青春期無人陪伴，心理發生異常無人引導，遭遇校園霸凌，無法融入當地社會……一邊是持續升溫的低齡留學，另一邊又是小留學生的辛酸故事。你的孩子真的適合低齡留學嗎？

Parachute kids are children sent to a new country to live alone or with a caregiver while their parents remain in their home country, also called parachute children.
“降落傘兒童”（小留學生）指那些被送到另一個國家獨自生活，或者有人照顧起居的孩子，而他們的父母仍留在本國國內，英文中也稱為parachute children。

Parents may place their children with distant relatives or paid caretakers, or simply buy a house for them and have them stay alone.
父母有時把孩子托付給遠親，或者花錢雇人照顧，也可能給孩子買個房子讓他們獨立居住。

這些小留學生的父母經常奔波于本國和孩子所在的國家之間，如同“空中飛人”。所以這一類父母被人戲稱為astronaut parents（宇航員父母）。

As sending young children to the US for school becomes more and more fashionable in China, wealthy parents should think carefully about one question before they rush to follow the fad: Is your child really ready to live in a foreign country and assimilate to a completely unfamiliar culture without proper supervision and hands-on guidance?
在中國，把低齡的孩子送去美國讀書越來越流行，富有的家長們在跟風之前應該仔細思考一個問題：你的孩子真的準備好了在沒有適當監督和親自指導的情況下，在國外生活，適應完全不熟悉的文化了嗎？

（中國日報網英語點津 yaning）