Perhaps I'm an old-fashioned guy but I do think familial obligations should always come first. Believe the common adage says that blood is thicker than water - which would mean that family ( and certain bosom buddies ) trumps colleagues and acquaintances. Weddings and family christenings come before office dinner parties.
Certainly ailing father in hospital trumps exotic holidays.
Or at least I used to think so.
Kid : Gotta go, doc. Get home and pack for my holiday.
Paul : Wait, isn't your dad in the intensive care unit?
Kid : But the ticket's all paid for!
Paul : Perhaps I didn't impress upon you the severity of your father's condition.
Kid : But I've planned this trip for ages!
Paul : I'm sure he's very sorry that he inconvenienced you with a massive heart attack.
Kid : Oh, I asked and he told me to go ahead on my trip.
Paul : Mumbling past the feeding tubes and intravenous drips around him - through a mind-numbing haze of sedatives and painkillers?
Kid : Yes.
Paul : What filial piety!
I was appalled. And would have gladly backhanded the irresponsible kid ( followed by a two-hour long slideshow presentation on filial piety ) if I were even vaguely related. Fortunately for the sake of public relations, I wasn't.
Sorry, man. I know you're dying but your kid went for a holiday in Spain.
It does make you wonder how kids these days actually think.
Seriously kid, get your priorities straight. How dare you even ask your father on his deathbed that shockingly impertinent question? No one's expecting you to emulate the drastic measures given by the Twenty-four Filial Paragons δΊεεε - by offering to be bitten by mosquitoes or lying on ice to catch carps! All you need to do is forgo the trip and stay a couple of days! Pity the poor father lying there on his hospital bed while his spoilt college kid's begging for a jaunt to the Hebrides.
Even if he was the most dysfunctional parent in the world, he still tried his very best. And you would do well to bloody remember that.
Kids who abandon dying fathers. Kids who insist on an expensive education. Reminds me of my horridly unfilial cousins who sneaked away rather than offering to discharge their late father's medical bills! Oh, the heavens weep for such ungrateful children.
11 comments:
Luckily I'm still normal.
If you did any such thing, I would give you the backhand!
Unfortunately, there are getting more and more such kids in the world nowadays...Gods bless the parents!
I don't hv the best relationship with my dad but i won't do something like that.
I blame this on the erosion of good 'Eastern values' by 'Western influences'! Time to ban TV and the internet.
Being a volunteer for hospice, I have heard more shocking tales. Now I think I should blog about them too!
It is really sad. I had a case of a terminally ill mother and an ignorant son in his twenties. The nurses and I had to tell him straight to his face that his mother is dying and he has to do something about it.
I would go for the trip too if it was just my father.
Mom would be different...
I think filial piety still exists lah and it's not only confined to Asians. True filial piety comes from love not mere obligation :)
the irony. i have a case of the opposite, seeing it was raya season, the child was left alone in the hospital.
not to mention CNY is coming soon...when the general hospitals become dumping ground for the elderly. The elderly gets free accomodation, free nursing and even free medical care while the family go for their week long vacation :)
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