Aging Population Aging Parents

~ FD Senoir and Mama FD in Korea ~

I was thinking about my parents recently. Time really flies when you do not notice. I really did not notice, always not being there. I guess this neglect started when I was enlisted in the army, back then, it was still a 5 1/2 day week and I had Church on Sunday. So I would drag myself home after a tired week in camp, flop myself onto the bed and sleep away the rest of the afternoon. The only quality time I could spend with them is on Saturday nights for dinner and Sunday nights just before I had to report back to camp, which amount to just a few hours in any given week. I think they treasure the little time we have so they would always offer to send me back to camp.

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After army, I went abroad to pursue my degree. I was always bottled down with unfinished assignments, my desire to travel within that foreign country and other odds and ends, so for the 4 years I spent away from Singapore, I only came back once. They did come over for short holidays, a few weeks each time. I guess the total amount of time I was around my parents was about 3 months in the entire 4 years.

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So now that I am back, I was looking for jobs and in several applications, my parents particulars were required. From there I got to know my parents exact age. I was not curious before then, so I never asked, somehow I was convinced my parents were about 50 years old. I'm a little off.

My mom is 59 years old and My dad is 57 years old this year.

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I went to the Ministry of Heath website to check up on some statistics and I got to know that on average, Singaporean men live to be approximately 78 years old at best and Singaporean women live to be approximately 82 years at best. Therefore, on average, I have approximately 2 decades left to spend with my parents. That is not a very long time.

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So I have decided to be a little more filial toward them. Respect their opinions more, give in to them more, take them out more, spend more time with them... that sort of thing. As for their intense desire for me to find a girl and settle down, well, can't do nothing about that for now. Their desire used to be for me to find "someone special", now that desire is downgraded to just find "a girl". Funny lah, the 2 of them.

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They do not know about it but I have vivid memories about what they did for me when I was younger. I will write about it under a new column: For that I am Grateful. It will be a tribute to them. If they do - in some freak accident - stumble onto my blog, they will be surprised by the stuff I remember.