I wrote this piece six years ago. Now a news report says a young couple quarreled and almost came to the edge of divorce just because they disagreed in where they should have the Spring Festival Eve's dinner. Can it really be such a serious problem? How can they avoid the dilemma?
The One-Child Couple Has A Problem
The one-child policy has been carried out in China for quite a long time. When these children grow up and get married, they are faced with a problem: Where should they take the Spring Festival Eve’s dinner?
According to the Chinese tradition, all the family members should get together and eat the grand dinner at home, though now many people choose to eat in a restaurant. A one-child couple usually has four parents, or two families to go to, which means the couple will make one family pleased and happy, and the other disappointed and even angry. What should they do so as to make everybody satisfied?
One solution is that the young couple rush to the boy’s parents’ family and eat a little, drink a little and wish the old couple a happy new year first, and then hurry to the girl’s parents’ family to repeat the same procedure, which often makes them exhausted. Besides, where they should go first and how long they should stay in one family can be causes of disagreement or even quarrel.
If the couple and the four in-laws all live in the same city, the perfect solution is that they can choose to eat the dinner in a restaurant. But sometimes the food served in the restaurant during the Spring Festival is of very poor quality and unbelievably expensive, because some good chefs have gone home and all the restaurants are packed with customers and short of hands. People may complain, but in vain. If they leave one, they just can’t find another to eat in.
Some clever young couples choose to do it by turns, that is, one year in one family and the next year in the other. Though this practice seems fair, they still wonder when they can have the dinner in their own home. As for those who don’t care much for the old tradition, they choose to travel during the Spring Festival. Since they are not at home, they have every reason to avoid the problem in the best way.
The old concept of Big Family in China has fallen apart. However, the one-child couples are burdened with heavy responsibilities. They have at least four elderly people to take care of, in addition to their own child. The serious trouble with them is that they just have no idea how to take care of others. The hard reality is that they depend heavily on the four elderly people to take care of themselves and their child now. Will they, or can they, be responsible in any way?
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