Last week, my mother described the old days to me when she arrived with my dad to America and their life of raising three kids. When they decided to move, my mom was 21 and my dad 26.
My dad took night classes and held a job to support the family. Later at one point, he had two jobs. My mom raised my sister and then when my other sister and I were born, she was working the evenings while taking care of us in the day. My dad would be gone from morning until the evening - which is when my mom left for work. With mom gone, he took over from evening until bedtime.
From the time they came to the US, they didn't have a manual about being parents. Instead, it was whatever they could do to the best of their abilities. There wasn't time to get drinks, go to the movies, surf the web, play games, or hit the gym.
In contemporary society, it appears we take such luxuries and conveniences for granted. Parent or not, we appear to have the time and choice to partake in activities. However, we don't take advantage of this. Instead at most times, we choose activities detrimental to our well-being (mind and body).
Imagine you had commitments so important that it was out of the question to do other things.
My parents had three kids to love and care for each day.
We live in an age where we are given the world with wondrous resources at hand but do not fully utilize them. Because of my parents' hard work, I'm able to pen a blog in my free time, exercise, attend a university, and express my ideas among other things.
And for that, I am grateful.
Niel Patel's Blog by Niel K. Patel is licensed under a
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I think a lot of us first generation kids have parents with a similar story. It really is amazing that they just picked up and left and did so much for us, and while sometimes it can be hard to be thankful when we're fighting with them over our curfews or college majors, in the end we are still thankful. I'm sure your parents would be proud if they read this! Hope all is well--I like the blog =).
ReplyDeleteAimee
Actually I hope my parents never read this, haha. Luckily with us first generation, there's no arranged marriage either!
ReplyDeleteThank you for stopping by. I hope you're having fun with classes. :)
Such a great thought! When you put it in that context, it really drives home how wasteful some of us have become. Time is so precious.
ReplyDeleteThank you Mimi! I think people could really accomplish a lot if they come together to work on a task, especially in the present times.
ReplyDeletehey niel, this is SM & i'm friends with your sisters! great post and blog! i'm eventually going to be doing a health & wellness off-shoot of my blog (think biggest loser for brown folks & i just relaunched at http://www.smilemoonsworld.com) & would love to have you get in on the conversation whenever that goes down.
ReplyDeleteHey friend of thing 1 & thing 2! I'm glad you enjoyed the post. I'm looking forward to the health for Indians. It's a shame how often I hear many complain about their problems when father time catches up with them. :(
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