In The Eyes of Parents ...

A young friend lamented that her mother will forever see her as a child. She is in her thirties ... even when she wants to go to the toilet, her mother will remind her to be careful. In exasperation she sighs that if only her mother knew what she went through when she lived in KL for the past sixteen years. Her mother still worries about her and her elder sister still nags at her. Sometimes she just keep her counsel and silence for peace to prevail. She knows they love her but some times, she wishes that they realise that she has grown up and can stand on her own two feet .... it does not help that she is not working full time and still single. Perhaps if she marries, they will leave her alone .. hmmm ... you wish !!  ;-(0) ...

Another young lady in her forties said her mother will not even trust her diagnosis when she was down with something. To her mother, she will always be her child. She is a doctor by profession. She has to take her mother to the hospital so that another doctor colleague can diagnose and treat her ....

How often have I realised that I will always be treated like a younger sibling by my older siblings. Although I can take care of myself very well, make decisions on my own - to them I am and will always be their younger sister to be concerned of. Sometimes it can be suffocating but they mean well. When my mother was alive, she did not trust that I could take care of my children. She was always worried if I fed them right, if I could take care of them when they were sick or the many other things that mothers did. Whenever I was visiting her, she would make sure our clothes were all washed and folded, the boys bathed and fed, prepared all our necessities ... I missed her pampering without actually spoiling us rotten. That was how she treated ALL her children ... so I guess it is not surprising that the cycle returns in the form of the older ones ...

   How true isn't it? The way I treated my sons too goes the same way. I want to make sure that they are okay, comfortable, have nice and reliable friends, get regular meals ... mothers will never stop mothering their children even after they were married and have a family of their own. Thus, they move away not to desert their parents but to make a statement that they can make it on their own with their parents love, thoughts and prayers. Not to defy their parents but to stand on their own two feet and build their own little world ... Thus, they also realise that one day ... life is after all, a cycle.