My daughter is a beauty. She is happy, charming, and friendly. She can go to a party where she doesn’t know any of the kids, and half an hour later she has a new friend who adores her.
I am biased, of course, but I notice that people who take more than a quick glance at her can’t help but smile. She just has that effect on people.
I love it when strangers compliment my daughter. And yet, for every two or three who comment on her radiance, her cuteness, her beauty, there’s usually one who says, “They don’t want their girls over there.”
Why would anyone ever say that?
Have you been in a small Chinese village to see how the kids, boys and girls, are welcomed home at the end of the school day? I have.
Do you understand the culture, and how your daughter is no longer a part of your family once she marries? I do, at least as much as a Westerner could.
Have you read the history of the One-Child rule, and the legacy of an agrarian society being uprooted by modernity? I have.
Do you understand that the One-Child rule was instituted largely as a face-saving measure after Western criticism? Most don’t.
I labeled this as “Part I” because I intend to flesh out the answers to these questions in future posts. But for now, let me ask you a question:
Would you want anyone to say of you or your children that they were unwanted?
If one were to look at America through the eyes of the rest of the world, they might think (based on abortion rates, child abuse cases, and popular culture’s portrayal of the modern family) that we don’t want our children.
Don’t ever refer to my daughter as unwanted. No child on this planet has ever been more wanted.
