Laws challenged as parasitic children bite into parents' savings
- By Wu Jin
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E-mail China.org.cn, December 14, 2015
The provisions of several regional laws in Jilin, Shandong and Jiangsu provinces have recently stipulated the rights of parents to refuse the financial demands of their grown-up children who keep staying at home despite being old enough to work.
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Laws challenged as parasitic children bite into parents' savings. [File photo] |
However, the legitimacy of the rights protecting the lifetime savings of aging parents is being challenged by a variety of social conditions that lead to the unemployment of their grown-up children.
Regarding the topic of the unemployed younger generation living on parental savings, a Beijing-based public institution employee surnamed Guan, can only sigh over the situation of his own son, who quit his job and has been staying at home despite being more than old enough for independent living.
Seemingly not interested in getting married or seeking a new job, Guan's son has continued asking his parents to pay to maintaining his perceived quality of life.
"His mother and I are almost at retirement age, but we still have to work as hard as young people," Guan complained. "We all believed the pressures on us would have been relieved when our son grew up; we never expected he would rather choose a parasitic life, making me so worried about his future."
The story of Guan's son is not an exception as young Chinese today have been challenged by oversupply of job hunters. Shi, who graduated from an overseas university that cost 1.6 million yuan (US$248,100) over four years, was unable to find a satisfactory job after he returned to Chongqing. To make him an independent man, his parents rented a grocery store for him to operate, but the business can merely break even considering the payments to the landlord.
Shi tends to be greatly embarrassed when talking of his overseas experience. "There is nothing to be proud of, as I cannot even find a decent job when coming back."
In addition to draining off parental incomes because of being unemployed, some young people with jobs and incomes also keep digging into the savings pockets of their parents, especially when they have children, leaving all the expenses of raising the third generation to the grandparents.
On the surface, the family life of Zheng seems to be happy as both her son and daughter-in-law have decent jobs and considerable incomes. However, it was not until the birth of their grandson that Zheng and her husband realized their savings were incessantly trickling away in expenditures on their grandson from diapers to schooling. However, having splurged all their salaries each month, the boy's parents have never offered a single penny insubsidies to the old couple.
"They are the parents who have the primary duties to raise their own child," Zheng said, "So,how does it become our responsibility?"
Mei Zhigang, professor of sociology from Central China Normal University, said, "The requirements for quality employment, housing and cars mean the younger generation live under great social strain."
"Therefore, some of them choose to shun the challenges by clinging to their parents' bosoms, as many of them have grown up being indulged and overprotected," Mei said.
Although complaining their children seem unable to earn their own daily bread, the parents cannot bring themselves to expel them from the family home. Guan said his son, who had been excellent in school, was the pride of the family.
"How could we be so desperate to throw our son out of our home?"he asked.
"We expect our son to be strong and independent someday so that he could behave dutifully towards the family."
Aside from the goodwill displayed by elders such as Guan, worries about being abandoned by their children when the graying generation is bedridden and penniless keep haunting Zheng's mind.
"I don't know whether my son and grandson can understand my sacrifice and I'm afraid that they would abandon us when we have nothing left for them," she said.
According to Mei, parents should start to teach their children to be independent and hardworking at an early age. Besides, the communities, and social volunteers should extend their hands to the parents subject to exploitation by their jobless children and advise them to change their sympathetic mindset.
Moreover, schools and employers should also be responsible for the growth of the young people, making them adaptable and resilient to different social environments.
China has issued a number of laws, such as prescribing visits to parents with a certain frequency, to highlight the traditional social value of filial piety.
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