A different mindset

Before anyone makes a judgment concerning the Chinese based upon what little I've told you so far about our daughter, let me "make this perfectly clear," as Nixon is reported to have said: they are not monsters. The people who abandon their babies do so out of desperation. Many do so with the hope that their children will have a better life than they would if they kept them. For us in the US, that is absurd; for many of the Chinese, that is life. They need sons to take care them in their old age. Daughters will care for their husbands' parents. They have no Social Security system. They rely on each other.

Also, some of the babies are the products of unwed mothers. Again, there is no WIC to help out. If families won't, the girls are stuck trying to make a way for themselves and the babies. Some of the babies have notes with them--the parents asking someone to care for them. One note that our local guide told us about was particularly wrenching and it came from an unwed mother. Her note was essentially, "Whoever takes care of my baby, in my next life (reincarnation + Buddhism, remember) I will be a pig or a chicken or a goat--whatever you need me to be for you. Just please, take care of my baby."

In contrast, we in the US fight abortionists and carry the "righteous armor" for children, but then we complain when they're loud in public places (especially in some churches, irony of ironies) and ignore them when they're nearby. (I'm including myself here.) In contrast, the Chinese will run over you to get to children. They play with them and talk to them and cuddle them. For pete's sake, we were in a FIVE-STAR HOTEL AND RESTAURANT with these babies and the waiters would stoop to pick up dropped silverware and toys for them and their parents. Try that at most five-star restaurants here.

So I have to wonder who really has the problem.