‘Emotional garbage bins’: Chinese parents who use ‘guilt-inflicting’ mental tricks to induce hard study urged to stop
- After attempts at using praise to motivate children to study hard foundered, parents in China are turning to psychological manipulation and control
- Experts warn approach can have long-term consequences, including the creation of a neurotic child averse to risk-taking
An emerging trend in which Chinese parents “encourage” their children to study hard or be obedient by making them feel guilty may cause youngsters long-term psychological problems, according to experts.
So-called “guilt-inflicting education” and the damage it can cause has led some observers on mainland social media to urge parents not to use their children as “emotional garbage bins”.
In July, a mother from Zhejiang province in eastern China posted a video online in which the father of the house is sitting shirtless, with a cigarette in his mouth, using the method while educating their daughter, according to a report on the We-Media platform.
The mother said the father told the child: “Daddy has only slept four hours in two days and eaten only once a day. When I drive to the factory, I don’t even use the air conditioning there for resting.”
The father then goes on to list a litany of problems and difficulties he has in his daily life and the struggles he has to provide for her in an attempt to make his daughter feel guilty and therefore study harder.
In the video, the visibly distressed girl listens to her father while sitting at a table.