Children on summer vacation, parents are worried

"Lock up your child" when there is no other choice

From early morning, the rented room of Mr. Le Van Cong (born in 1989) in Yen Xa hamlet, Hung Dong commune (Vinh city) was empty of adults. In the room, only Le Anh D. (11 years old) was attentively watching the phone that his mother had connected to the Internet. He had just finished summer vacation, there were no extra classes yet, and his parents were back at work, so the only way to distract himself was by using the phone.

After summer vacation, Le Anh D. (11 years old) had to stay home alone while his parents went to work. Photo: TQ

Mr. Le Van Cong said that his wife is a worker at Great Longview Company (VSIP Industrial Park), and he is a long-distance driver so he hardly has a day off. He and his wife have two children, the first is 11 years old and the second is nearly 4 years old. After the children's summer vacation, he and his wife have to send the second child to his grandparents' house. Because his grandparents are weak, the couple can only send one child. The first child stays in the rented room and is taken care of by himself while his parents go to work.

"I know that leaving my child home alone is not necessarily safe, but to be honest, I don't have money to hire a babysitter; both sets of grandparents live far away. My husband and I have also warned him about dangerous situations that could happen, but we are still extremely worried. Every time I have a break or lunch break, I call or video call to check on my child," Mr. Cong confided.

The row of rented rooms is deserted after the workers have gone to work, with only two rooms left with children at home "looking after themselves" before their parents return. Photo: TQ

In the next room, there were two children around 4 or 5 years old who were also home alone watching TV. When asked where their parents were, the landlord said that their father was currently working far away, and their mother was a freelancer. When the children were on summer vacation, there was no one to look after them, so every time the mother went out, she had to leave the children in the room to look after each other. Occasionally, the landlady would come by to keep an eye on them.

According to observations, the boarding houses in Yen Xa hamlet are built with small areas and moderate rental prices, aiming at workers and laborers working at factories in VSIP Industrial Park. With limited economic conditions, the workers here only have two options, either sending their children back to their hometowns or letting them look after each other at home. The children mainly entertain themselves by watching TV and using phones, and face many potential dangers, but due to the lack of conditions, the workers here have no other choice.

The two children have to look after each other when their mother has to go out. Photo: TQ

Not only workers but also many workers in other industries have headaches when their children are on summer vacation. Specifically, Ms. Hoang Thi Suong (born in 1957) in Nam Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district said that in recent days, when her grandchildren are on summer vacation, she has had to look after 5 grandchildren by herself. The oldest is only 10 years old, the youngest is 4 years old. Her sons and daughters-in-law are civil servants, some are freelancers, due to work conditions, the children have to go to work early in the morning and leave the grandchildren at home. Sometimes when their health is not good and they have to go to the district hospital for examination, she has to let the grandchildren take care of themselves at home. The older child looks after the younger child until the parents get off work.

Struggling to find a place to leave the children

In a small alley of Dang Thai Mai Street (Vinh City), the family of Ms. Le Thi Ung (born in 1962) is a trusted address that many workers and laborers in the surrounding area choose to send their children every summer.

Ms. Ung shared that both of them are retired and have a daughter-in-law to help, so the family often takes care of 3 to 4 children for workers and laborers in the area. However, when summer comes, people's needs increase. Although she explained that the family can only take care of a maximum of 4 children, because of the difficult conditions, many workers here always find ways to beg to leave their children in time for work. Unable to refuse, she had to take in 2 more children and mobilize family members to take care of them together. However, this number is still too small compared to the actual needs. Many poor working couples have a lot of difficulties in leaving their children in the summer.

Many workers and laborers have a hard time finding a place to leave their children during the summer. Photo: TQ

Struggling to find a place to leave her children, Ms. Vi Thi Xuan - a worker at Bac Vinh Industrial Park shared: “My husband and I came here from Ky Son to work as factory workers and brought our two young children to make it easier to take care of them and create conditions for them to study in the city. The older child is in 2nd grade, and now that it is summer vacation, there is no one to look after them, while the number of nurseries around the industrial park is too small compared to the needs of workers and laborers, so finding a private childcare center is an urgent choice.”

Not only children, but teenagers also make their parents worry because of the excessive use of electronic devices during the summer vacation. To solve that worry, in recent days, many parents have tried to register their children for extracurricular classes such as martial arts, swimming, dancing, drawing, playing musical instruments, etc.

Mr. Duong Van Tien (Cua Nam Ward, Vinh City) said that he has a daughter born in 2016 who is currently studying at Cua Nam 2 Primary School. After the summer vacation, the family found out that the child could attend an MC class with two purposes: first, to prevent the child from abusing the phone and TV during the holidays; second, to help the child develop her talents.

Parents learn about and register their children for MC classes at the Viet Duc Children's Cultural House. Photo: TQ

As for Ms. Le Thi Hien (born in 1987) in Vinh Tan ward, Vinh city, she said that because she did not have the conditions to supervise her child during the summer, she registered her child for drawing classes to be assured that her child would be comfortable psychologically and she would also have the conditions to take care of her 3-year-old child at home.

According to the investigation, during the enrollment period for summer classes from May 10th to now, Viet Duc Children's Cultural House has received nearly 600 registrations from parents for their children to study here. Among them, drawing, MC and dance classes are the most registered.

At the Provincial Labor Culture House, swimming classes, table tennis training, badminton, martial arts... also started to become more active when many children registered to study.

According to the "Union Welfare" program, workers' children who attend classes at the two cultural houses above will receive a 15-20% discount on tuition fees. This is one of the efforts of trade unions at all levels to support the spiritual and material life of workers and laborers in the province.