Parenting actual children (and possibly parents too)? No, Gen Z’s here to parent inanimate objects. *heart eyes*
Parents on the internet have been increasing in number, yeah. But, these aren’t your conventional parents—they’re your “adopted a stuffed toy” parents. On a Chinese social media app called Xiaohongshu (think of it as their version of Instagram), there has been an ongoing trend of “adopting” stuffed toys and animals since April 2023.
This phenomenon was first reported on Radii, an independent media platform founded in 2017 and mainly focuses on China’s youth culture.
These “parents” have also been posting the daily activities of their children on the app, as well as going above and beyond by editing ultrasound images and throwing cute birthday parties for them.
According to Radii, this trend of adopting stuffed animals is “both something of an inside joke, as well as a statement about the difficulties of having children in today’s China”. Well fair, because the economy at the moment isn’t the most ideal one to have children in. Unemployment? High. Costs of living? Also high. So yeah.
Oh and ICYDK, China is currently experiencing its first decline in population in 6 decades, with the birth rate dropping to a record low of 6.77 births per 1,000 people. This, apart from many other reasons, is mainly why Chinese Gen Zs and millennials are just choosing to parent stuffed toys.
Why stuffed toys? To be fair, they’re much less expensive than an actual living and breathing human being (this is in no way to offend those that want children). Also, this might just be the typical way of Gen Z’s handling things—through dank humor and possible nihilistic P.O.V.s of the world.
Would you hop on this trend?
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