Do you spend enough time for your family?

This post is a commentary on an article taken from The New Paper (03/08/08)-'Wishing for more family time'

After I read this article, I remember my time before I moved to Singapore. The article was about MPs who felt that they do not spend enough time with their family because of their busy daily schedule. They said that they must put the residents and communities at the top of their list, but still family was number one for them. I agreed that residents and people are important, but family is too. However, their professions are time consuming. One said that he cannot have dinner or with his children on weekday and one said that outing with family on weekend is priceless because weekend is the only time he can spend with his family. Time on weekday is not enough for them to spend in their office and at home.
I recounted my life 10 months ago when I still live in Indonesia with my family. Time is definitely not enough for me. Yes, me, a secondary 3 student now; I was a 9th grade student then. You may say that my case is different since I am a student and they are a working adult and it only happens to adult, not to children. You may think that it is only to children whose parents are working. But, for me, children also feel the same and it is even worse for children whose parents are working.
I had piles of projects and homework when I was in my year 7 until year 9. One hundred questions for homework were just a daily bread for me. I always sit down in front of my desk and start to do my homework after around 7pm or 8pm everyday, after I went home from tuitions and had my dinner. It took me about three to 6 hours to finish my projects and homework. I did not procrastinate. The teachers assigned projects to be done on the next day, ignoring the other homework they had given before. During those three years, I rarely have time to speak to my family or to just watch TV shows with them. It was really hard to spend time for leisure when you always went to sleep around 2-5am every school day. Moreover, during school breaks on July or Christmas Holiday on December, I just could not spend my time with my parent since they are working. I just merely played with my brothers or sat in front of my computer. If I had extra time, I would rather to spend it with my friends instead and my parents understood me. I did it because I do not feel comfortable to be near to them and also because I interact with my friends at school everyday.
Also I saw that other children or teenagers also had the same problem like me, same amount of homework and similar case of parents who work in their offices. I realized that limited time to interact with family made a huge impact to our family. Our blood is easily to get boiled for simple problems and we felt that we are strangers for others.
Albeit, I personally regret that I did not spend enough time with my family and try to find the timeslot in my packed schedule to interact more with them when I was able to despite my limited time because of the assignments and projects. Now, they are thousands miles away and there is really no way for me to interact with them unless I wanted to spend hundreds of dollar for my phone bill. Now, I want you to think if you are living my life. Have you spend enough time with your family?