling are allowed to have two children without penalty. Rural Chinese are exempt from this penalty all together.   From the huge displays of protection at every single check out lane I have been in thus far, preventing multiple children is definitely something they take very seriously.

Hudson and some new friends. He was teaching them to play Go Fish before our lunch yesterday.
 These three brothers are from Singapore and
attend foreign fellowship with us. Because they look Chinese, their parents
get asked often about how they afford three children here!

That said, whether you buy into Hillary Clinton's philosophies or not, I will tell you that it takes a village to raise a child [in China] because you need about 20 extra eyes and hands to manage one kid. My philosophy is that it is just too difficult to have more than one kid in urban China. I have noticed Hudson getting more cognizant of those dangers around him and he has become quite helpful doing daily tasks like the grocery shopping or putting clothes on the line to dry. Yet, he is still a big brother who likes to put the smack down WWF-style on his baby brother every 30 minutes or so. Couple the fighting with the other urban pitfalls and I am thinking one child here is enough for anybody.

While I do feel like I am doing a lot of this management Monday through Friday on my own, I have had the awesome gift of our driver, Mr. Song, step in on more than one occasion to block the punch from one boy to the other. As if people are not watching us enough, there is nothing like having the two blondes duke it out at the checkout lane. I was asked last Friday at Metro if the boys were twins (shuangsheng) and again today at the mall.  Nope, I say as I pry them apart. I am just THIS lucky. (Interesting to note, the Chinese are extremely curious. They will ask you anything. A group of strange women asked me how old I was last week.)

But the cool thing about the one child culture is children are really coddled and treated well. There are play places EVERYWHERE here. And yes, the all cost money, but wow! How cool for kids! I took this picture at Golden Harbor on Saturday. This little guy was having such a great time riding these mechanical scooters of sorts. Pure joy.

And you see play toys like these outside and inside all the grocery stores and "strip malls". It is pretty torturous for our kids. Hudson has even started asking by saying, "I know you are going to say no, but could I ..." 

Today I took the kids to a real playdate at the mall with the other women from foreign fellowship. The mall has a ton of places to play and they all cost money. We opted to go to the toys store on the third floor because they have an awesome playscape/playground thing in the back. It was 50RMB (almost $10) per child. I had to wear nylon stockings on my feet because I would have been barefoot. (All the grandpas and dads in the playplace had to wear them too! Hilarious.) Interesting instead of a sandbox, they had dark brown/black rice to play with. It does not build castles, but it also does not stick to your hands and feet. All in all, even if it does cost money, nothing can beat the kids having a safe place to play out of the heat. (It is 3 p.m. and 99 degrees right now. The heat index is 117. Holla!)

Unfortunately, I had to use my first "squatty potty" despite my very best intentions to NEVER do that. Good gracious to I wish I was a boy. No, I did not take a picture of it, but I will sometime just for you crazies that have asked to see one. [You know who you are!] While it appears that some Chinese are starting to opt for diapers, I have seen my share of little bums with children wearing their "split pants". I REALLY wish they all had to wear diapers in the playgrounds because, well, we will just say that the green slide became a no-no sometime around 11 a.m. Ahhhh, the joys of children in China.