Children On Leashes Tied To The Walls While Their Parents Work

Young Chinese children tied on a leash in Zhejiang while their parents work.

From XiCi:

Zhejiang Haining kiln workers have no choice but to tie their children by the windows when they go to work

2010 April 20, at a certain brick/tile factory in Dingqiao of Haining in Zhejiang province, many kiln workers’ sons and daughters have been tied to the workshop windows with rope by their parents. The reason the parents have done this is because they do not have time to look after their children yet are afraid of their children running around and getting into an accident. As it is understood, these children are tied to the windows for nearly 10 hours every day.

A child tied to a window with a rope at a brick factory in Zhejiang China.

A little boy sitting on the ground of a brick factory workship in Zhejiang China.

Two little Chinese children tied to windows in Zhejiang. Their parents tie them up so they do not run around and get into accidents.

A mother checks on her son while passing by outside the window the child is tied to.

A little Chinese boy cries, a rope tying him like a leash to a window.

Comments from XiCi:

jiangliangliang914:

In the face of life/reality, this is how tiny we are!!!

工人也是人:

If the parents had means, they too wouldn’t be willing for their children to live like this…

冷雨寒秋:

[I] feel I was very lucky when I was small.

babel_tower:

Just one government official’s BMW would be enough to build a kindergarten/child care.

我行我素001:

This is the choice when there is no choice. What parent would want their child to be like this? Saddening…

cyhpkjy:

Very upset, what can this kind of childhood bring to their lives?

小狗掉进粪坑里:

What does this show us? Our government, what you are seeing is the life many people live. These jobs need people to do them, so why don’t [you, the government] give them some more/better welfare? Even though we are still very far from the welfare of those developed countries, at least we can spend some money on these migrant worker friends. I think everyone would be understanding, after all they are manual laborers. With regards to this society, I can only say this much. Just today I was donating to Yushu [Qinghai Earthquake]. I wonder if it can be given to those friends who are suffering hardships. China’s government officials have already lose the people’s hearts. I hope you guys can act according to your consciences.

*泡泡鱼:

Poor children, it will only be worse in the future! Being born in this country and in this time and in this place is such a tragedy!

It would have been better not to be born at all!

lovefreedom:

We’ve experienced this before when we were small, hehe, and now when we think about it, it wasn’t such a big deal. It is also a very deep memory.

瞳.瞳:

Just seeing this makes me worried…
Children with money, children without money…
Sigh.

tina7759:

So sad, so before having a children one must consider carefully, what can you give the child?

highfeng:

Poor children. I am a father too. Thinking of one’s own children, seeing other people’s children, should lead to one working harder. Otherwise, one day, on the other end of the rope will be one’s own child…

东台如意:

Our children are too blessed. How can we change these children’s conditions? What can I do?

dousuping:

The gap between rich and poor is seriously getting larger and larger! I once saw a video talking about a woman carrying a child on her back shining the shoes of a child from a family with money. These poor babies. Early on, they have tasted the world’s hardships and griefs. I really hope they can be happy one day!

享受孤单:

Can these [people] be considered parents? Usually only animals are tied up this way, so them doing this says what about how they see their children? If they don’t have the time to take care [of the children], then leave them at home [with their extended family] or don’t have children. This is just giving children bad childhoods. Put another way, if these workers were children, and their parents tied them there, what would they think when they grew up and understood? This is outrageous, are children not children [not human]? Are they your pets? Angry.

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Children tied to windows with ropes while their parents work in the brick kiln workshop.

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88 Comments

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  1. This is no worse than putting your kid in a playpen while you work. There are parents who leave their children in cars, at home alone, or in places like Afghanistan give their children opium to eat so they’ll sleep.

  2. Can’t say I disagree with the no child policy for households without a specific income…I hate seeing and just knowing that there are children that have to live is extremely bad conditions. Even if they are loved by their family, to not have food, good health and education just isn’t fair. I promise not to have any children unless I can at least keep them with the basics.

  3. What kind of lease? How thick? Children are quite an investment these day. I would like to have 10mm or more chains, a U-Lock, and a Cable to keep my child secure. I live in an area that quite high in child abductions, but so far a simple bike chain is safe enough for a couple hours. Sometimes I regret not getting a fold-able child. But the cheap ones are heavy and anything of quality can cost half of a car payment, or a third of a rent.

  4. Brother River Crab

    I am quite disgusted by this.

    10′s of hours of perfectly good child labor tied up uselessly along the walls with the cushy mats and chairs.

    Hey kids! you got time to lean you got time to clean!

  5. ironic?

    i dont think that word means what you think it means.

  6. Even though you aren’t one of those kids, any chance we could get you to “off your self” anyway?

    DWR

  7. financially irresponsible? are you kidding me? these people don’t HAVE any money to be irresponsible WITH.
    do you really think these mums are going out shopping after a long hard day at the brick factory to pick up a few more pairs of stiletto shoes for their vast collections?

  8. actually there is the one child policy in China, but then a lot of Westerners criticize it for being inhumane. Imagine if they had a no-child policy for the poor, what would the West say then?

  9. yea…karma doesn’t work that way. If saying wrong things leads to karma punishing people, I’m sure you get the backhand many times.

  10. does it srike you perhaps not all of the workers do this? perhaps some of them do spend a few yuan to leave their kids somewhere where they can be looked after. But then some others are less decent and don’t.

  11. American with brains

    I don’t consider the one child policy inhumane, I consider it a good idea due to the population. India should follow this example…

    On the idea of a no-child policy, that just seems wrong to say “you are poor, you cannot have children”

  12. I read an article recently about a journalist who witnessed the drowning of a baby in bucket moments after its birth, forced abortions can occur at any stage of pregnancy, or even after. I agree that the world is becoming far too overpopulated, but there should be strict limits to how population growth is controlled.

  13. Satire, I’m amused. True perception, I’m not.

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