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"I only remember they (the children) cried all the time or fell asleep somewhere on the ground before I could wash them for bed."

Her sister, who left her own son to his grandparents' care since he turned 10 months old, tried to persuade Shen to follow suit.

Shen considered it.

She remembers their house was one of the village's most dilapidated, since her husband was the family's only breadwinner.

But the loss of her first sister had lingered.

"I couldn't leave my children behind when they were so young," Shen says.

She waited until her daughter was 11 and her son was 9.

Then, Shen moved to Beijing and became a full-time nanny, starting at 400 yuan a month.

Her experience has paid off.

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