Sunday, February 24, 2008

Why I can't take care of my parents

Nothing much to shout about today although it is Saturday. Dad got us all up pretty early this morning, around 8.30am (that is early for saturdays ok!) because he wants us all to go out for breakfast together. He said something about wanting to eat the Laksa at Thompson Tabuan Jaya. For me, there is nothing special about that laksa other than the fact that they out clams on top of what people normally put for laksa. Anyway, since dad wants, we went.

After brunch, we went to Boulevard for a little grocery shopping. When I said little, I thought maybe a 10kg-packet or two of rice, maybe a packet of maggie noodles and my shampoo. Instead, we bought so many things that when we met my colleague at the coldstorage section, he asked why in the world did I get so many things. Of course, most of the things in the trolley was not mine but as usual, dad and mom go overboard and stock up.

I am really not sure why we need to stock up though. It is not as if to go to Boulevard, we need to drive more than an hour or fight traffic jams. The parking was in abundance and pretty convenient too with the flat escalator that they have there. On top of that, most of the things that we bought today was not even really on sales. Ok, so member price is slight cheaper than non-member price for some of the items but dad actually bought four storage box for RM9.90 each, which was a member price and non-member was perhaps just 30-40 cents more.

Good thing dad decided not to do a bbq tonight or I think he will start to stock up on the marinating sauces as well. When I was a wee little gal, shopping sprees with my parents are always fun for obvious reasons. But as I gotten older and start to earn my own money as well as starting to pay my way, I start to realised how wasteful my parents actually are. For example, once, I bought 5 pieces of persimmon and left them in the fridge. I was waiting for them to slowly ripen and become softer before eating them.

When I came back from my KL trip, I found out that my mom had thrown all of them away as she was cleaning out the fridge for CNY. When I asked why she did it. Guess what her answer was to me.Sigh..She said she tasted one and it is not nice because so hard. OMG! Of course it is still hard since it is not ripe yet! Yes, I was mad and angry. But nothing much I can do about that except explain to mom that why it is not nice and hard....

I really don't know what to do about this. Fine, so I am not the one paying for all the stuff that they are buying and spending but eventually, I would like to be the one that support my parents. But if my parents continue to spends like millionaire, I am not sure when I will be a millioanaire and earn enough money to do that. Of course, I am not being stingy. I would like to be able to take care of my parents and tell my dad that he can stop working, i.e. stop flying here and there to find business. But by God, I am starting to think that I might not be able to do that at all.

I mean, of course the normal stuff and small luxury is important for the morale and fun in living. But when does spending for luxuries becomes excessive and not live motivator? There are times when I think back, a dress that cost RM100 might seemed cheap at the time of purchase especially since normal price is RM300 for example. But how what was the judgement of whether anything is cheap is being made? What was it being judged up against? Was it againts how much money we have then in our purse? For example, if we only have RM100 to survive for the rest of the month, would we still be saying the dress is cheap? How about if we are a millionaire? RM100 would be a tiny ripple on the surface of the water.

I guess what I am trying to say is, in todays world, no matter how much we earn, we will always be hoping to earn more. When we earn the more that we are hoping for, then we will start to upgrade our lives and in turn causing the similar gap in what is needed against what is wanted. And hence, the desire to earn more arouse again. If we can all be humble and make do, I believe situation like inflation or world economic crisis might not have happen at all. Think about it. If everyone just buy enough for what they need, would commodity such as oil price escalate almost beyong control now?

4 comments:

Sue said...

that's why...it's natural human to be greedy..hehe..not satisfied..

Nick Phillips (15/03/1967 - 04/11/2022) said...

Well, humans are always not satisfied with what they have (me included). The more one earns, the more one spends ... LOL!

JenJen's Place said...

Sue,
Good thing that we don't have animal instinct together with the natural human to be greedy..don't dare to see the carcass left behind...

JenJen's Place said...

nick,
this reminds me of a story about a man selling newspaper at the newspaper stand and a young executive. The young executive keep on spending more and more as he earn more. But the newspaper man keep things simple. One day, the young executive lost his job and his ability to repay back his loan. He met the newspaper man one day and saw that he is driving a merc. Curious, the young man ask the newspaper man how is this possible. The newspaper man replied, he only spend what he have and not what he might have, i.e. no loan, mortgage, etc....
Ideal theory that rarely happen in the real world I think..