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0In our traditional culture, parents tend to discipline their children and have demands on them, while children are also independent individuals with their own feelings and needs. Especially in today’s era, when the values and emotional needs of two generations can be vastly different, conflicts seem hard to avoid.
As Mother’s Day is coming, we invite four mothers for today’s podcast, hoping to share their experiences and perspectives on intergenerational communication.
Hosts: 叶维嘉、Amy
Guests: Minnie Lucy 小夏 茉莉花
1:11 Guests self-introduction
Guests are four mothers of college students.
2:08 What did you feel most when becoming a mother for the first time?
Minnie says she felt excited and grateful when she was pregnant, and a deep impression was that she once had a hard time taking tricycle to home with a big belly.
Lucy says the night her daughter was born is unforgettable.
Xiao Xia says she was excited about the baby’s birth but also felt worried about raising a child for the first time.
Meanwhile, Mo says her experience of giving birth was just smooth and everything went well.
5:56 How did you balance your work and life when raising children?
Minnie thinks being a mother is not about making trade-off between work and life, but is being a better-self and set a good example for her kid. Lucy and Mo also say they did not have much difficulty in the work-life balance, and they felt happy and fresh looking after their baby despite the hard work.
However, Xiao Xia says she chose to be a full-time mom in order to ease the family burden and take better care of her kid. She feels that she is growing up with her daughter since she has learned to be a health manager and nutritionist during the process.
10:03 As a mother yourself, is there any difference between your and your mother in the concept and way of raising children?
For Lucy, she believes there isn’t much divergence in the concepts of raising children between she and her mother, the only different thing is that her mother may spoil the children.
For other three moms, they agree that the previous generation cares more about basic necessities of children’s life, while now they pay more attention to cultivating good personalities and practical ability of children, and also giving more emotional support.
13:15 At what point do you feel your kids have grown up? Is there any unforgettable conflict during the child’s growth?
When Minnie’s kid can travel by herself, Minnie felt the kid grow up.
When Lucy sent her daughter to college, she felt her daughter grow up.
When Xiao Xia watched her kid finish her coming-of-age ceremony, she felt her daughter enter adulthood.
When Mo observed new changes every time her daughter came back from campus, she felt the change.
The conflicts mentioned are mainly about future choices and living habits.
19:15 How did you feel when you send your children away to university?
All mothers felt calm and relieved back then because they knew the separation is inevitable. Some of them have chosen to fulfill their own lives by keeping a pet and learning knowledge.
23:20 Do you require your children to make regular phone calls or video calls?
Lucy has required her daughter to make a phone call and video call once a week since high school. Other moms do not have clear requirements and say they will just be there as long as the children need them.
24:14 Do you reach an effective interaction with your children by making regular video calls?
Minnie thinks her communication with children still stays on the greetings of basic life like eating and wearing, and she hopes they can improve the quality by discussing more about children’s study or future career.
Other mothers believe it is enough to maintain the communication and be the strong backing for the children when they are in need.
26:46 How to cope with the less time together with your children?
All speakers are aware of the fact that they children will spend less and less time with them, so they cherish the present and every reunion. Despite the reluctance to let the children go, moms say they will actively accept the fact and adjust their own mind. They will also use the spare time to explore hobbies.
After all, they are still able to stay in contact with their children by making calls, even if they are distant.
31:18 Will you offer any advice of career planning to your children? What do you envision for your future life?
About the career advice for children, moms’ views are much of the same. They want their kids to make decisions by themselves and do the job they like. What mothers can do is to support them.
About future life of their own, moms are also thinking of their children. They will try to keep a good health and not add burden to the kids. Xiao Xia says she would continue to learn traditional Chinese medicine in the next ten years.
本期制作
主持：武佳颖、叶维嘉
文稿整理：马新鑫
审核：旦增卓玛
剪辑：王康妮
排版：李夏煊、旦增卓玛
BGM：
Small World - Thomas Greenberg
Forest Gump Suite-Mike Strickland
