Tiring for both children and adults!
Of course, each child has its own personality, and some children who have experienced numerous changes have been able to adapt very quickly to their new surroundings each time. But for others it is a very difficult process.
Hsieh Li-hui, who works for a firm of insurance brokers, looked after her brother's daughter for a time. Her niece had changed nannies three or four times before she was three, and in the end when no new nanny could be found she was farmed out to her aunt. But at that time Hsieh Li-hui's own children were still small, and after they came back from school at midday she had to give her niece to her own mother to look after.
As the child's aunt and grandmother are both her close relatives, one might think she should not have had any trouble getting used to being with them. But after being passed from one carer to another ever since she was a baby, Hsieh Li-hui's niece had lost all sense of security. Every morning when her mother delivered her she would cry for a long time, and then after taking all morning to get settled with her aunt, when she was turned over to her grandmother at lunchtime she would cry again. But in the evening when her mother came to fetch her, she would cling to her grandmother and things would end in tears and another struggle.
"We all understood how she felt--she was afraid the person looking after her at the moment would disappear just like those nannies before." Hsieh Li-hui was very distressed by the situation too, but she still finds it incredible that her niece could cry three times a day, an hour each time, for a whole six months. Luckily, in the end a good nanny was found for the girl and she has gradually settled down.
"Changing carers is hard on the child and on the adults too," says Hsieh Li-hui. In her niece's case, each of the adults involved had their own way of bringing up children, and it was hard to take on a child who had been looked after by someone else. But unfortunately adults often overlook this point, and after one or two changes which they think nothing of, the innocent child is pushed into a vicious circle of constantly changing carers.
A stitch in time saves nine
But how will this kind of unsettled early childhood affect a child later in life?
The answer to this question depends on a host of variables, for it is affected by many factors including the child's personality, the number of changes, the child's relationship with the old and new carers, how close the child is to its own parents, and so on.
Fortunately, says Huang Lun-fen, "most children are very practically oriented, and really do 'live only for today.' After all, they know they have to fit in with adults' arrangements in order to survive. With the right planning and good communication, most children will adapt to their new surroundings in the end."
Furthermore, a positive, successful changeover may even bring the child to the understanding that the outside world is not so frightful after all, and make it more relaxed and self-confident. Thus the change can even turn out to be an unexpected benefit.
However, Huang Lun-fen also warns that although most children can find ways to adjust, a minority will still be left with scars which are harder to erase. Some may even have learning difficulties, or difficulties interacting with others, which do not emerge until they are at kindergarten or elementary school, and the causes of which can then only be traced with great difficulty.
Chen Ping is one of these more difficult cases. After being passed around several times between different nannies and day-care centers, six months ago the birth of her little sister meant she had to start again with a new childminder along with her sister. But perhaps because she really didn't hit it off with the new nanny, this time this previously amenable girl became disobedient and would cry, scream, blink continuously, make strange sounds and even put her hands around people's necks to strangle them. Although her mother had the feeling that things were not right, under the pressure of looking after her new-born baby, she would sometimes let her anger get the better of her and smack or scold Chen Ping.
"At that time I really didn't give her enough attention," says Chen Ping's mother, who works for a magazine, looking back with lasting regret. Fortunately, a month later Chen Ping was able to go back to her previous third nanny, and begin attending a church-run kindergarten. After the kindergarten teacher drew Chen Ping's mother's attention to her daughter's problems, she began to take them seriously and spent a great deal of time and effort trying to make amends: "Now whenever Chen Ping wants to talk to me I will always 'drop everything' to listen to her, and I do my best to take her out somewhere every weekend."
Today, although Chen Ping is still rather withdrawn and not very lively, things are distinctly improving. The teacher's encouraging words that "There's still time to put everything right before her character becomes fixed at age six!" echo in Chen Ping's mother's mind every day.
The age of the butterfly?
From the perspective of developmental psychology, Huang Lun-fen notes, a "one-to-one dependency" is the most important emotional experience of a person's early life and is the most important step in children's establishing a sense of trust and security. If this need cannot be met or is met only incompletely, children will not be able to successfully establish normal one-to-many relationships with their peers. Perhaps the appearance nowadays of many "butterfly" children is a warning sign.
Huang Lun-fen explains: "These children are already going to school, and should normally have passed through their 'dependent' phase. But because they lack a sense of security, they still long for adults' care and attention. So each time they find themselves in a new environment they flit back and forth like butterflies, trying hard to ingratiate themselves with all the adults by turns, while ignoring children of their own age. They are unable to develop good peer relationships."
"Butterfly" children at least maintain an appearance of being bright and well-behaved. But those children who bear even deeper wounds from an unsettled early life may be left with an eccentric, coldly distant, unsociable or withdrawn character all their lives. The reasons behind the rapid increase in antisocial behavior by young people are becoming a focus of enquiry in countries around the world, and the experiences of early childhood have been confirmed as having an enormous influence throughout a person's life. "One can never be too careful about child care," Huang Lun-fen reminds us.
Of course, after a child reaches six it grows more independent and its ability to adapt to change also increases. Furthermore, for the vast majority of normal children, their dependency relationship is gradually replaced by peer relationships, and a change of childminders at this point will not create such great difficulties.
But just like adults, "today's children need to get used to saying goodbye to old friends and get used to quickly making new friends, and they must be ready for change at any time," says Huang Lun-fen with deep feeling.
Looking to the future, what kind of era will this generation of unsettled children create 20 years from now? Questions like this spring constantly from the children's anxious eyes and their parents' worries, but seem to have no answer. . . .
[Picture Caption]
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"Just who will look after me?" Faced with a change of carers, little children may feel all at sea.
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At two years old children seem ready to leave their nannies' care, but still too small to go to a proper kindergarten. One of the countless neighborhood daycare centers and creches will bridge the gap.
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In the early morning a working mother hurriedly washes her face and puts a comb through her hair before gathering up her baby and rushing off to the nanny's house. At this moment the swaddled infant's eyes are still tightly shut.
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To tackle the knotty problem of young children's day care, the Taipei City government's Bureau of Social Affairs is actively training professional childminders. This year it expects to train over 700. Pictured here is a nannies' training class laid on by the Hsin Yi Foundation.
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Hiring a Filipina maid to look after one's children can allow them to grow up in the safety of their own home. But the maid's culture, language and length of stay are factors which need careful consideration.
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How will our child be affected by its unsettled early childhood? This question weighs heavily on many parents' minds.