In mid-June, the rented room of less than 20m2 of Ms. Hoang Thi Lan's family (from Lao Cai, currently working as a worker in Bac Ninh) suddenly became quieter.
The 10-year-old son was brought back to his hometown for summer vacation by his grandparents more than a week ago.
Every night after work, Ms. Lan's first thing is to open her phone to video call her child.
Sometimes the boy was with the children in the village catching ticks. Sometimes he boasted that he had just followed his grandfather to the fields to pick plums. One day, while talking to his mother, the boy interrupted the call because "the friends are waiting to go play football".
Living with my parents for a whole year, I was quiet, but after returning to my hometown for a few days, I forgot my mother," Ms. Lan laughed.
Her family left Lao Cai to work in Bac Ninh for nearly 8 years. Both husband and wife are workers in the industrial park. Livelihood in the city makes her son grow up in rows of rented houses close together.
On normal days, outside of school hours, the boy mainly stays in the room or goes down to the yard to play together for a while and then goes home to watch TV or play on the phone.
Here children have little play space. Parents go to work all the time, so they don't have much time to take their children anywhere," Ms. Lan said.
Every summer, when school ends, the couple send their children back to their maternal hometown in a highland commune in Lao Cai province.
The grandparents' house is located in the middle of green cinnamon hills. No modern playground, no shopping center or cinema. But for the children, it is a whole world.
In the morning, he followed his grandfather to herd buffaloes, at noon he went down to the stream to catch fish, in the afternoon he played football in the field at the beginning of the village, and in the evening he gathered to watch adults play volleyball. After only a few days, the boy quickly integrated into the local children.
According to her grandmother, her grandson always has a small group of friends following him.
He is agile, and likes to think about games, so the children in the neighborhood like him very much. He calls me "brother" everywhere," she laughed.
Mr. Nguyen Van Dung, an office worker in Hanoi, also had a similar feeling when he saw his daughter's change after the summer vacation in Bac Ha.
In the city, she is quite shy. But when she returned to her paternal hometown, she became an active member in all activities of the children in the village.
My parents-in-law recorded a video and sent it to me. Seeing my child standing in the middle of a group of children, commanding the team to play football, I didn't even recognize him," he recounted.
According to Mr. Dung, the thing that surprised him the most was that his son almost completely forgot his phone.
Previously, every weekend in Hanoi, the little girl could spend many hours watching videos or playing online games. But when she returned to her hometown, her phone was only used to call her parents.
One day I called for a video, she said it was very fast. Then she told me to go play here and then ran away," he laughed.
According to many parents, sending their children back to their hometown for summer vacation is a common solution for working families when they do not have the conditions to hire a babysitter or register for long summer courses.
More importantly, it is also an opportunity for children to have a true summer. Many parents admit that their childhood is very different from their childhood before.
Wide yards are replaced by apartments. Kite and fishing sessions are replaced by phone screens. Therefore, every summer, home becomes a place for children to experience things that urban life can hardly bring.
Late at night, after finishing her shift, Ms. Lan received a video sent from her hometown. In the video, her son is leading a group of children running on a dirt road in a highland village.
Looking at her son in the video, Ms. Lan suddenly remembered her own childhood many years ago.
In the city, I rarely smile like that," she said.
Summer is almost two months away from ending. In a place hundreds of kilometers away from his parents, the boy is still enjoying days of playing in the mountains.
