Ayi's and Kids in General

Ayi's are everywhere where there are kids. Our Gymboree class has an adorable 11 month old girl (who is about 1 1/2 inches taller than Sydney) with TWO of her ayis, both of whom live with the family. One to play along with class, the other to take pictures and carry the water and kleenex. And last week, there was a kid in our class who arrived with mom and an ayi, who was carrying the kid. The mom took the kid into class but as soon as class was over, mom immediately handed the kid over to the ayi. Of course, everyone thinks that I'm an ayi too. Since I do work for Sydney, I should just say yes. I wonder if I said yes, whether they would dish on their employers.

I've noticed more girls here than I had expected, considering the one child policy. Our Gymboree class had 7 boys and 3 girls, but our music class today had 2 boys and 4 girls. There are alot of girls at the park too. Someone asked me if I was planning to have another baby and when I said yes, she said that she was very jealous and that I was very lucky to be able to have another one. She doesn't have any kids yet so she's not aware of how much work 2 will be.

People who have live in ayis have the ayis sleeping in the kid's room so that the parents are not disturbed at night. People are shocked to hear that I am a single mom without a live in ayi. They are literally speechless when I tell them that I cook for myself and do my own grocery shopping. I usually have to repeat myself because they are not sure that they heard me correctly. It's really foreign to them. Someone even gave me an employment agency's name and number because she thought for sure it's because I didn't know where to look. My friend Sam doesn't even have an ayi to clean for him and people think he's mentally retarded. For $2/hour for a housekeeper, I tend to agree with their general consensus.

Because of the one child policy and the value placed on boys, there is now what is called the "little emperor" syndrome. Parents feel so blessed to have a son that they coddle their son to a disgusting degree. And the boys are spoiled rotten. I can hardly wait until my Chinese improve so that I can explain the principle of tough love. And the principle of hitting is bad, even if it's hitting an ayi. And that urinating occurs ONLY in a bathroom. And deoderant is our friend. My office downtown in on the 29th floor. You cram in a packed elevator for 29 floors and you'll understand why I keep harping on this deoderant thing.

My ayi REALLY wants to take Sydney to Gymboree. I don't know why. She asked all the time if I want her to take Sydney or if I want her to come with me to hold our backpack. I asked her if she was just curious about it and if so, she could come with us one time to see what it is like. But all she heard was she could take Sydney every week, which led to an awkward and unpleasant correction of understanding.