Babysitting

Jerry Chan's Baby Blog -- Chapter 6

It’s been almost two weeks since our daughter Marianne was born. Thanks to our yuesao (maternity maid, 月嫂), things at home have settled into a steady routine of feedings, diaper changes, baths and intermittent intervals of sleep. Having someone on hand 24/7 has definitely been a huge help – it’s hard to imagine how even more ragged we’d feel if we hadn’t arranged for someone with experience to assist us at this crucial time.

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I have recently returned from the UK, where I spent an amazing fortnight in the company of my charming nephew Buddy and niece Rosie (equally as cute).

It was a fantastic experience and that instilled in my mind two very important realizations. First, I am too young to have kids of my own. Second, and on a more serious note, it resurrected from the dark recesses of my mind a fact I once learned when I studied psychology: Women have a cognitive ability that men just do not have.

Women are adept at performing two tasks at the same time, whilst men, unfortunately, can only be trusted to do one thing. OK, cue all obvious jokes about men’s probable inability to do one thing well. The reason, I learned, is because during the millennia that helped shape our mental processes, women would be required to simultaneously work and supervise children, meaning they needed to develop this skill.

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