A tradition for the New Year’s, teaching the kids the right kinds of values, through this small sort of a hide-and-seek game that they’d played, translated…
Before we headed back to Taipei, my son took out two red envelopes, and stuffed it into my husband’s hands, he was driving, “It’s from Grandma, she’d told me not to tell.” He’d stopped, then began again, “Grandma forced me to take it, if I didn’t, she’d gotten angry, and said that I wasn’t, a fitting grandson.”, my son had that look of difficulty on his face.
The elderly and the youngest grandson, one lives in Yilan, the other in Taipei, they shared NO common topics of discussion, with one of them living in the cities, the other, in the country sides. When we all went back home, a group of younger generation gathered and started chit-chatting, we couldn’t even chime in, let alone, their elderly grandparents in their eighties, they can’t understand, one bit, what these grandkids who were, seemingly from outerspace were, chit-chatting on.
the elders of a family handing the younger generation red envelopes for the New Year’s, photo from online…
“This game of red envelopes, isn’t grandma tired of playing?”, my daughter smiled and asked. “Yup, that, is the way grandma show that she loves you,” my husband told them.
Surely, this game got started when they were about three years old, and, it’d been played, for sixteen straight years on end. For the sixteen years, the red envelopes were hidden anywhere from underneath the cooked pork, to their pockets, to getting stuffed into their hands, and, grandma was, having a blast, using this means, to show that she loved her grandchildren, and interacting with them too.
The very first time my children found that their grandmother had the money stowed away on them, the two of them found it fun, within driving five meter’s distance from the house, the children reported to us, that grandma had, pulled them aside, and, gave them hints on where the “treasures” she’d hidden, for them to find. MY husband, after commending the children on their honesties, pulled them aside and told then, “Grandma and grandpa worked hard their entire lives, raised dad up, and I’d found a stable job, so you didn’t have to worry about anything, that, is very amazing of them. And now, they’re elderly now, they can’t make any money anymore, when you get older and are working, you need to, show filial piety toward your grandparents, because without them working this hard, there wouldn’t be dad and you guys.” Back then, the children seemingly understood, but at least, they’d understood, that they shouldn’t, take money from grandma. And ever since, on the way home, the car was, filled with laughter, the children chatted on and on, about where their grandmother had, stuffed the red envelopes this time? And, how well, did dad find ways, to give the money back to her?
the former VP giving out red envelopes to the people he visited around New Year’s, photo from online…
“But, what happens to the red envelopes?”, my son asked. My husband used his cell, “Mom, in the drawer under the T.V. cabinet, I’d placed some money there, do keep it well. Don’t give any more red envelopes to the kids anymore, they wouldn’t need it, you need to, save it, for yourself.” “Turns out, dad was JUST like grandma, loved hiding the red envelopes too, there’s, that power of genetics in it!”, my daughter exclaimed. So, the best way to teach kids, is by showing each other that we loved one another dearly, showing cares and concerns for one another in the families.
So, this father taught the kids, to not take money from their grandmother, because the man felt, that his mother did her duties, raising him up well, and so, it’d become, this game of hiding and seeking, and, in this process of playing this game, the man taught the values of the family to the children.
Life, the Obstacle Course 