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Sign up with Google Sign up with FacebookQ: Are there no laws in China concerning leaving young kids alone at home?
In Canada, there are laws whereby kids under 11 years of age (yes 11!) cannot be left alone at home but here in China, many parents leave their young kids alone at home and go to work. Everyday, I see these young kids (maybe 5 years old) walking alone to school and they also return home for lunch by themselves. What are the laws in your country concerning caring for kids at home? Is this practice just normal and irresponsible here and what are your experiences?
11 years 42 weeks ago in Family & Kids - China
Probably not. I seen about a 3 yr old wearing a puffy jacket and gloves on the back of a scooter with their granny or whatever just trying to hold her but realistically the kid was just balancing. It was terrible.
The short answer: Yes.
The slightly long-winded answer: China doesn't have the infrastructure to support all of the children that would be removed from their homes by enforcing such laws.
On top of that, if they forced one parent to work less or stay at home 24/7 to care for the child, then it would be a fairly big blow to the general economy to have so many people removed from the general workforce.
And to further add to the issue, women who stay at home to watch over children are statistically more likely to try for additional babies. That, of course, would be a severe blow to the one child policy.
And ultimately, Chinese culture centers more around the welfare of the individual, rather than the welfare of the populace.
China's attitude towards the value of life is best summed up in the words of Doritos marketing executives, "Munch all you want, we will make more."
Manzei!:
Do you have some reference for this John as I can find nothing on line that indicates there is such a law?
Xpat.John:
It is covered under the "The Law on Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency (Prevention Law)" that passed in 1999. You can get more details on it here: http://www.loc.gov/law/help/child-rights/china.php It is about 1/3 the way down the page. It is kind of vague here, but if you read the Chinese version of the law (which I can't seem to find online) it goes into more detail.