By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
On several occasions at the dinner table, I reminded our kid (JV) he would be 18 early 2022, or about 60 days from now. I then followed up the statement with the question, “You know what that means?” Silence.
Then I delivered a litany about the American system that when a kid turned 18, the question he would repeatedly be hearing from his parents would be, “When are you moving out?”
So I warned JV, “You will soon be hearing that question from us, a lot of times.”
That sort of stimulated his brain for a ready answer whenever the question came up again. When it did several weeks after, it appeared he was ready: “It should be you (my parents) who should be moving out.” It caused a big guffaw from all those on the table, including his two cousins who were about his age.
But we also had a ready reply, “While we are alive, it is our house, not yours. It will become your house after we die.”
That silenced him temporarily. But to get back at us, he got into thinking again. His chance came after several days at the dinner table again. “You know what? Later on, I will bring both of you (my parents) to a nursing home or a house of the elderly.”
After the laughter, I said, “You will be the biggest news all over the Cordillera. You will be known as the first Igorot to kick out his elderly parents from their house.”
In response, he said, “Was it not you who wanted to adopt the American system? Is that not what they do in America? Send their parents to nursing homes or elderly homes?”
As usual, I then delivered a litany of the advantages of kicking out 18 year-old kids from the house. I said, the kids would learn real independence and how to survive and compete in the real world.
Things were then left at that but I planned to bring up the matter again after sometime. So I had to be ready.
The chance always comes up at the dinner table, and when it did, I asked, “So JV, what are your plans? When are you moving out?” Then he blurted out what must have been percolating in his mind for quite sometime. “Sure! I will be glad to. Just get me a room at the Crown Legacy Hotel.”
“What?!%*!!#!! What do you think of us? Tycoons or multimillionaires? We are even hard-up buying a sack of rice.” After cooling down, I said to him, “That would be great, but where will you get the money to pay for the hotel room? That would be around P3,500.00 a day during this pandemic.”
He said, “No, you pay. It is still your responsibility as parents to take care of my basic needs until I graduate from college or have a job.” Obviously, he did not like to get into legal argument about that as he would be at a great disadvantage. He was lucky it did not go that way.
The matter was dropped until several weeks after. We were on our way to the office but we had to stop somewhere as his mom had to do so some banking transactions with an ATM (Automatic Teller Machine).
While we were waiting in the car I saw on the side of the street a cardboard sign, “Apartment for rent.” I turned to JV and said, “JV that might be an option for you. Why don’t you go see the place and ask how much is the monthly rental?”
His response was short and loud and clear, “No deal. Crown Legacy Hotel or no deal.”
The matter was dropped, but just for now.
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