China’s millennials, Gen Z ditch work to become ‘full-time children’

The parents of China’s youth are stepping up to make sure their children are living a stable life — all while having their kids wait on them hand and foot.

The hashtags #fulltimedaughter, #fulltimeson and #fulltimechildren are taking root in China with a thread on Douban, similar to Reddit, with 4,000 members on the full-time children’s work communication center thread.

Essentially, adults in their 20s and 30s are moving back home to live with their parents, performing household tasks and taking them shopping, in exchange for free rent and monthly pay.

There are a few reasons why adults are moving back home with their parents, including being burnt out or unemployed — the unemployment rate hit 5.3 percent in July.

Chen Dudu, 27, left her real estate job due to increasing burnout and feeling undervalued to become a full-time daughter, BBC reported.

She essentially lives the life of a retiree and wants to enjoy it, but constantly feels the need to think about what to do next.

She recently started her own business but said if she’d continued down the full-time daughter path she would have been a “parasite.”

Litsky Li is a 21-year-old high school graduate who was exhausted trying to make it as a photographer — so she took up her parents’ offer to become a full-time daughter.

Now, she spends her time grocery shopping for her family and caring for her grandmother, who has dementia, for a salary of $822 each month.

“The reason why I am at home is because I can’t bear the pressure of going to school or work,” she told CNN Business.

“I don’t want to compete intensely with my peers. So I choose to ‘lie flat’ completely.”

She said she doesn’t necessarily need a higher paying job to have a better life.

Another woman who has opted to be a full-time daughter is 31-year-old Zhang Jiayi, who had a clothing company in 2020 but felt the work was outweighing the profitability.

Now, she is paid $1,028 a month to look after her parents, where she says she follows a strict routine.

“I go for morning exercise with my parents after getting up. I do Tai Chi with my mum as she has been learning it,” she told the ABC.

“My parents love traveling, so I make plans for them.

“When they have trouble with digital devices, I would also help them.”