On a late June evening, just returning from work to her apartment in Hanoi, Ms. Tran Thi Thu opened her phone to video call her daughter who was on summer vacation with her maternal grandparents in Tuyen Quang.
Unlike other times, at the other end of the line is the image of a little girl standing in the kitchen, holding a long chopstick in her hand stirring food on the pan: "Mom wait for me a moment, I'm cooking rice with grandma".
Ms. Thu paused for a few seconds, because that was something she had never thought her child could do before.
At home, he rarely takes even a glass of water himself. But when he returned to his hometown nearly a month ago, he knew how to help his grandmother cook," she recounted.
Her daughter just finished 6th grade, is the only child in the family, from a young age she has been carefully cared for by her parents.
In the morning, someone wakes me up, clothes are prepared by my mother, school supplies are checked by my father. Even arranging the desk or cleaning the room, sometimes my parents also do it instead.
Ms. Thu shared: "It's not that I want to spoil my children. It's just that life in the city is always rushed. Many times I help my children quickly so they can focus on other things.
But as she grew older, she realized that her daughter depended on her parents more than necessary.
She is afraid to communicate with strangers, is not used to doing housework, especially, whenever she encounters difficulties, she often waits for adults to help.
At the beginning of June, due to busy work, the couple decided to send their child back to her parents' hometown for summer vacation. Initially, the most opposed person was the little girl. Because she was worried that there would be no friends in her hometown, no shopping center, and even less talent classes.
On the first day of returning to her hometown, the little girl kept calling her mother to complain, but after only a week, the calls gradually decreased. Instead, there were new stories, today following her grandmother to the garden to pick vegetables, tomorrow going to the market fair with her grandfather, and at the weekend cycling to a friend's house in the neighborhood to play.
The girl's grandmother said that in the early days she was quite clumsy with everything. "She didn't know how to pick vegetables, didn't know how to wash dishes, and didn't know how to feed chickens," she recounted.
But children learn very quickly, after only a few days, the little girl starts to proactively ask to help her grandparents.
Simple jobs in rural areas become a completely new experience for a child growing up in apartment buildings.
What makes her happiest is that her granddaughter is more open than before, from a little girl who was quiet and reluctant to communicate, she gradually integrated into the group of friends in the neighborhood. Some days she even boldly stood up to organize games for the whole group.
Especially, once, the little girl proactively texted her mother asking if she had eaten rice yet, and another day reminded her mother not to stay up late to work.
I have a feeling that my child is starting to care about others more," Ms. Thu excitedly said.
