I live in Beijing, China. My son was born four months ago and I am raising a child in Beijing. In the process, you may see this child-rearing, but there are many surprises. Here, I would like to talk about the child-rearing situation that our couple have been surprised at.
How many clothing you put on babies?
Central heating makes the room so hot!!
In winter in Beijing, China, the temperature drops to about 10 degrees below freezing. Air conditioners and electric heaters are used nowadays, but in socialist countries there is no such thing as a Japanese stove because you cannot say that you buy fuel and use heating. In winter, central heating will be on from November 15th to March 15th. Central heating does not cost money.
However, while this central heating can heat the inside of the room efficiently, the temperature of the room rises anyway. It’s cold enough to wear a down jacket if you step outside, but it’s warm enough to wear a T-shirt once you step inside the building.
Stores use heaters
Under such circumstances, the store is separately heated by air conditioners. I’m not sure how well central heating works in stores, but it gets hot inside the building anyway. First of all, the down jacket is so hot that I can’t wear it.
Babies have the same number of sweat glands as adults, so it’s hot in the first place. My son seems to be quite hot, for example, at night, no matter how hot I think, I can’t sleep in a T-shirt in winter, but my son’s short sleeves are enough.
Therefore, when I go to a store such as a supermarket, my son wears extremely light clothes. When I go out, I wear a long-sleeved romper on top of my short-sleeved clothes, and I wear a jacket over it, so I can surely take off my jacket indoors, and in some cases I may also take off my rompers.
”Your baby is crying because it’s cold!”
When I walked with my son in a short-sleeved or long-sleeved romper in a sling, and by any chance my son was hungry and started crying, the people around me said, “The baby is cold and crying!” I’m wearing light clothes! ” The other day, while her husband was going to the bathroom at the supermarket, I was waiting with her son, and in just a few minutes, about 6 people called me.
Given the clothes his son usually wears, he can’t be cold and crying, even if he’s hot and crying. However, people around me say, “It must be absolutely cold,” and I even feel like I’m being seen as a mother who seems to be bullying a child. It’s very unpleasant to be called out like that, especially when my son is hungry and crying.
How many clothing baby wears in China?
However, when I look at the baby here, I’m in a daruma doll state, wondering how many clothes I’m wearing. The other day, I saw a baby about the same age as my son, but the surface area was so large that I wondered how many clothes he was wearing and how many socks he was wearing.
Therefore, it may be unavoidable that my son is wearing light clothes and people around me say, “Don’t wear such light clothes!” However, just because a baby is crying, it makes me think that it is rude to make a definite statement to parents that they are “absolutely crying.” It can’t be helped because common sense is different …
Butt is visible!! Qing Dynasty clothing
Butt is visible!!
Recently, it has become a hot topic in Japan, so some people may know it. This children’s clothing has open legs and the diaper is exposed. If the diaper is bare, I’m still wondering if it’s easy to change diapers, but children who don’t wear diapers, that is, who don’t wear anything underneath, also wear this outfit.
There are rumors that potty training is easy, but I personally feel that when a child wants to go to the bathroom, he or she can get some extra work on the spot. In fact, I’ve seen parents on the roadside holding the knees of a child in this outfit and doing some work on the spot.
My family didn’t appreciate it
When I talked about this outfit because my friend asked me, “What surprised me when I lived in Beijing?” She was surprised, “Well, isn’t this outfit universal?” It was. It is said that this clothing, which even Chinese people do not know, has been handed down from the Qing dynasty.
I knew about this outfit before her son was born, so I was jokingly talking to her husband about trying on it once she was born. After that, I got this outfit from a friend of mine for her baby gift, so when I put on this outfit with her diaper on and took a picture and sent it to my Japanese family, she was very unpopular.
Aren’t they cold?
Sure, seeing your butt is a hygienic problem, and the other day, when I saw a kid with bare butt wearing this outfit playing in the sandbox, he didn’t get sick. I was wondering. But at the same time, I wonder if this outfit isn’t cold.
In September and October, when the temperature dropped sharply, I had seen a father in a down jacket hugging a child in this outfit. The child certainly wears a jacket, but because he wears this kind of trousers, his butt is bare. Before I point out that it’s cold for a child to have a child with a bare butt, even though the parent is wearing a down jacket, I think I should do something about that butt.
Nanny system
Woman wouldn’t get up after a month from child birth
Even in Japan, it is said that postpartum women should live a life of sleeping and waking up for a month, but that in China far exceeds that in Japan. Chinese women do not get up from bed because they have to rest during the puerperium. I’ve heard that when you feed your baby without taking a shower, someone takes the baby to your mom and she just feeds her.
If so, who will take care of it in the meantime? Husbands also cooperate, but basically the baby’s grandmother does it. Therefore, in China, we often see grandmothers holding babies. Even if it is a combination of baby and baby’s father and mother, grandmother, the person in charge of the baby is grandmother.
Rich people hire nannies
In addition, it is common to hire a nanny in a house where you can afford it. A nanny is said to do all the housework, so can you say that she is like a maid? It costs 5,000 yuan (about 83,000 yen) a month. We are sometimes asked by people around us, “Are you hiring a nanny?” Unfortunately, we don’t have much money to spare, and I think parents are responsible for raising children.
I’ve seen people in the nursing room of a hospital who think “Is it a nanny?” A mother sat on the sofa, and her nanny stood in front of her. Her nanny put the baby on her lap and adjusted her position to facilitate breastfeeding, and she was breastfeeding her baby. After breastfeeding, she picked up her baby, burped her, then turned her around and put it on her lap again. When the mother breastfeeded again, her nanny picked up her baby and burped it again, holding her baby and leaving her breastfeeding room. The remaining mom dressed her up and left the nursing room.
Mothers don’t do anything?
I was still a very small baby, so I think it was the 10th day after birth. This means that neither the baby nor the mother is accustomed to breastfeeding, and I think it generally takes time, but it was really quick because the nanny was doing everything.
In Japan, Her Majesty the Empress Michiko set out a guideline to raise children without using a nanny, and in the world, the late Princess Diana of England raised her own children and overwhelmed the world. Therefore, I think that it is common in the world to raise children by themselves. However, there is still a way in China to hire nannies for the wealthier.
Introduce the way you can appreciate
Thinking in this way, we can see that child-rearing in China is completely different from child-rearing, which is commonplace for us Japanese. Different clothes are worn, and different numbers are used. My son can’t wear clothes with bare hips, and when he goes out, he says, “Please dress your baby more,” which makes me angry.
But I don’t mean to have my son in the heat wear the same heavy clothes as a Chinese baby just because he gets angry. As long as you live in China, it is inevitable that people around you will say this and that. That’s why I think it’s important to have your own way and protect your son.
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