Are our kids as safe in Beijing as we think?
Living in Beijing is like having access to a safe house. I don’t think we’ve felt more comfortable anywhere in the world than Beijing. Indeed, inhaling too much dust or being skittled by a wayward vehicle is probably the biggest worry our kids face. As a result, the freedom you can give small children here is probably a little greater than other places on the planet-but there are limits. Dumping a toddler in a café for 15 minutes while you go shopping is probably not the wisest decision. You can imagine my horror then, when I recently witnessed exactly that.

After some instructions in an unheard language, I saw a foreign woman disappear, leaving her small child on a Starbucks couch, half-way between me and a Chinese woman. I thought the mother had gone to get coffee, but after a ten minute absence, my eyebrows rose increasingly skyward. I asked the waitress why the child’s mother was taking so long to get her coffee, but the waitress simply said “Mama? Mei you mama.” The Chinese woman and I stared at each other, then started asking each other pointless questions that no one could answer, least of all a 2-year old who spoke a language no one could put a dent in. “Hui shuo zhongwen ma?” “Parles-tu français? Speak English? Deutsch? Parlo Italiano?” All pulled blank stares.

This went on for another ten minutes before the mother breezed back into the coffee shop. I turned away in relief but my throat was constricting so tightly around a lump of expletives and parenting opinion, my ears were turning puce. How could this woman abandon her toddler, relying on the possibility that two fairly sane-looking women would take social responsibility for her baby while she nicked off somewhere else?

After several minutes of mute agony, I decided to leave. But not before hissing some calm but very pointed observations to the woman about her parenting skills. She stared at me as though I were some vigilante psycho.

Outside, I stood stunned and shaken by the “oh well” look she had given me. Let’s just hope my comments reminded this woman that no matter how safe Beijing may feel, potential psychos are everywhere.

Tania McCartney