To Have or Not to Have a Second Child
From the point of view of an only child, a sibling is a playmate and companion for life. However, in netizen Lao Mao’s view, it amounts to much more than that. “The relationship among brothers and sisters is one of mutual support and help. If one of them should need help, the other will give it without hesitation. This knowledge greatly alleviates life pressure,” he said.
Since the first generation of only children reached the age of marriage and childbearing, a growing number of “4-2-1” (four grandparents, one young couple, and one child) family units have sprung up. Inevitably there are also many empty-nest families, where children have either left home or the only child has died. The 2010 China Health Statistical Yearbook released by the Ministry of Health shows an annual death rate of at least 40 per 100,000 people in the 15 to 30 age range. In other words, 76,000 families in China each year lose their only child – more than one million people in total.
The new policy will encourage the “4-2-2” rather than “4-2-1” family unit. This will expand family manpower resources and hence the capacity to take care of aging parents in the future.
Higher Costs
Chen Wenwen and Zhang Kai, born in 1985, are both single children. They married two years ago.
With a yearly income totaling RMB 160,000, before marrying Chen and Zhang planned to have two children if their economic situation allowed. Less than a year after their wedding, however, their massive mortgage forced them to give up the idea of a second child.
“Living in a big city entails considerable cost and high work stress. People like us who are single-offspring must also take responsibility for our parents’ old age,” Zhang Kai said. “It would of course be better to have two children rather than one. But economic reality has forced us to compromise.”
Wang Xinyu, 33, has a three-year-old son. The relaxation of the one-child policy has made no difference to her outlook on family life. “Whether or not I’m eligible, I do not intend to have another child,” Wang said.
Economic pressure is a main reason in China today why people choose not to fulfill their dream of having a second child. Although giving birth is not in itself costly, raising a child is. To most people, the decision to have another child is not a matter of willingness but of economic capacity. The rising cost of living generally has made Wang decide not to have more than one child.
Wang and her husband each earn around RMB 5,000 a month. Out of this, RMB 2,000 pays the mortgage and RMB 1500 is earmarked for milk formula and diapers for their six-month-old baby. A further RMB 500 or so goes on toys and clothes. Once the child enters kindergarten, they need to pay out a further RMB 700 per month. There is simply no money left for another baby. Many young parents shoulder such heavy economic burdens.
“It is not easy for the average family to support four seniors and one child. How can we guarantee another child a decent life?” Wang also worries about her child’s future. “In addition to money problems, we will have to deal with the doubled pressures of children’s school enrolment, employment and even marriage if we have two,” she said.
Another point to consider is that most of today’s young parents are from one-child families. As they were raised alone they tend to be self-centered. But after a week of hard work, they must spend weekends playing with their children and taking them to and from tutorial classes. They thus have little time for themselves. A second birth would mean devoting all their time to work and child rearing. Many young couples, therefore, are in two minds about having another child.
Two or One?
Deciding whether or not to have a second child, or whether or not two children are better than one is not easy. Many couples are giving deep consideration to this question. One point of view is expressed in the humorously modified lyrics of an old song by Chinese actor of Wang Zhiwen, that: “to have a second child is not an easy thing, and demands much courage.”
Li Ya works in a large automobile trading company. She has a six-year-old daughter. Because both Li and her husband are busy at work, her daughter’s grandparents pick her up from school each day. On coming home, she either plays on the computer or watches TV. “We want her to have a companion,” Li said.
