A Long-term Customer

 

         In China, Hong Kong is a famous city that developed faster than the Mainland. Hong Kong has been a place that many people wanted to go to because of prosperity. Many people who live in Hong Kong work hard, and some people thought they could earn more money in Hong Kong than in the Mainland. The British controlled Hong Kong for about one hundred and fifty-two years, but Hong Kong went back to China in 1997. In the same year, Hong Kong faced the financial crisis. After a few years, the Hong Kong government wanted to solve the problem with real estate, so it limited real estate development and new construction.  Many people from Guangdong went to apply to be Hong Kong laborers to work construction, and my father was one of them. My father’s decision to be a Hong Kong laborer had a profound effect on my family.

            My father's decision put a lot of pressure on my mother which made her become strong. After my father left, she seemed like a super woman. Because my mother took care of my brother and me by herself, she worried that we would grow up as in a single-parent family. Sometimes she was a gentle mother, and she would give us some suggestions. Sometimes she was a strict father, and she would point out our mistakes directly. Even though my father sent some money back, my mother still needed to find a job to support our family. She never took days off except when my brother or I was sick. Even if she was sick, she still went to work. I remember one day she drove her motorcycle back home after work on a rainy day and she fell on the way home. She only checked her motorbike and made sure it could be driven. After she arrived at home, she did not say anything. She asked me to help her with Chinese oil. After I saw the bruise on her body, I felt sorry for her. I was shocked that she went to work the next day. She was a powerful woman, but she also needed someone to take care of her and to help her to reduce her family pressure.

            In addition, my father’s decision helped me develop some skills after he left. I tried to share my mother’s burden. Although I could not alleviate her economic pressure, I could help her to reduce our family chores. Because my mother needed to work, I had to cook. She only had an hour for lunch. Even though she wanted to cook by herself, she did not have enough time. She considered maybe I was a prodigy because she only showed me how to cook once. When I started cooking, my neighbors wanted to share their cooking experience with me when I asked them about cooking. I washed the clothes by hands because we did not have a washing machine. I learned to use the right part of my hand to wash clothes. When I started to wash the clothes, I felt my hands were not mine. They got red and swollen. I could not imagine washing the clothes outside in Winter. However, I felt happy that I did something for my family.

           Finally, my father’s decision made my brother feel disappointed. My father only appeared in my brother’s childhood for a short time. He usually stayed for one or two days at home he came to visit. When the teacher let them write an essay about my father in class, my brother had no idea what to say. My brother did not have enough time to know about our father. My brother thought of our house as a hotel, and our father was a long-term customer. Even though my brother did not require our father to do anything, he still wanted him to be close. When the other kids played with their father, my brother’s eyes showed that he was envious. One day I heard that he wanted to play basketball with our father. He wanted to have family time. My brother’s reverie of the family was the mother is cooking in the kitchen, and the father is staying with kids watching TV or playing games. Over the many years that my father was at home, my brother did not have a chance to establish a relationship with our father.

 I do not consider that my father’s decision was right, but I cannot say he was wrong. My father wanted to improve our family’s standard of living, but he completely missed my brother’s childhood. My brother felt nonchalant about building a relationship with our father. He did not want to chat with our father even though they had WeChat. They did not say anything when they sat together. For me, it was my precious memory. I built a great relationship with my mother. In the beginning, I just wanted to share responsibility with my mother. We faced many things and overcame them together after my father left. We supported each other in a hard time. My mother was not only my mother but also was a good friend. My mother felt tired because she needed to handle everything. However, my mother looks like another person. She feels confident about her job, and she manages family issues quickly. Many parents consider that they need to provide good conditions for their children, but the best gift for children is staying with them. If there was another chance, I would hope that he would change his decision.