As said in my earlier posts, I have lived in U.A.E. for many years, which means I had the privilege to meet people from various different nationalities.
Once I was with my friends at the Dubai Creek Park when we came across an elderly couple from U.K. They were tourists and since it was winter at that time they were loving the weather (because the winter in U.A.E. is like the summer in U.K.). We talked about places in U.A.E. and some known places in U.K. which me and my friends knew from the stories we read at school (At that time I hadn’t been to U.K.).
Then our conversation went to the differences in our lifestyles. They said their son and daughter in law live in a house with one son, whose very cute. But it’s not like it is in most Asian countries where after retirement, parents stay with their kids. They said it’s very unlikely that their daughter in law would tolerate them for more than a week. And they said, most of their time is spent in travelling. Their next stop being Thailand. They complained about the teenage girls being pregnant in U.K. and overall the lifestyle of the youngsters over there. Me and my friends were a little shocked as we thought that the Europeon people prefered this way of living. They prefered to stay on thier own, being independent all their life.
Anyways, when I went to Dubai Pharmacy College after some years. There were teachers from Pakistan, India, U.K., France etc. We were sitting in the college’s cafe and again a similar debate started.
But this time the teacher from U.K. got emotional, stood up and said: ‘I bet none of you people staying away from your parents call them everyday. Well, let me tell you, I call my mom every single day’. Plus, the Indian teacher told us about how even in our countries we see numerous cases where the people literally tell their parents to get out of the house. Even here in Pakistan every once in a while there’s a case being shown on telly where they show parents living in Edhi (an organisation).
So, I don’t really think we should pinpoint people from specific nation and say that they don’t love their parents as much! The kids that do love their parents will show care towards them in their own way and those who don’t, won’t, no matter from where they are.
Najma Aijaz, 22/03/2012
Wow, sweet kitten thanks for liking. This like is the 100th like for my blog and I am happy :).
I think you raise a good point. It is hard to judge a culture by just one standard. Every nation has so many individuals and not all of them act or love in the same way.