Czech grannies and Vietnamese grandchildren

Most Vietnamese parents spend the overwhelming majority of their day at work. Childcare therefore moves outside the home – into the kitchens, living rooms and gardens of Czech grannies (Souralová, 2015a). Parenthood plays out in the labour market: the heavy time demands of running one’s own business lead to care being delegated to other people. This is reinforced by social and political norms in Vietnam, where parental leave is set at four to six months. It is customary for retired grandparents to look after the children so that people of working age can contribute to the family’s livelihood. The migration of the first generation, however, limited the possibility of relying on family networks to look after the children (Alber & Drotbohm, 2015). That is why Vietnamese parents turn to Czech grannies and Czech aunties. They are mostly women of retirement age, though that is not a rule. This is also where their two names come from – for some of us they are grannies, if they are older than our parents. For others they are aunties, if they are our parents’ age. In this article I mostly use the word grannies, but I mean both groups.

One of the main reasons for seeking out retired women is the belief that in retirement they have more time to look after children (Souralová, 2015b). Caring for Vietnamese children is a considerable time commitment, and Souralová (2020) describes two main models of childcare. In the first, the child lives with the granny and sees the parents on certain days of the week (at weekends, for example). In the second, the child stays with the granny during the day and returns to the parents in the evening after work. Both models, which are common in the Vietnamese community, make it clear that part of the upbringing rests on the shoulders of grannies and aunties. For the second generation of Vietnamese in Czechia, this part above all means growing into Czech culture. This, too, helped give rise to a generation that celebrates both Tết and Christmas. Although the whole Christmas tradition cannot be credited to grannies alone – other social factors such as school, peers and globalisation in general naturally play a role – for many of us it was the grannies who became our guides to the world of Czech traditions.

By guiding us through the world of Czech traditions, grannies shape key memories for the dual identity that resonates so strongly in young Vietnamese. When I interviewed young Vietnamese adults for my bachelor’s thesis, grannies and aunties were among the people they named most often as having helped them navigate their dual identity through unconditional acceptance (Kotlárová, 2025). A dual identity does not form only between two cultures. It also forms between two families. It is becoming common for young Vietnamese to see themselves as part of their Czech grannies’ and aunties’ families (Souralová, 2020). This relationship does not replace the one with their biological grandparents; instead, they are enriched by belonging to two family systems at once. The bond with non-biological grannies is built through time spent together. Time with grandparents in Vietnam, by contrast, tends to be shorter and more precious (Souralová, 2020).

Czech grannies also play another exceptional role. Thanks to this non-biological bond between Czech grannies and Vietnamese grandchildren, they become an anchor for young Vietnamese in the Czech environment. The memories both share form the basis of what the grandchildren consider “their Czech part”. Their role towards Vietnamese women should not be overlooked either. Many first-generation Vietnamese parents come to Czechia believing they will not stay for good. The goal is not life in Czechia but a return to their home country. For this reason, many members of the first generation see little benefit in learning Czech or building close relationships with members of the majority (Souralová, 2020). Czech grannies who welcome Vietnamese women’s children into their families can become guides to Czech culture for the mothers as well. They do not take the place of these women’s own mothers, but they can become an anchor for them too as they find their way in Czech society – for example when helping with homework, where many tasks rely on knowing Czech realities and customs (especially in the primary-school subjects about nature, society and the homeland).

This relationship is not interesting only on a personal level. It also shows how the very idea of care is changing in Czechia. The usual model of nannies abroad involves women from the majority society, typically with a higher socioeconomic status, who hire migrant women to look after their children (Souralová, 2020). The Czech–Vietnamese model turns this idea completely upside down. Vietnamese women who migrated to Czechia see the core of their role as mothers in providing resources for their children, and so they look for nannies – even despite their potentially lower socioeconomic status (especially in the early stages of migration). The grannies and aunties, on the other hand, are women from the majority who, in retirement, did not have to depend on this income for their livelihood. Their motivation lay rather in the joy of caring for children (Souralová, 2015a).

The experience I share with you is not universal for the entire second generation of Vietnamese in Czechia. Members of the second generation have probably met Czech aunties or grannies, but a non-biological family bond does not always form. In some cases, the main role of these carers is to pass on the Czech language to Vietnamese children rather than to provide long-term care. And a non-biological family bond may not form even when the care lasts for many years. None of this changes the fact that Czech grannies and aunties are an important phenomenon in Czech–Vietnamese relations.

Building such relationships means that today we can eat goulash and phở with the same love – a love that leaves the taste of childhood memories on our tongue. Not because we had to choose between two worlds, but because we have learned to live in both at once.

Pick an answer – you will see at once whether it is right, and why.