Auntie Wang retires next month. Her son is counting on her to mind the child; she does not dare say no.
Xiaoyu
王阿姨，听说您下个月就退休了？
Wáng āyí, tīngshuō nín xià gè yuè jiù tuìxiū le ?
Auntie Wang, I hear you are retiring next month?
Auntie Wang
是啊，干了三十多年，总算可以歇一歇了。
Shì a, gān le sānshí duō nián, zǒngsuàn kěyǐ xiē yī xiē le.
I am. After thirty-odd years of work, I can finally take a breath.
Xiaoyu
那您打算怎么过？出去旅游，还是在家带孙子？
Nà nín dǎsuàn zěnme guò ? Chūqù lǚyóu, háishi zài jiā dài sūnzi ?
And how do you mean to spend your days? Travelling, or minding your grandson at home?
Auntie Wang
儿子已经跟我说了，让我去带孩子。
Érzi yǐjīng gēn wǒ shuō le, ràng wǒ qù dài háizi.
My son has already spoken to me about it, he wants me to look after the little one.
Zhang laoshi
您愿意吗？我看很多老人退休比上班还累。
Nín yuànyì ma ? Wǒ kàn hěn duō lǎorén tuìxiū bǐ shàngbān hái lèi.
And do you want to? I see a lot of older people more tired in retirement than they were at work.
Auntie Wang
说不愿意是假的。可是刚退下来就又上岗，心里多少有点儿堵。
Shuō bù yuànyì shì jiǎ de. Kěshì gāng tuì xiàlai jiù yòu shàng gǎng, xīnli duōshao yǒudiǎnr dǔ.
It would be false to say I do not want to. But taking up a new post the moment I have left my old one weighs on me a little.
Xiaoyu
您可以跟他们说清楚，一周帮几天。
Nín kěyǐ gēn tāmen shuō qīngchu, yī zhōu bāng jǐ tiān.
You could tell them clearly how many days a week you will help.
Auntie Wang
话是这么说。可真到了那天，孩子一哭，谁忍心？
Huà shì zhème shuō. Kě zhēn dào le nà tiān, háizi yī kū, shéi rěnxīn ?
That is easily said. But when the day comes and the child starts crying, who has the heart to refuse?
Zhang laoshi
这就是中国家庭的难处。养老金够用，时间反而不够。
Zhè jiùshì zhōngguó jiātíng de nánchu. Yǎnglǎojīn gòu yòng, shíjiān fǎn'ér bù gòu.
That is the whole difficulty of Chinese families. The pension is enough, it is the time that runs short.
Auntie Wang
我的养老金不高，省着点儿也过得去。
Wǒ de yǎnglǎojīn bù gāo, shěng zhe diǎnr yě guòdéqù.
My pension is not large, but with care it does.
Xiaoyu
那您自己想做的事呢？您不是一直想学画画吗？
Nà nín zìjǐ xiǎng zuò de shì ne ? Nín bùshì yīzhí xiǎng xué huàhuà ma ?
And what about what you wanted to do? Did you not always want to learn to paint?
Auntie Wang
你还记得。无论多忙，我都想每周留半天给自己。
Nǐ hái jìde. Wúlùn duō máng, wǒ dōu xiǎng měi zhōu liú bàn tiān gěi zìjǐ.
You remember. However busy I am, I want to keep half a day a week for myself.
Zhang laoshi
这半天很重要。不然退休只是换了个地方干活。
Zhè bàn tiān hěn zhòngyào. Bùrán tuìxiū zhǐshì huàn le gè dìfang gànhuó.
That half day matters a great deal. Otherwise retirement is only working somewhere else.
Auntie Wang
说得对。我今天就跟儿子说。
Shuō de duì. Wǒ jīntiān jiù gēn érzi shuō.
You are right. I will speak to my son today.
Literally "the words are indeed said so". The phrase grants the other person that their sentence is right, and announces that reality will not follow. It almost always opens an objection introduced by 可是 or 可. It is the closest equivalent of "that is easily said", and it is one of the surest markers of a grown-up conversation.
说不愿意是假的 is built this way: you quote what you might say, then declare it false. It is a way of half-admitting something, very common when the feeling acknowledged is not quite admissible. You also hear it as 说不想去是假的, "to claim I do not want to go would be a lie".
带孩子 does not mean taking the child somewhere but looking after it day in day out, from morning to night. It is the ordinary verb for the work of Chinese grandparents, and it stands against 养, which names the financial burden. A grandmother 带 without 养; a father 养 without necessarily 带.
