I actually don’t know how to explain this situation entirely but somehow it seems that my parents in law do not really trust in my abilities. Okay, I don’t mean my abilities to function as a human being but to be more precise, some of my special skills.

When we moved to our current apartment I did together with my old dad all the renovations such as painting, wallpapers, removing some walls, building a new kitchen etc. I was pretty proud of the work we did. After I had been several times in China I realized that most of the building crews/ renovation crews do a piss poor job. I don’t want to go too much into it because it would deserve an article on its own. So when my parents in law came to visit us they did not believe that normal people can do such renovation work. They explained to me that only professionals in China can do such things and that you need to learn everything first. They even suggested that I had hired some help. Yeah well, maybe I am just too good with such stuff that my work looks too professional, hehe.

Another matter is swimming. In China I have met only elderly people who can actually swim (besides youths from swimming teams). Every other person my age or still in their teens can not swim. I was told that kids learn already in elementary school that swimming is dangerous because only if you swim you can drown…oh dear. I have been swimming nearly all my life, I made it even as far as to represent my country at European Championships. Even though I have all this experience, my mom in law does not trust my abilities in swimming and sports. Whenever I go swimming she is afraid that I will drown because I just ate something an hour before it or that I will suddenly get a cramp, panic and then drown…It seems she knows everything about sports better than me.

It is really weird for me as I think I am still pretty good in it. So this summer I was again at the pool but this time it was not only my mom in law being concerned about my swimming abilities but also the swimming pool staff. I had to do some basic test first before they allowed me into the deeper section of the pool and even after that they did not believe that I had been in a swimming team before… Only after some random Chinese kid challenged me for a short sprint they finally started to believe me. So sad, I have to proof every single thing in China.

Has anybody else similar experiences with Chinese people/ parents in law/ own family or whatsoever?