Remember Newton’s Third Law of Motion-For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction?

Well, kids in China are finding new meaning to Newton’s law. 

It seems that the ramifications of China’s one-child policy are coming home to roost as parents worry about their son’s marriage prospects.  Estimates from 2000 indicate that there are 117 boys in China for every 100 girls and most experts agree that this number is likely to increase dramatically.  The reaction to these startling statistics-parents of children of marriagble age are taking their children’s love life into their own hands.  After all, in China there are three ways to be unfilial

1. -   not produce offspring,                                                                

    2. not listening to your parents

    3. not making enough money to support your aged parents 

Given the cultual pressure to marry, worrying about a child’s prospects is practially national sport in China, but these grim statistics have many parents panicking about their kids ability to find a mate and provde them with grandchildren.

These same parents are taking drastic steps to insure their children’s futures. On a recent Sunday in Beijing, thousands of anxious parents peered at a billboard with instructions geared at helping them find a mate for their kids.  Parents of sons looking for love wore blue ribbons, parents of potential girlfriends wore red ribbons. Singles wore a tag that proclaimed-”I’m looking for you!”

 

Parents then exchanged information about their kids and, I suppose, hoped for the best.  Who knows what their children were doing or thinking when their parents were interviewing their prospective in-laws.

Probably trying to pretend they were lost in the park!

So the next time your kids complain that you are too involved in their lives or that you are embarassing them, remind them that you could be dating for them if the situation were different.  That ought to stop them in their tracks!

Enjoy your weekend,

Deb

This entry was posted on Friday, April 24th, 2009 at 5:14 am and is filed under China, children, community, culture, family, kids, motherhood, motherhood parenting, multiculturalism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.