Day in the Life of a Mom in China π¨π³
About this video
A Shanghai mom of a two-year-old shares a real weekday in her life, from meeting a friend and working on her YouTube channel to grocery shopping, daycare pickup, family dinner, and bedtime. Along the way she shows everyday Shanghai life: the Metro, shared bikes, cafΓ© culture, Xuhui Riverside (West Bund), and an affordable community dining hall.
Video transcript
This is a pretty normal Thursday in my life as a mom in Shanghai, except you might notice there's one person missing from my morning. Don't worry, you will meet her later. Good morning. I'm CY. I lived in Shanghai my whole life. And this is what a pretty normal Thursday looks like for me these days. I normally make myself a coffee first thing in the morning, but not today. I'm saving my coffee quota for later. I'm meeting a friend this morning. I'm meeting one of my best friends this morning. We are both moms,
but somehow neither of us has a kid with us today. It's rush hour right now. Although luckily, the train isn't too crowded today. The subway gets me most of the way there. And for the last bit, I usually just grab a shared bike. And first, breakfast. I haven't eaten yet, because I'm taking this with me to the cafe. Breakfast with my friend. Coffee for both of us. That's the plan. Here we are. We've known each other for years. We used to travel and go hiking together. And now we somehow spend
a lot more time talking about toddlers. And yes, she brought her knitting with her. She's always loved knitting. And recently, she started getting quite serious about turning it into a business. She's been looking into suppliers, working out the costs, and figuring out what it would actually take to open a small yarn shop. And I guess I'm trying to build my own business, too. I'm working on another YouTube video exploring some of the more interesting cafes around Shanghai. Shanghai has a huge cafe scene.
So, I'm looking for places that have something a little different, whether it's the space, the concept, or just a really good neighborhood atmosphere. And of course, no matter what we are working on, somehow the conversation always comes back to the kids. They are both in daycare today. We both get help from grandparents, too, just in different ways. My daughter's grandparents usually help us from Monday to Thursday, while her son's grandparents usually take care of him on the weekends. That's also why my daughter
wasn't home this morning. She was with her grandparents. I feel really lucky to have a friend who's going through such a similar stage of life. We can talk about parenting, taking the kids out together, share our hobbies, and also help each other figure out these new things we are trying to build. Before heading home, I need to pick up a few groceries. I actually don't cook that often, but my daughter will be home later, so I'm getting a few things she likes. My daughter hasn't been very interested in milk lately,
so I've been trying to find different workounds. Let's try this berry yogurt. Hopefully, she will like it. And this is for my daughter. She's obsessed with mushrooms right now. One thing you might notice about grocery shopping here is how much people care about freshness. This section is called daily fresh. These products are stocked for the day and only sold on that day. And yes, you can still buy live fish and seafood in supermarkets like this. Although personally, I still go to a wet market for fish and seafood. The
prices here are a little too high for me. And if you are wondering what's going on above my head, those are online grocery orders. A lot of supermarkets here also deliver straight to your home, often in around 30 minutes. I'm home. And apparently, some of my shopping beat me here. Lunch today is going to be very simple. Basically, instant noodles just with a lot more vegetables and a little meat added in. I made some cold brew tea earlier. So that's lunch. I shop online a lot because delivery is fast and inexpensive. I don't have
a car, so I don't want to carry everything home myself. Let's see what actually arrived. Mostly very exciting adult purchases. Baby wipes, shampoo, lip balm, and thankfully some snacks, coffee, and tea for me. Okay, now I can finally sit down and get some work done. I used to work in corporate, but these days I'm trying to build this YouTube channel into my own business. Making a video takes a lot more time than the actual filming. There's research, writing, editing. Right now, I'm organizing footage for the Shanghai
Cafe video. And this one is really cool. You get this amazing view of the Bund right in front of the cafe. Pretty much everything I'm doing now is completely different from what I used to do in corporate. I'm still learning as I go, but honestly, that's part of what makes it so exciting. I love the creative side of it, and I love learning all these new skills along the way, at the age of 36. This is my mommy bag. I take it pretty much everywhere when I'm out with my daughter because it fits basically everything. Diapers,
wipes, water, some of the nuts I got earlier, snacks, and the berry yogurt from the supermarket. Let's see if she actually likes it. Now I'm going to pick up my daughter from the daycare. Pickup is at 4:00, and I'm a little bit early today. So I'm just waiting outside with the other parents. There she is. If the weather's nice, I usually let her spend a little more time outside after daycare instead of going straight home. I love bringing her for walks by the river because there were no cars here. So she can just run around,
climb the stairs, and of course, look at all the dogs people are walking. When she doesn't want to walk anymore, sometimes I have to turn it into a game. Walking along the edge or chasing each other is apparently much more fun than just walking normally. My husband just finished work and came to join us. And now that we are all together, it's time for dinner. We are having dinner at a community dining hall tonight. It's actually part of a larger community center by the river, with a library, children's
spaces, and lots of other public facilities. This is what we got for the three of us. Chicken, shrimp, two vegetables, soup, and rice. And everything together was Β₯49 RMB, which is about $7. And somehow our community dining hall also comes with this view. We are not going home just yet. After dinner, we usually spend a little more time in the community center. My daughter is fascinated by this chess robot. She's obviously way too young to understand the rules, so daddy is technically the one playing, but she still really
wants to help. Before becoming a mom, I probably won't have paid much attention to places like this. But now, there are the kind of places we use all the time. We're home. My daughter loves doing her bedtime routine with her dad. I usually take care of the morning routine while he does bath time and bedtime with her. While he gets her to sleep, I usually use this time to reset the house a little. And she's finally asleep. We finally get a little time to ourselves. But my day isn't quite over yet. I usually get a little
more work done after my daughter goes to bed when the house is finally quiet. Watching this day back, I actually realized how lucky I am to have this much time and space for myself even after becoming a mom. And honestly, I couldn't do that on my own. My daughter has daycare. Her grandparents help us a lot. And my husband and I share the parenting when we are together. But I think I've also learned to ask for help when I need it and to accept that I don't have to do everything myself. Having
that support gives me the space to be a mom, but also to have my work, my friends, and things that are just for me. Okay, I think I'm done for today. Good night.