Weekend Engagement - My Parents

We all like to make the most of our weekends...what could you do to make your weekends better, happier, more fun and to feel more engaged with them and life in 2024?

If you could re-experience any weekend from 2023 which would it be and why?

As I was reflecting on my weekends this year, including this weekend, I realise the thoughts that I plan to share somehow span across two of these prompts, so why not do a combination?

I used to stay with my parents all these years, but I have moved out into a place of my own earlier this year. This inevitably meant that I would see my parents less often, but I have set aside part of my weekends to spend time with them. I would head over to their place on Friday evenings, have dinner with them, do a stayover, and spend the Saturdays with them.

This weekend was not much different, except we made a trip to the temple to do some praying. I am not so much of a religious person, but my parents had this annual habit of visiting these places of worship nearing the end of the year to offer their thanks for all the blessings they had this year, which I thought was a positive thing to do, so I accompanied them as usual. After that, we had a sumptuous lunch and chatted over coffee for the entire afternoon, before ending the day with a light dinner (because we were still full from lunch).

My parents are getting older by the day, and for people of their age, they always will have health problems to deal with as the body starts to deteriorate. I don't want to sound negative or pessimistic, but I guess I am just being real - for the remaining years, and in 2024, I hope to be able to continue to spend time with my parents whenever I can. If they are healthy and happy, that's enough because it makes me happy too!

So that's my response to the first prompt. For the second prompt, it's related because if I could re-experience any weekend from 2023, I would definitely pick a weekend which I spent with my parents.

I have picked a weekend where I had a lunch buffet with my parents at one of the hotels in Singapore. It was for one of their birthday celebrations and they enjoyed this place because not only the spread was decent, they also had discounts for senior citizens. Being someone with a sweet tooth, I particularly enjoyed their desserts and cakes and probably exceeded my sugar intake for that day! Hehe!

Of course, ultimately the company is more important than anything else, and it's not often we have such lavish outings/meals - because my parents are very thrifty people and won't want me to spend too much money on them. Maybe that's the mindset of Asian parents? Haha.

Ending off, I just want to say I had a great time reflecting and penning this post and my thoughts. Thanks @galenkp for coming up with such an awesome prompt this weekend! It's not often I share something personal about my daily life on Hive, but here I am, typing this out and getting a little emotional at the same time.

So that's all for my sharing this week. Do treasure your loved ones and spend more time with them in 2024! Thanks for reading. :)