There is TV series titled “Early Edition” played few years ago. The main character’s name is Gary Hobson. In short, Gary received morning tomorrow newspaper everyday. It brought into Gary’s door by a cat. Gary’s life was upside down when he got that paper. Somehow, he felt that he should do something, for instance trying to fix wrong things or prevent some bad things happened so that it won’t appear in tomorrow’s newspaper.
In this morning Early Edition episode that I watched, Gary’s parents are visiting him. He lives in Chicago whereas his parents lives in quite a distance. His parents shock him by saying that they want to stay with Gary in Chicago. Gary, like other “kid”, feels that that idea was quite surprising. He can’t say no to his parents but he can’t say his thoughts too about it. He lies, makes up reasons, and acts like a teenager until he and his parents were involved in some bank robbery situation, which is quite funny. The bank robber, who hold them as hostages, forces them to have some conversations. And after that, they become more understanding each other.
Gary loves his parents but he doesn’t enjoy spending times with them because he felt he became teenager again. Meanwhile, his parents love Gary so much and think about him every time bad things happened, hope that Gary is safe and sound. They told Gary near the end of the movie, that they feel as Gary is keeping distance with them after he moved out when he entered college.
The idea of the story is simple, maybe for once or twice or maybe more than that, you maybe experience situation like that – it happens to me as well.
As far as I can remember, I feel that I should be able to accommodate my needs by using my own money since I was trusted to manage my own money by receiving monthly pocket money instead of daily and weekly. I saved for some time, if something that I liked was quite expensive beyond my savings.
That feeling was stronger and stronger as I grow. The feeling not to burden my parents, financially. I earned my first salary as laboratory assistant while I was studying, then I had some side jobs as freelance programmer as well. The amount wasn’t so big, but I was proud of it since I can buy most of my computer’s needs and some gadgets like cell phone, computer accessories, laptops.
Recently, my mom told me that as parents she would be very satisfied to be able to help my bro and I to set up our own business or in other way when we need some help. That statement make me feel that my parents need us, or me, so that they can do their parents role. Borrowing one of the sentence from the series, maybe, my parents feel that I’m shutting them down from my life. Though that I don’t have single idea about it, I just want to be independent and not creating more trouble for them.
I seldom discuss my personal issues with my parents nor tell them about what I think, while I can be so open to my friends or my brother. So, it is quite often that my dad enters my room, sweeping around then going out, without saying anything. Maybe, he just want to talk. But he can’t find any topics to start with..
I don’t know how it feels to be a parent in modern days. But I guess, it’s more challenging rather than when my parents’ faced theirs. Or maybe not.. hahaha 😀
So, I’m hoping that we can be more open, to state our mind without disrespecting our parents. 🙂
