Some cultures demand children to be submissive to their parents. To avoid being whacked by a broom, some parents require that their children clean their homes, wash their cars, and iron everyone’s clothes. All of this and more was required of one man. He was also expected to follow his parents’ goals for his profession. In the man’s family, being a doctor was the only acceptable job. They hailed from a long line of doctors, and his parents expected him to carry on the tradition.
He did, however, tell his parents when he was 17 that he would not be a doctor. Instead, he informed them he intended to pursue a career in acting, social networking, and other small business ventures. His parents were opposed to his scheme. They suspected him of wrongdoing and evicted him from their family home. They were separated for 17 years. The man’s family relocated to the United Kingdom so that his siblings may pursue careers as doctors.
Much to his parents’ delight, his older brother was accepted into a rare and competitive surgical program. He was a neurosurgeon who specialized in the diagnosis and excision of spinal tumors. During the COVID-19 pandemic, his family informed him that they would be returning to Sydney, where he lived. They made this decision so that his older brother could pursue a $750,000-a-year profession.
His parents never asked him about his job over the two years they reconnected. The man imagined they assumed he had a normal life in Sydney. His parents were correct; his acting career did not take off. He did, however, find work as an investment banker and eventually became a partner at the bank where he worked. While house-hunting with him and his siblings, his parents learned they couldn’t afford to buy a home in the communities where they intended to live.
Despite the fact that they were doctors, residences in northern Sydney cost upwards of $20 million, which was prohibitively expensive for them. When they decided to call it a day, they requested to tour the man’s home before going out to dinner. The man complied and invited them to his home. His Parents’ Reaction to His Residence. When the man’s parents arrived at his house, their initial idea was that he was renting a room in the magnificent mansion. When they asked how much his rent was, he corrected them, claiming he owned the entire building.
His parents were stunned. They were enraged, accusing him of lying to them for years and meeting with them to thrust his “probably illegally gained” fortune in their faces. They then claimed that they would live with the man instead of his older brother because they couldn’t be seen living in a worse residence than his son’s. The man laughed. He reminded his parents that they decided to assist their other two children rather than him. He also stated that they would have a better chance of living with his neighbors than he would.
His parents threatened to cut the man out of their will at that point, to which the man shrugged, unconcerned. “I reminded them of the fact that they can’t even afford to buy in my area, so their will and assets don’t really matter to me,” he said. What Decision Did the Man Make. The man’s parents refused to speak to him after the uncomfortable encounter. His siblings told him he should have told them about his financial status sooner, but he replied that he didn’t need to because his LinkedIn profile was public, but they never bothered to look.
The man now wondered if he was too severe for what he done. He didn’t felt obligated to support his parents after they cut him off for 17 years and only became interested in him after discovering his fortune. What would you have done if you had been in his shoes? Would you have done the same thing or responded differently?