A case study on the long term effects of enforcing an one-child policy.

Despite a lot of misinformation and propaganda being spread by the west about China there is one correct thing that most people seem to know: You are only allowed to have one child in China. Or at least, it used to be that way. Now more and more families are having multiple children; they merely have to pay a sum of money for every extra child. Regardless, most families don’t have this kind financial headroom to spare and as such are still effectively under the rule of the one-child policy.

The effects of such are that there are a lot of hugely spoiled children, or little emperors as they are also often referred to. Being the only child they are the sole carrier of their families continuation and receive the full care, attention and financial backing of their parents, their grand parents, their uncles and aunts, etc. They sit on their little thrones balling their little pudgy fists, directing their parents' actions with each fit they throw. The parents on the other hand kneel down to the little emporor’s feet and surrender themselves completely.

It seems that there are different types of complacent parents. Those that know it and almost seem to fear their ruthless dictator or those that still try to discipline their child but have a spine comparable to the grape jelly that the little emperor just demanded. More than once have I seen a parent request their child to do something only to be met with either a complete neglection or, worse, an angry snarl at which, being the servants of the emperor, they do not clock their child in the head like any normal person would do, but instead recoil in fear.

As such you have children completely disregarding their environment, only caring about the needs of themselves. It is not uncommon to see a child using the newest iPad (which in China retails for prices higher than in the west) at full blast, filling the subway/waiting room/public toilet/restaurant/cafe with the annoying beepboops of whatever crappy game they are playing. You might be sitting in a restaurant, when suddenly a child crawls out from underneath your chair, demanding you give it a bite of whatever you were about to put into your facial receptacle, or simply sneezing and rubbing their grimy little tentacles all over your legs.

Regardless, I am curious to see how these little emperors will reign once they grow up.