Parents in Hong Kong are the unlucky ones.The unreasonably high living standard makes it virtually impossible for any of us to become a full-time parent. If you are lucky enough, you will have your ass saved by being a tenant of the public housing estates where the rent is cheap and the price is low. But if you aren't one of them, you will have to work your brains out to repay your mortgage with the bank for the teeny tiny flat you have bought, which is so small that you can't even flex your legs when you sleep.
Yours Truly and Yours Truly's wife are the semi-lucky ones. While we aren't tenants of the public housing estates, we aren't flat owners at the moment either, currently renting a flat as our temporary home. But that doesn't mean we don't have to work hard. Milk powder, clothes and food all cost a fortune, and remember, we don't have to spend money on education, piano lessons, soccer class and tutorial, YET.
Yours Truly always blames himself for not being smart enough to be among the top echelons of some international conglomerates. That means Yours Truly's wife can't quit her job to stay home to take care of our Dear Daryl full-time, and that we have to hire a live-in domestic helper to help us out.
Our daily routine looks like this:
- Wake up at 6, and play with Daryl for a short while;
- Leave home at about 7, and watch how Daryl is doing through the IP cameras;
- Go home at about 7 and play with Daryl for a short while;
- Dinner at about 8;
- Play with him for another short while; and
- Daryl goes to bed at about 10.
If you do the math, you can see that there is just a couple of hours (quality or not) we can spend with Daryl every day. No wonder we have found it quite difficult to make him laugh sometimes. Sadly, we have missed so many memorable moments in his rapid development. Very often we have to listen to our domestic helper about the wonderful things that Daryl has done while we are busy at work.Yours Truly's friend, Angry Eyes, says that she is sad that she can't be a full-time mother. Yours Truly feels the same too. But what can we do?
Get a Mark Six ticket, of course!
Otherwise we'd better suck it up and stop sulking.
2 comments:
Maxi,
Yeah. Life's short. That's why my wife and I decided not to flex our legs... and not to raise our little princess with playgroups, piano classes... (and kindergarten?) and simply with mother's full time dedication, and Mark Six, of course.
You're lucky, c.m., for having enough money to allow your wife not to work. We can't. We have lots of mouth to feed, including our very chubby Creamy! You know, she really eats a lot.
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