介绍:
Heyang: So basically now we are gonna talk about this new type of insurance product that’s targeting at losses caused by “bear kids” or naughty kids that has been issued by an insurance company in Quanzhou. Should we have such an insurance?
泉州有一家保险公司推出了 "熊孩子" 险种，专门负责赔偿淘气的孩子们造成的损失。我们是否需要为孩子的错误行为投保呢？
Laiming: It’s interesting, because the news story says that the targets are primary school students or middle school students, but I’ll say it will be the parents of primary school students or parents of middle school students. They’ll be the target.
Mark: Yes, they’ll be the target of the insurance sellers, that’s right. First of all, we need to establish that we are talking about the spelling of the word is “b-e-a-r”. The kids are being likened to at the animal--the bear, because they run around like a bull in a china shop. Now I thought about this, to my mind, the insurance company is as close as you can get to a license to print money. Because insurance is the thing that we pay out, hoping that we don’t want to get anything back, because if we do, that means we are in some disasters in our lives. But then I thought, this is mainly if your children run riot, and starts smashing and breaking things, right?
Heyang: I’ve seen that happened before.
Mark: Yes, while in this case, I would say it’s not a matter for insurance companies, it’s a matter for the parent to be a better parent, a more responsible parent, and pay for the damage, and make sure it doesn’t happen again. So I know you say that’s what the insurance is for to pay for the damage, but it should never reach that point.
Laiming: You have to say that this kind of insurance policy does help to reduce the economic cost of parents. Should anything like that happen?
Mark: I don’t think so, because… How much is this insurance?
Heyang: The premium is 20 Yuan per kid.
Mark: For how long?
Laiming/Heyang: For a year?
Mark: That’s quite cheap actually.
Laiming: You can get up to 25000 Yuan in compensation.
Mark: That’s actually quite cheap. But nevertheless, the point remains that it should not get to the point where children are smashing up other people’s stuff. And to answer your question: no, I never broke anything outside the home, I broke plenty of my mom and dad’s stuff.
Laming: That won’t be covered in the insurance policy.
Mark: Vases and windows and goodness know what else got smashed and broken, accidentally I might add, usually, but nothing in shops or other people’s home. That’s because I was not brought up to run around and smash up my parents’ friends’ houses, so I think it comes back to the basic parenting, and if they parent properly, they won’t need insurance.
Laiming: So you are admitting that if a kid is not enough to warrant an insurance policy, then this gotta be something wrong with the parents.
Mark: Yes, not the parents, but the way the parents have brought up their child.
Laiming: You are saying they are not being responsible.
Mark: Yes.
He Yang: Let’s just put it into a perspective. So let’s say if parents actually spend money on insurance like this, wouldn’t this person have extra pressure at least at the back of his or her mind that I’ve spent on this, I’d better make sure…
Laiming: I should encourage my children to be more naughty?
Mark: I think you would gonna say the opposite probably, Heyang. But I mean I would tend to go down the way Laiming is thinking. Having spent 20 yuan, the parents know they are covered for 25000 yuan in damages. So why bother supervising your kids when you are in that shop that sells precious ancient Ming-vases. Why bother, although they probably cost more than 25000 yuan. But it might mean that the parents are less responsible, because they know that any damages their child does is covered. I’m sure it’s better to have no insurance and make sure they know where their children are and what they are doing.
Heyang: More often than not, you see these terrible damages done by kids that you know. It’s rarely that they are running around in a shop and breaking Ming- vases, but it’s more like, you go to your friend’s house…
Laiming: Or your friend takes the kids to your house.
Heyang: Yes. Personal belongings of yourself gets damaged or torn apart. It’s sort of like working against the “Mian Zi”-- face value thing that Chinese people do believe in, to say I want that to be repaired and give me the money. I think there is a bit of a realistic obstacle to actually make this happen.
Laiming: You are speaking from your heart. Have you had any precious item being destroyed by some naughty kids of your relatives?
Heyang: While personal story time, I spent a lot of money on this handbag, and it’s made out of very nice leather, and then there’s this kid that comes to your house with his parents who are good friends of mine, and they leave. I realize that the handbag has got crayon marks on it.
Mark: Yes, that’s a good claim there.
Laiming: Say, if the parents did have insurance policy, would that save you or give you courage to approach them and say demand compensation.
Heyang: I still find it very difficult to actually bring myself to say those words.
Laiming: But in some cases, parents get into argument with victims over should they compensate the victim or not. So having this kind of insurance policy actually helps reduce the tension.
