Yeah, but with the one child policy, a lot of married couples have 4 parents to take care of, plus themselves and their 1 child, so 7 people, all on 2 incomes. Caring for parents used to be a son’s responsibility, so a couple used to only have to care for 2 parents. But if a couple only has a daughter as their 1 child then it’s going to fall on that daughter since there isn’t anyone else.
Interesting that you describe this as your parents experience… this describes my childhood experience (as a millennial).
Definitely less common, though there is a band of kids (ages 8 to 12 if I had to guess) in my neighborhood that are always outside running around, riding bikes, throwing a football, unsupervised.
I bet the experience varies - I would bet more rural / lower income places are probably more likely to have the old school mentality compared to wealthy neighborhoods.
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Are you sure we still have those child labor laws? Because Sonia Sotomayor seems to think stricter OSHA regulations would have saved the 100,000 children in serious condition with covid, many on ventilators.
I don’t think that Sotomayor’s comment about stricter OSHA regulations was about child labor so much as parental labor.
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I used to sometimes go to a hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant where the cashier was about 8. It was mostly a takeout place, with a couple of booths. And when i arrived, (a bit early for most people’s supper, do it was empty) I’d see her and her little brother doing homework at one of the booths. And when i entered the shop, she’d jump up and take my order, relay it to the kitchen, ring it up, take my money, give me change, and fetch my food from the kitchen when it was ready.
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I mean yeah I guess there is child labor over here but it’s not like most of them are mining coltan or something.
That assumes the grandmas live close enough to help look after the kids. My sister’s a 1-hour flight/8 hour drive from our mom. I’m a 10+ hour flight from her.
My kid is the only child of 4 grandparents, 2 aunts, 2 uncles, and some others. But we’re the only caretakers, despite the fact we both work.
It’s partially because the family is scattered across the country, and partially because we waited some time to have kids, so the grandparents themselves are well into retirement. If I had knocked up a hs girlfriend, they would have been way more involved.
My parents were minimally involved as primary caretakers to begin with, so no surprise, they’re not involved grandparents, either.
My dad turns 60 in about a month, my mom is in her late fifties. They have so much debt, I doubt they will retire before my kids graduate high school.