Parents sell their three children

I am at the stage of my life where my wife and I have begun talking about starting a family.  It seems like everybody around us is having a kid or in a couple of instances maybe even two.  Having a kid is an easy decision for most people.  I only know a couple of people who have so far chosen not to have a kid.  Although making the decision to have a kid is easy, the responsibility that comes with that choice is enormous.  It follows that if you are not prepared to take on that responsibility then you probably should not be having a kid.  It seems like relatively simple advice but obviously somebody should have told the young couple in China who sold their three kids in exchange for money to play online games at Internet cafes.

Online and video game addiction is a serious problem in China with the country even offering treatment centers for those seeking rehabilitation.  A couple in China should definitely be visiting those rehab facilities. Li Lin and Li Juan of the Guangdong province of China bonded over their obsession with online video games which I imagine would be the North American equivalent of every male nerd's fantasy of meeting their dream girl online while playing Warcraft. The couple sold all three of their children to pay for their online video game addiction.  Their second child, a baby girl, was sold for less than $500 and then their first and subsequent third children, both baby boys, were sold for about $4600 each. (aside: Remember when you were at a real hard level in the arcade and ran out of quarters?.. when you were 10-years-old you were SOL but when you grow up you can sell your kids to get some money and beat that game.) If there was any doubt that these two are going to hell, the couple seal their fate by admitted that they never intended to raise the children, but “knew that they were a good source of income to feed their addiction.” The crimes were discovered when the couple was turned in by Li Lin's mother.

Random thoughts
- Only in China is a boy worth ten times as much as a girl. 
- This story just seems like one of those made up National Enquirer headlines you see while in a lineup at the grocery store. 
- It also kind of reminds me of the 3-Year-Old in Osaka, Japan who was killed for throwing out their parents' video game system. 
- How the heck did these two even afford to break the one-child rule since I can only imagine how much money they must have spent at internet cafes playing Farmville. 
- I guess that I did not have it too bad after all... you know when you were a kid and you used to complain about having to mow the lawn or shovel the driveway... at least you were not sold.