In an era where mothers are seen 'chauffeuring' their children according to minute-by-minute schedules in documentaries, dramas, celebrity vlogs, and comedies, the voices of children are often lost amidst adult criticisms and envy. What do children think when they see their parents? The answer may lie in the picture book 'Clock Bath' (Woongjin Junior), the latest work by author Kwong Jeong-min (45), known for portraying the hidden aspects of society from a non-mainstream perspective.
"Get ready in 10 minutes." "Lights out in 3 minutes." "One minute left." One day, a nagging mother turns into a clock. The child, who had wished for the nagging to stop, is both happy and frustrated. For the child, the mother is both a controlling figure and a person they depend on. The child embarks on an adventure to 'Clock Bath,' a place where mothers can be fixed. This is how 'Clock Bath' begins.
Why do mothers control their children? In an interview on the 14th at an office in Deoksugung-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul, Kwong pointed to "anxiety." She said, "When parents feel anxious about their own lives, they try to alleviate that anxiety by controlling their children, who are within their control."
This is also based on personal experience. When her work was not going well, Kwong admitted to managing her child's time in minute-by-minute increments. "At that time, an alarm went off inside me. I thought, 'This is wrong. I should be punished,'" she said. "That's why the mother turning into a clock in the picture book can be seen as a kind of 'curse' or 'punishment' resulting from the child's wish for the nagging to stop."
After working as a broadcasting writer, Kwong debuted as a picture book author in 2016 with 'A Guide to Becoming a Wise Wild Boar' (Borim). The book humorously chronicles the struggle of a wild boar family, driven from their mountain home by reckless development, to find a new home. Including this work, she has published a total of seven picture books. She won the 'Korean Publishing Culture Award' with 'Mom's Compendium' (Woongjin Junior), which studies and records mothers from a baby's perspective, and the 'Korea Picture Book Award' with 'The Vanished Dinner' (Changbi), which depicts a bizarre delivery incident in a downtown apartment.
A characteristic of Kwong's works is that they subvert the relationship between the observer and the observed, such as child and mother, human and animal, to view society from a new perspective. Although they are picture books, they contain elements of satire and social commentary. 'Clock Bath,' though not intentionally, connects with the recent social trend of 'chauffeuring' and '7-year-old or 4-year-old exams' through the theme of a mother controlling her child's time and a child wanting to break free from that constraint.
Kwong said, "I think humanities is an attempt to understand the strange aspects of human beings, and 'Clock Bath' is also about that. It's about the complex relationship between a 'mother' who loves but wants to control, and a 'child' who depends but wants to be free." She added with a smile, "
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