The term mabao (媽寶, literally: “mama’s baby”) has been in the news quite often of late. For example, on Wednesday, a 26-year-old man was questioned by police regarding allegations of fraud and money laundering in Tainan.
The man has wealthy parents and lived in a NT$30 million (US$981,804) apartment without a stable job, and according to reports he cried during police questioning and asked to consult his mother.
On the other end of the spectrum, a few weeks ago reports chronicled a woman’s relationship with a mabao who would ask his mother for permission to do anything — including breaking up with her.
These are extreme examples, but there seems to be something seriously wrong with parenting in Taiwan, where parents dote on children so much that they are incapable of making their own decisions and taking responsibility for their actions.
In many Western countries, they would have been kicked out of the house when they turned 18. However, here, they are expected to stay at home until they get married — and even then some live at home with their spouse. Such practices make it even harder for parents to figure out when or how to let go.
Some reports say that this has gone from “helicopter parenting” to the next level: “lawnmower parenting,” where the parents scurry in front of their children, carefully planning their life route and clearing any obstacles.
Such parents will not let their children face their own problems, taking it upon themselves to do things as trivial as making sure that there is air conditioning in their dorm rooms at school — something the adult child could easily request by themselves.
Business Today addressed the issue in a June 20 article, excerpts from which are being shown on screens in the Taipei MRT system. The article called overparenting a “national security issue,” which is not that much of an exaggeration.
The piece focused on college students and cited several more examples, such as a mother who drives her daughter to university every day, a mother who requested that the school change the date of its final exam because it conflicted with a family vacation and a mother who asked a school not to give her son low marks so that he would not get frustrated.
It appears to be the same in the army.
A report in April said that parents call the 1985 military hotline incessantly about issues such as torn clothes, badly fitting shoes and fish allergies.
There are differences between Western and Eastern cultures, but students elsewhere in Asia — including Hong Kong and Macau, but not China — would not consider such behavior normal.
In a poll conducted by the magazine, 56 percent of respondents said that Taiwanese parents are overprotective and almost 50 percent said that students rely on their parents too much when making decisions.
The bottom line is that students are by no means “children” — they are fully grown adults who need to learn to take responsibility.
However, by the time they are grown, it is likely too late to rectify the course. One cannot be overprotective for a long time and then suddenly let go. Parents need to start teaching their children to be responsible at a young age.
It is alarming how many parents do not have any control of their children in public, who seem to have every toy they want, including the latest iPhone, and are running around screaming at the top of their lungs while harassing others and sometimes destroying public property with no consequences.
A good way to start would be to make children clean up their own messes. It truly would be a national security issue if there were no responsible people to keep the nation afloat.
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
In an article published on this page on Tuesday, Kaohsiung-based journalist Julien Oeuillet wrote that “legions of people worldwide would care if a disaster occurred in South Korea or Japan, but the same people would not bat an eyelid if Taiwan disappeared.” That is quite a statement. We are constantly reading about the importance of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), hailed in Taiwan as the nation’s “silicon shield” protecting it from hostile foreign forces such as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and so crucial to the global supply chain for semiconductors that its loss would cost the global economy US$1
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
Sasha B. Chhabra’s column (“Michelle Yeoh should no longer be welcome,” March 26, page 8) lamented an Instagram post by renowned actress Michelle Yeoh (楊紫瓊) about her recent visit to “Taipei, China.” It is Chhabra’s opinion that, in response to parroting Beijing’s propaganda about the status of Taiwan, Yeoh should be banned from entering this nation and her films cut off from funding by government-backed agencies, as well as disqualified from competing in the Golden Horse Awards. She and other celebrities, he wrote, must be made to understand “that there are consequences for their actions if they become political pawns of
RSS