The most interesting thing I heard in China

I've been meaning to write about this for days.....my guide in Kunming who is a 35 yr old dad of a 3 year old girl told me that in the cities they having a saying these days...."a girl is a bank and a boy is a robber." Under the one child policy, families (with few exceptions) can only have one child but he went on to explain that many families now prefer girls who "will bring them everything" because a boy, he said, takes everything. You definitely get the sense that with 2 parents and 4 grandparents taking care of 1 child, the child often gets quite spoiled. There are definitely plenty little emperors being carried around China well after the age when we'd expect kids here to walk.....and maybe the boys are more indulged then the girls. Well, I don't know how I feel about the analogy...it seems quite silly....children can be taught values and parents have an obligation to not let them think they are the center of the universe....on the other hand, if all one's hopes and dreams are placed upon one single child, I really can understand how this indulgence can happen. As much as I will always try to appreciate China, its history and its people, I'm grateful that I was born in America....a one child policy for me would have left me with a very heavy heart....