Misbah Ali

The concept of ‘chicken parenting’ has been glorified by the Chinese parents in the nation who want their children to become ‘super kids’ and succeed in every field.

Reportedly, chicken parenting refers to the ‘crazy style’ of parenting, in which parents get their children injected with ‘chicken blood injections’ which they consider to be the ‘cure-all’ for many health conditions, including infertility, cancer, and baldness.

Hyperactivity is also enhanced through these chicken blood steroids that help kids to perform extensively well in academics as well as in sports.

A New York-based, China-focused news, information, and business services platform, SupChina.com also reported that this trend of ‘Chicken baby’ has become quite popular in the country, especially in cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, where there are many ‘obsessive middle-class Chinese parents’.

This concept of parenting is similar to “helicopter parenting” that exists in the United States, where parents believe that just one school is not enough; good grades are not enough, since everyone else is also performing equally well.

As a result, there is now an overload of expectations from children.

A report from the New York-based Chinese media house disclosed that there has been a significant increase in depression among Chinese teenagers.

The 2019-20 National Mental Health Development reports revealed that 25% of Chinese adolescents suffered from depression and 7.4% had severe depression, according to a media house.

Meanwhile, reports also discovered that China’s childhood myopia rate is among the highest in the world.

China’s National Health Commission found 71% of middle schoolers and 81% of high schoolers are near-sighted.

Reportedly, some observers also view this ‘chicken parenting’ concept as just another example of involution, a term describing intense competition in China, and argue that guardians should protect kids from this relentless competition instead of living their unfulfilled dreams through them.