Boy-Crazy

This morning while walking to school, Jessica and I saw a couple with TWIN baby boys in a double stroller. This was causing quite a sensation, as everyone was stopping to peek at the babies and congratulate the parents. The father was of course BURSTING with joy because of the double auspiciousness of the birth. The babies were sooo chubby and cute. It coincided with this article on MSNBC about kidnappings of male children because of this continued devaluation of female children in China.

http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/04/16/1895654.aspx

In China a daughter traditionally leaves the family to join her husband's family, so sons were preferred because they would stick around, get married and take care of the parents in their dotage. My oldest auntie in China takes care of my grandmother (her mother in law) even though her husband passed away many years ago. This is culturally expected, and of course it works out for us because we have someone who is caring for my mildly infirm grandmother, but sometimes I wonder if she wishes she could take care of her biological mother. Maybe I'll ask her nicely the next time I am in China.