I really like the premise of this one. However, I don't think the author has ever spent a significant amount of time around young children ever. Considering that this story revolves around childcare, this is very very significant.

At the very beginning of the story, we are told that Lee Cheongmyeong looks to be about 3-4 years old. However, he's depicted in the story as being anywhere between 1-6. He can run around on his own and speak in full sentences, but his stomach can't handle meat because he's too young?... more>> That's not how it works. Not only are 3 year olds mostly incoherent when trying to talk, a kid as young as 6-8 months old can handle meat as long as it's pureed or minced enough that they won't choke on it.

MC also doesn't act like someone who's interacting with a real child. MC has no experience with children, but you don't need the experience of a full-time mom to figure out that a kid might need to be taught how to brush their teeth or that they might be messy while eating. Some gaps in knowledge make sense, like how the MC might not think about needing more supplies on hand like body lotion in order to help take care of a child. However, there's a lot of common-sense things that the MC is just clueless about and needs to be taught. The MC also has to be shown how to properly hold a child like how someone would have to learn to hold an infant, but picking up a kid even as young as a toddler doesn't really require a tutorial (he had also already held and carried Cheongmyeong around before this already!!!). Also, learning how to properly hold an infant has to do with supporting them properly so you don't hurt them - as long as the kid can hold up their head on their own, you make sure the kid is comfortable, and you don't do anything s*upid, you don't really need any special methods to hold a child.

The MC's colleague reprimands him for not bathing Lee Cheongmyeong the previous day, and Lee Cheongmyeong is shown to be extremely dirty despite having been bathed recently. But unless they've thrown up on themselves, have been playing in mud, are just really sweaty, etc, it's okay if kids don't have a bath for a day - they don't produce the body oil that someone who's gone through puberty has. They not only don't get the same body odor and oil buildup, the lack of building up oils means their skin can actually dry out and become irritated if it's washed too often. Lee Cheongmyeong had used his powers the previous day, but not only is it not stated that he became dirty because of that, the MC's colleague isn't criticizing the him for not taking that situation into account but rather that children should be bathed every day. And even if Lee Cheongmyeong had needed a bath after using his powers, it would have been obvious and then the issue really would be the MC being s*upidly clueless about not realizing a dirty child needed to be bathed. Whether it's amateur advice about bathing children or the MC being written as an idiot, the point is that the depiction of childcare stuff in the writing is extremely poor.

Like I mentioned before, there are a few details here and there that make sense. The MC refrains from wearing medals on his uniform because he'll be holding Lee Cheongmyeong and doesn't want to hurt him, for example - that's something that a lot of people who haven't taken care of a kid might not think of. But then they have Lee Cheongmyeong, a 3 year old who is at the age where kids constantly run around and may or may not even need a nap during the day, napping all the time and suddenly falling asleep while being held like an infant would (and this isn't noted as being weird or maybe a result of him developing his powers or something, so it's really supposed to be him sleeping all the time because that's just what all young children do according to the author). It's wild how the author oscillates between writing thoughtful and obviously clueless details. All of these specific complaints of mine are only for the first 10 chapters, by the way.

The writing in general is kind of average, but the story has potential and normally should be the kind of story enjoyable enough for someone looking for a new hunter novel or a heartwarming story to read. But I'm waaaay too distracted by the unrealistic childcare stuff to be able to appreciate the story for what it is. At only 10 chapters I have no idea how the quality of the writing is going to hold up over time, but considering the poor writing around the childcare aspect I don't think it will get much better. I'm going to keep reading for a while to find out for sure, but I can already foresee that I'll probably end up dropping this.

If you want a hunter story that actually has a good depiction of children, surprisingly the BL novel The Main Villain Is Stuck To Me Like Chewing Gum is the best I've seen. Childcare isn't the focus, but whether it's scenes focusing on the children or small details and considerations mentioned in passing, that story actually gets it right. <<less

Regarding what the comment above said about childcare experience, this the translator note, information from the original author:

The author based off the children mostly on reality shows like the Return of Superman.

Apparently the author wants to write childcare novel related because how famous these kind of variety shows are back then. However, the author doesn't know many children so the reference are mostly from shows.

On those shows, children speak quite fluently in korean despite being 3-4 years old. Like the Song triplets. (Which I personally think Cheongmyeong is based off,... more>> but it could be another kid from there) There was even a child that spoke fluently in various language (Which I personally think the next child that Hajun will take care of in the future is based on.)

So don't expect the children here be based off on normal children. They are mostly based on unordinary/genius children in reality. Well, it makes kind of sense because they are SS rank. Like that's what makes them special.

As for the meat... It is mostly to prevent choking.

Do Hajun didn't give meat suitable for children to Cheongmyeong so the collegue was concerned about Cheongmyeong choking that's why she suggested buying children food rather than having Hajun prepare food for Cheongmyeong. Being colleague with him for years, she kind of knows how Hajun does.

As for how Hajun handle Cheongmyeong... Everyone handles the children differently. There is no need to follow a textbook. Some parents may not use lotion on children because they feel like there is no need for it, while some does. Hajun isn't even a parent or someone who likes to be around children. And because of his personality, he doesn't know many things. What common sense is for others it may be different for him.

Well, because this is fiction-fantasy it isn't really based on reality. <<less

I like this story quite a bit. The premise is very fun: MC is highly competent but doesn't have combat skills, and his skills (while having kind of absurd effects) only work on children under the age of 10. So he ends up playing parent to a couple high ranking hunters that were somehow turned into (physically) 3-4 year old children. There's also kind of a lot of mysteries to uncover about how and why MC behaves the way he does or about the ability to turn adults into children... more>> somehow, and it's not an all-fluff story as there's a lot of things about hunter society in this universe that are morally bankrupt in creatively awful ways.

We've got past child ab*se, artifacts that turn hunters into vegetables and prevent them from using their skills (theoretically only used on criminal hunters, but at that point just execute them??), a highly exploitative workforce (why does MC work for the government when it's a total disaster? Please explain), and the MC being quite ruthless to basically all adults (he's nice to children, teenagers, and those he's raised). But yes the majority of the story is comforting crying children, watching them behave like superpowered children, and being largely oblivious to the above discomforting aspects.

As the other reviews mentioned, the children don't really behave quite like real children. They act like nebulous "children" rapidly changing behaviors and actions between 3 year olds and about 10 year olds, although depending on how you interpret the bonuses given by hunter powers (physical strength, intelligence, and magic), that might make more sense. They are capricious like children and the sibling dynamic stuff is pretty accurate, so I kind of view it as a positive rather than a negative (I don't actually want to read about the terrible three's where a child learns to say NO!! And won't stop saying it for 3 months). I also think the sections describing internet comment sections are extremely contrived, mostly with only MC being bothered by child exploitation and everyone else is treating them like fully grown idols, or everyone fawning over how hot/cute the main cast is. The issue is mostly that it's clearly being used as a method to further the plot by the author ("everyone" suddenly thinks X! We know this because have a random internet comment thread. Now go fix it!), but that's a small thing for sure.

While the story appears to have no actual plans for romance, both theoretical love interests introduced so far are male, with the same general vibe as "The S classes that I raised" (although significantly less weird). If "characters acting kinda gay because the author thinks it's entertaining" is a trope you dislike, have your warning.

The only translation gripe is that pronouns (he/she) change nearly randomly sometimes, which is really annoying because most characters barely have descriptions or only have descriptions when first introduced, meaning when I meet the boss of the hunter office for the 4th time after not hearing about them for 10 chapters, and they're suddenly male, I have to go back to chapter 2 to confirm their gender and appearance (they're a woman). This isn't an issue for the main cast but nearly every other character switches gender at least once. <<less