Introduction: There is a saying that "children are the crutches of the elderly, and pensions are the guarantee of the elderly." However, for the 58-year-old retiree, this does not apply.
After her daughter got married, instead of bringing her happiness and comfort, she fell into an even greater predicament.
She had to use her pension to cover the living expenses of her daughter's family of three, and even had to pick up scraps to subsidize the family.
Her life is getting more and more difficult day by day, but she has never complained to her daughter. It wasn't until one day, when she went to her brother's house and saw their happy life in their old age, that she realized her mistake.
Today, I would like to share with you the story of a retired elderly woman named Aunt Wang, whose experience makes us deeply experience:
The happiness of children is the greatest comfort for parents. And pension is not the whole story of happiness.
Let's listen to Aunt Wang's self-report, how she came out of the suffering and found her happiness.
Narrator: Aunt Wang.
I am 58 years old and have a pension of $4,800 per month. This income is already good for my wife and me.
However, since our daughter got married, our lives have started to get tough.
My daughter graduated from a vocational school with a degree in beauty salons. She had been dating her boyfriend for three years and had planned to marry her daughter after she opened her own beauty shop.
However, her boyfriend suddenly proposed to break up, saying that he had found a more suitable person. This made my daughter very sad and made us very angry.
At this moment, a man named Li Qiang appeared. He is his daughter's classmate and has always had a crush on her.
He said he had a stable job as a sales manager for a company. He said that he was willing to marry his daughter and give her a happy family.
We looked at our daughter's haggard appearance and felt distressed. thinks that Li Qiang is a good person and may be able to bring new hope to his daughter.
So, under Li Qiang's repeated requests, we agreed to their marriage. When they got married, they could only take out a down payment of more than 200,000 yuan and barely buy a small house.
In addition to the down payment, there are a series of expenses such as decoration, hotel booking, and marriage, which cost a total of nearly 300,000 yuan.
The son-in-law Li Qiang is from the countryside, his parents do not have much savings, and his daughter and Li Qiang have just worked, and they are short of money, so we can only bear the money.
We took out all the savings in the family, but it was still not enough. I had to borrow money from relatives and friends to get them married.
When the children of other families enter the marriage hall, the parents can happily send them away. However, after we saw off our daughter, we did not feel relieved and reassured.
Because we know that our daughter and Li Qiang have not really solved their life problems. The pressure is even heavier after marriage.
Half a year later, my daughter became pregnant. This should be good news, but it makes us even more worried. Because we found that Li Qiang is not as capable and responsible as he himself said.
His so-called stable job is actually a commission-based sales job, with an unstable and hard income. He often travels or works overtime and has little time to spend with his daughter.
Since our daughter got married, we have been supporting the living expenses of their family of three. We have to give them 2,000 yuan a month as a subsidy, and we also have to help them pay off their mortgages and borrowings.
The money left is just enough for us to barely make ends meet, and we can't save a penny. In order to earn more money, my wife and I both do odd jobs outside and even go to pick up cardboard boxes and plastic bottles. Our lives are getting harder by the day, let alone providing for ourselves.
Still, we feel that as long as we have a pension, it's better than nothing. After all, with a pension, we don't have to worry about not having the money to see a doctor when we get sick or have an accident. And we don't want our daughter to know about our hardships, for fear that she will feel distressed or blame herself.
It wasn't until last winter that I went to my hometown and attended a 100-day banquet for my younger brother and grandson. Seeing their happy life, I realized that there is no pension, and I can live a good life in my old age.
My nephew, like my daughter, took the college entrance examination. My daughter was admitted to a vocational school, while my nephew chose an agricultural university.
My daughter is studying beauty and hairdressing, while my nephew is studying agricultural technology. After graduating, my daughter opened a beauty shop in the city, while my nephew returned to the countryside and grew fruits and vegetables.
Today, my daughter and Li Qiang are still running around for life, while my nephew and his wife have bought a car and a house.
The nephew will give his younger brother 2,000 yuan a month for living expenses, and will also regularly send them fruits and vegetables. The younger brother said that they are living comfortably now and have no worries.
When I came to my brother's home this time, I deeply realized that the happiness of children is the greatest comfort for parents.
Over the years, I have been giving my labor and money to others, but I have never enjoyed the money I earned.
In the past, I always thought that as long as I had a pension, I would be happy enough, because people with a pension don't have to worry about the future.
However, after seeing my brother's life in his later years, I realized that the real factor that makes old age happy is not the pension, but the children.
I decided to change my mindset and stop worrying about my daughter's marriage and career, but encourage them to find a stable job as soon as possible and no longer rely on our pension. Only in this way can we truly live a stable and happy life.
At the same time, I would like to tell all parents not to neglect their own happiness because of the future of their children.
Although the future of children is an indescribable guarantee of happiness, it is not the whole of happiness.
We should understand our children's choices and encourage them to achieve their dreams, while also caring about their feelings and enjoying their lives.