The mother hit her child then took an action that made many people sympathize

On May 25, a woman surnamed Cheng (from Guizhou province, southern China) took her oldest child to school and returned home to lull the younger child to sleep. But despite trying to comfort the baby, the baby woke up and continued to cry loudly. This causes the mother to lose her temper, scold and hit her child.

However, she immediately regretted it and slapped herself. She hit herself as a way to punish herself. “I blamed myself a lot. I will learn to control my emotions and change my parenting style for the better,” the mother confided.

The video recording Cheng’s actions was later posted on social media. But instead of blaming the mother, many Chinese internet users expressed sympathy.

“I feel sorry for mother“,”Only those who have taken care of children can understand how she feels”, “Creating a child is the job of two people, why raising them is a job of one person”, … residents network leave a comment.

Cheng is one of tens of thousands of mothers in China who lack family and social support when looking after their children.

On a parenting forum, a mother also complained that her husband was rarely involved in child care. She shared her daily schedule as follows:

“At 6 am, I was woken up when my baby was lying next to me. At 8 am, I prepared clothes, diapers and 3 meals a day for him, then went to work. At noon, I rushed home to breastfeed my baby. At 6pm, I shower, massage and change clothes for him. At 7pm, I play with him. At 8pm, I can only relax after coaxing him to sleep.”

Data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics in 2019 shows that women aged 25 to 34 spend 1 hour 55 minutes a day taking care of their children, while men only spend 29 minutes.

In 2018, Ms. Guo Ge, lecturer at the Department of Sociology, Beijing University of Science and Technology, conducted research on the lack of social support for parenting and the “shackles” of children. gender stereotypes on women. In it, she emphasized that the old “housewife” mentality causes a lot of problems with child-rearing in China. Guo believes that the Chinese government should provide more comprehensive social support to families who have difficulty in caring for and raising children.