Are You Happy?

I got the two topics for today's post, off today's New Paper.


The first one that I am going to talk about is Quality Time.


Most families in Singapore hardly have time together. And one of the reasons why there isn't family time is because both of your parents are busy working. Holiday trips may be cancelled, they may chase us away when we ask them for help. But what can I say, do you know how annoying it is to know that someone needs your help the moment you trudge back to home? Despite all the hard work that they put in, I don't expect them to be the slightest bit happy to help us immediately after work. In a simpler term, use your brain lah. Ask at the right time mah. Ask wrong time and you might as well get your head bitten off.



But this misunderstanding often leads to us kids pushing all the blame on our parents, accusing them of not wanting the family to be united. And on top of that, we add on unnecessary stuff like 'you hate us', 'we were shot-gun babies and that is why you don't care about us', 'you are so selfish that you work and think for yourself, not caring about us at all'. And this would be accompanied by door-slams, meals skipping and throwing of tantrums.


But my friends, what we fail to notice about our parents is that they are actually working their asses off for the future of us, their kids. Some may still be thinking "They never buy for me the stuff I want, means they don't love me". but have you bought for them the things they wanted? No? Does that mean you don't love them too?

My family and I seldom go on family trips together. We seldome talk at home because everyone's awake and out at different timings. In fact, we rarely see each other. And to make matters worst, I don't really get along that well with one of my kin.


Up till now, I never questioned my parents to why we never really went overseas. But instead I thank them for bringing me up in this world, to see both the good and bad of people, and of course to feel loved by your very own blood.


This brings me to the next topic: TV


No place was as special than spending quality time at home, watching TV.




When I was younger, I was really idiotic. There were numerous times when I would simply walk away while the whole family was watching tv, just because it was too noisy. There were also times when I walked away while my dad and I were watching TV, just because my dad had the habit of making the "tsk tsk tsk" sound whenever a car exploded or someone got killed. He would also (being musically talented) tap the chairs and drums that we have near the TV, to the beat of the music on TV. I found it irritating.

But what I failed to realise was the hurt that my family members had, seeing me, the youngest, peeved about everything.


And so, over the years, I tried to change. There are still times where I couldn't take the noise, but instead of walking away rudely, I would increase the volume, so much that they would take a hint. In fact, this has worked out so well, that all my family members are adopting the same method, doing it to whoever who is talking loudly. Hahaha.



And through this "Family TV time", we actually learned alot from the channels we watch. My family knows that I love making fun of exaggerated screams and shouts from the Tamil Dramas. They also love leaving the Tv on whenever "America's Funniest Home Videos" was on, and would watch me instead, as I laugh to every single video that was played. Like my brothers, I also enjoy watching Taboo, and all the tattoo shows, like tattoo wars, Miami Ink and so on. They also know that I like watching Naruto and Avatar.


And I also found out more about them. My mum loves romance movies, and prefers the teens genre than the classics.

My dad loves watching movies that has guns, helicopters, army and wars. Whenever there was his movie on, he would switch off all the lights, switch on all the sound systems, amplify them, and cushion up his chair.


My brother Vernon loves nothing more than Cartoon Network. He'll watch PowerPuff Girls, Courage the Cowardly Dog and any other cartoons on screen.


And lastly, my brother Jason. He's pretty unique. Because he loves watchign Documentaries, and can even tell you all the details of the machineries used in war. He loves Bruce Lee and thinks he's the next Hritik Roshan. And he's the one who's always watching my every move when I watch "America's Funniest Home Videos".




Reasearch has shown that people who watch Tv are not as happy as the people who don't. Because the happy people usually busy their life with enjoyable trips, memorable moments and splendid activities.


Well, I don't think my family can be any happier than watching television together. I'm happy enough.



Loves.