For the past week, Ms. Pham Thi Thao and her husband have taken turns coming home at noon to cook and check on their two young children. Ms. Thao is currently a worker in Sai Dong Industrial Park (Long Bien, Hanoi); her husband works as a driver for a company also in Sai Dong Industrial Park. From the company to rent a house in lane 293 Ngoc Thuy Street, Ms. Thao and her husband traveled about 4km.
Ms. Thao and her husband are both from Thanh Hoa and have been in Hanoi for 14 years. Currently, they have 2 children, the eldest is in grade 6, the youngest is in preschool.
Ms. Thao said that since they got married and had children, both parents could not support them much because their health was not good and their finances were tight. Just once the old lady gave birth, the grandmother and great-grandmother took turns taking care of each other for 1 month.
"Since my child was 3 months old, my husband and I have been self-sufficient. My husband went to work in the morning and took the older child to school, I stayed at home to take care of the younger child, worried about congee. The husband came back to pick up his child in the afternoon. The only thing we fear most is that every time our child gets sick, we get crazy because there is no one to take care of him," said Ms. Thao.
According to Ms. Thao, her eldest child will have a summer vacation from May 24, and her youngest son will be off preschool from May 26. The children all have a summer vacation until July. During the 2 summer months, the kindergarten will organize extra classes but the cost is much higher than during the school year.
“The teacher announced that the children wishing to go to the summer school, they made an application, the summer money, the meals and the other amounts ... a total of about 2 million VND/month. My husband and I calculated forever. Last year for her to go to school, the old child was on home to play alone. Eat the whole family. Each amount of money incurred up to put down ... ”, Thao said.
Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Minh and his wife are also workers in Sai Dong Industrial Park, with children aged 4 and 6. Since the children had a summer vacation, Mr. Minh and his wife had a headache planning to send their children half a month ago.
"Our circumstances are quite special, the grandparents and grandmothers have both passed away, and both of them are over 70 years old, so there is no such thing as other families taking a summer vacation to send their children back to their grandparents' hometown," Mr. Minh said sadly.
Mr. Minh invited some families in the inn to look for children in the summer holidays. With a group of children who went to elementary school, the family group hired a retired teacher near the inn. In the morning, the family prepared lunch for her children, she accepted 4 children, with a gently teaching pair for her children to forget their homework. In the afternoon, parents will welcome their children. The payment for her is 2,000,000 VND/student/month.
With the young child who is in preschool, Mr. Minh asked a person in the same room to help. “This lady is a grandmother who looks up to her grandchildren for a family and my inn. The baby is good, so she is quite leisurely. I said thanks to her children to help, not having to travel but also had more income. At first she did not agree, but after seeing my children eat well, she agreed. Every week I agreed to send my children from Monday to Friday, remuneration 100,000 VND/day. Son, ”Minh said.
According to Mr. Minh, to take care of their children during the summer, he and his wife spent about VND4,500,000 - a large amount of money for the worker's family.
