9 out of 10 parents when they embark on the parenting journey are quite aware of the joys and the struggles that come with it. Of course each one’s journey is different and the hardships not to be compared. But a recent news report from China has got the parenting fraternity surprised and shocked. Welcome to the world of “Professional Parents”.
What Are Professional Parents?
If you thought it is a term describing working parents, you are wrong.
According to a recent and shocking report in the South China Morning Post, Professional parents in China are those who devote extensive time and resources to managing every aspect of children’s education, often taking on roles typically handled by tutors or extracurricular programs due to heightened academic competition and societal pressures.
According to the report, wealthy career-focused Chinese parents are hiring “professional child companions” to manage their children’s education and emotional well-being. These companions, often graduates from prestigious universities, fulfill parental duties such as tutoring, emotional support, and daily care.
Read the full article by Zoey Zhang here.
How Are “Professional Parents” Different From Nannies & Babysitters?
Unlike nannies or tutors, child companions integrate deeply into the child’s life, including tasks like doctor visits and extracurricular activities. The trend is particularly popular among the elite families in China where they are ready to shell a salary of up to Rs. 3.5 lakh a month to these “professional parents”.
These child companions, recruited predominantly from prestigious institutions such as Harvard, Cambridge, Tsinghua, and Peking University, and have advanced degrees, are multilingual, skilled in various sports, and some possess specialized knowledge in child psychology.
And as expected the percentage of “professional moms” are a lot more than “professional dads” since raising a child is still seen as a woman’s job throughout the world.
The internet has been divided since this news has come out with a small percentage citing that this way the children are in better hands, than incompetent baby sitters or ailing grand parents and their learning or development isn’t compromised.
But is that all? What about the emotional bonding that the child will develop with the person? Since most of these recruitments happen through social media pages or word of mouth, there isn’t a lot of government backed screening that parents opt for. How are we okay as parents to expose our children to people we have no idea about?
And what happens when the children form a deeper bond with them, preferring them over their actual parents? What happens to the child’s psychology then?
Will This Happen In India?
Some people are tearing down the rise of “professional parents” in China while some stating that the influence of a companion from a prestigious university to those who can afford it isn’t that bad. How would this “concept” work in a country like ours?
In an emotionally invested country like ours, is parenting now seen as a “burden” to the makers? With new concepts like these on the rise, has the word “parent” lost its revered meaning?
As a society if we were to reduce the overwhelm of the millennial parent, that forces them to come up with such ideas, can’t we also come up with solutions to ease the parents’ burden rather than lift it off their shoulders entirely?
A LinkedIn Workforce Report (2022) estimated that around 56% of Indian women take a break from their careers at some point, with parenthood being a major factor. In a 2002–2003 survey of around 4,500 University of California faculty members by Mason, Angelica Stacy, and Goulden, 38 per cent of women but only 18 percent of men stated that they “regret not having children” or “regret not having more children.” And if we are to study this statistic in a country like India, the gap between the percentages would surely widen.
Earlier on Kidsstoppress we did this piece on how much a mom is “really” earning from an Indian perspective. Read the article below.
Isn’t it high time we helped the parenting fraternity feel less overwhelmed in one of the most rewarding parts of life? Shouldn’t we act now to ease the burnout many parents are facing?
Go ahead, and share your thoughts on this much-needed-to be-discussed topic in the comments below or write to us at [email protected]. Don’t forget to share this with a fellow mom, you care about.
Rati Ramadas Girish
Mansi Zaveri
