Viewers have been paying extra attention to Francis Ng’s (吳鎮宇) and his five-year-old son Feynman Ng on the second season of the mainland Chinese reality show, Dad, Where Are We Going? . Behind Francis’ veil of discipline comes a very caring and sensitive father.
In a recent episode of the show, Feynman injured the corner of his eye while he was trying to climb back onshore after falling off from a boat. In fear that his father would scold him for his recklessness, Feynman was too afraid to go home. When a staff member told Francis that Feynman fell off a boat, Francis angrily said, “I knew this would happen! Let him fall off!”
Francis furiously muttered to himself as he rushed to the scene to pick up his son. When he arrived, Francis did not immediately go up to his son but watched him from the side, saying, “Let’s see his reaction to this incident first. I want him to face these troubles himself so he will remember them.”
Francis finally approached his son and held him in his arms as they walked home. Francis asked, “Why didn’t you go back home when you hurt yourself? Think about it.”
When Francis was tending Feynman’s wound back home, he consistently scolded his son for his carelessness but his eyes were brimming with tears. “Next time when you hurt yourself, you have to let me know, okay?” The father and son made a pinky promise. Francis then embraced Feynman tightly, tears falling from his eyes. Many viewers expressed that they cried with him.
Francis said, “I remembered how when I was younger my mother would also scold me when I get too playful and injure myself. But my mother would be in tears and tell me that, when she cries while hitting me, I should never forget her words of reason.”
After the episode aired, Francis uploaded a follow-up comment on his Weibo, expressing that no matter what happens, it is the parents that will be the most affected when their child gets hurt.
“Many people would probably wonder why I, as a father, would still be so strict on Feynman when he fell in the water and injured himself. There was a part that everyone missed – when I was trying to persuade Feynman to return home for dinner, he suddenly insisted to use someone else’s bathroom, refusing to go back home. That’s why an accident happened! It’s like how children who were given a midnight curfew refuse to listen to their parents and in the end, an accident happened past midnight. As parents, we would definitely be furious, but when something happens to the kids, it is the parents that are hurting the most.”