Disappointed parents

Realizing that the young generation should have a good education, a tertiary education is a must if they want to compete favorably in the employment market. The parents of today are willing to make a great sacrifice to attain their goal. The sacrifice is all the more severe when it concerns a salary worker whose monthly income is fixed. No wonder that parents become very upset when their offspring, on whom they attach their hopes for the future, becomes recalcitrant. I know of parents who experienced such an ordeal.

It was a Dutch family. The wife grew up in Indonesia in pre- war time and the husband was a physician. Only a few years after World War II ended, they repatriated to Holland. When the son ended his secondary education, he refused to enter a university, even though his parents hoped that their only son would follow his father's footsteps, namely to become a doctor.

The son firmly refused to obey his parents, and no cajolement or admonition could waver his decision to secure a job and leave his parent's home. The father was so upset and overwhelmed with deep disappointment that he died of a heart attack not long afterwards.

A. DJUANA

Jakarta