Teen runs away from home after parents say placing 4th in class is not good enough
A 14-year-old teen in China ran away from home after his parents criticised him for living up to their expectations for his exams.
On Feb 11, the unidentified teen was found by the police, crying alone on a highway in the southwest of Yunnan province, reported South China Morning Post.
The teen told police officers that he scored more than 630 out of 700 points in his school’s midterm test, ranking fourth in his class and 20th in his grade.
However, his parents were not satisfied with his results, said the article.
“I had such a good score, but I was still blamed when I got home,” the teen told the police in Mandarin.
The officers then contacted his parents and lectured them. A video, which shows the parents being reprimanded by the officers, have been uploaded on Chinese social media platform Weibo.
“Beating and scolding children doesn’t solve problems,” said one of the police officers.
“He is at an age when teenage rebellion is a big issue. If you don’t treat him fairly now, he might develop bigger problems in the future. You should communicate with him patiently, ditch your stereotypes and become his friends.”
Some online users criticised the parents for being too harsh on their son.
One of them said: “I want to ask what scores they attained when they were in secondary school.”
The parents’ obsession with achieving the best grades has echoes of the jiwa, or “chicken blood parents” phenomenon, that is gaining popularity in China. Such parents pressure their kids aggressively to ensure their competitiveness in the fierce battle with their peers to get into an elite university.
In February, a Chinese father was sentenced to 12 years in jail, after he accidentally stabbed his 13-year-old son to death for achieving low scores at school.
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