Friday, April 28, 2006

Bad guy

I have a tendency of positioning myself as a good guy, if I have the choice. Most probably this is due to the influence of Chinese philosophy or perhaps, my intrinsic preference.

Running a happy family is a combination of art and science. The balancing in applying these two theories could be very challenging at time. To meet the equilibrium, one has to change his hat frequently to commensurate the pace of its environmental changes. With growing teenage kids, I start to feel the need to modify my preferred role as a good guy.

Human is a creature of habit. My children have been living in their comfort zone since they were born. They know money needs to be earned but fail to recognize the hardship endured behind their favorite buffet lunch and cozy air-conditioned rooms. This is partly due to our pampering and to certain extent my preferred role. As I suffered material shortage when I was young and I promised myself to prevent the same from happening to my children, hence this is the consequence.

It’s time for my sons to face the world.

For their tertiary educations, I tabled harsh conditions to them:
1. They have to get scholarship by themselves; or / and
2. They have to secure study loan to finance their living expenses.
3. I will only provide bridging financing due to timing issues.

Nevertheless, upon successful completion of their choice of study and only if they manage to secure a job, I will chip in to pay their study loan repayment. Otherwise they are still responsible for their loan commitment. This arrangement may sound paradoxical, but that is the way I play my bad guy’s role and to make my sons independent.

My family is my only business and my change in role will never change who am I.