Parents

So it's a wrap -- the raya break.

In summary, it was several raya visits, some chikungunya scare, huge traffic moving to small towns, loads of delicious food, and many card games* till the wee hours of the morning. One BBQ for my mother's birthday and 2kg later, I'm now back in KL and already missing those proper, hot, home-cooked, served-all-day meals.

I think my parents look old -- older. Happy as always but old. My father is 70, a little quiet these days but not as strict as he was 10, 15 years back (he can be really funny, but he can be really strict too). My mother is 55, always the humble, practical, most generous woman.

I hope my siblings and I won't turn into those overprotective children, even if the intention is to take care of our parents. When we're on family vacation, sometimes my father likes to take a walk in the morning alone, without bringing his phone, for hours, and it makes us worry, which we don't have to. I remind myself now that they are just a tad older in age. Old age does not make parents (or anyone, or me one day!) powerless.

When we did our last minute raya shopping two days before raya, my mother was also looking for some things for the house, from a tablecloth to a new washing machine. (The latter is more for my father. He does the laundry, my mother cooks.) It took us some time to look at the options, and I disagreed with the first few of her choices before stopping myself. This woman raised seven children just fine. And I know nothing about washing machines.

With huuundreds of years of schooling that I've done, my mother watches the news and can name more world leaders than I can. While I go to classes and read financial materials to learn about money, she reads none of the books and does the actual good financial practice -- and all I do is memorize the theories.

So yes, I'll remind myself to listen to my parents more**.

*My 12-year-old nephew Imzdan woke everyone up for Subuh prayer every day, so they could start Cho Tai Tee early.

**subjective.