Bragging parents

When I was young (and blur), Chinese New Year is when I get to see all my cousins. We play catching together. We walk out to the stalls and buy junk food and fire works. We run around all over the house. We rent videos and watch them the whole day long. But now, all my cousins have grown up. Some married, some with kids, and the rest, we are all too old to be playing catching around the house.

I miss those days of Chinese new year that only our parents have to take role as actors. Now when we (me, my bro and my sis) have grown up, we have to act along. As I grow older, I realised that Chinese New Year is beginning to be less fun year after year. This is because the more I grow up, the more I have to become one of them 'actors'.

Everyone is putting up a face. The richer/more intelligent among the family gets more attention. The poorer/less intelligent gets ignored. This might not be true in all families, but in mine, it does. I believe in many families, family rivalry happens. Parents want their kids to be compared. Whose kid is the smartest ....bla bla bla stuff like that. When I was younger I ignored conversations like those. But secretly we (me and my cousins) all know that among us, we have to compete to save our parents face and ego. I know it's a cruel/unethical/immoral thing to say, but it's true. The more intelligent/richer/successful your kids are, the more bragging rights you'll earn.

I know parents want to be proud of their kids. But what they don’t know is that it annoys people. Sometimes I just want to say "Yes we all know, now hush."