Project Sekong 2013: You Won’t Find Many Dolls In Lao Homes

Most Lao are subsistence farmers. They grow what they need to live and have little surplus to take to market. The family’s survival depends on successfully harvesting crops and then supplementing that harvest with plant products foraged from the forest. Men build, and fish, and hunt and contribute to survival in many ways but it’s the women in the family who do most of the gardening and the foraging.

To free mothers to work in the fields, both boys and girls within the family are expected to care for younger siblings. I’ve seen children not more than four or five years of age gently rock younger siblings to sleep. I’ve seen older toddlers bathe younger toddlers. I’ve seen a girl who couldn’t weigh forty pounds herself, carry a thirty pound sibling on her back.

It’s no surprise to me that I rarely find dolls in Hmong or Lao homes. A girl or boy here learns to nurture not by practicing on a doll. They learn to nurture by actually caring for the needs of a younger sibling or neighbor while absent parents work in the fields.