Having "Me" Time

If you've read the New York Times this past weekend, you might have come across an article entitled "Baby Makes Four, and Complications."  It's a very interesting article about how nowadays there are increasingly a number of "unconventional" families. What do I mean by conventional? A conventional family is one with fathers, mothers and siblings.  We get older, study, start our careers and the next step is most certainly a traditional settling down.  We get married, have kids and continue on the cycle.  This is what is taught to us in grade school.  This is what kids play in the playground.  I remember role playing this with friends. This is what is expected of you. However, due to the economy, circumstances, unforeseeable events sometimes we find ourselves in an "unconventional" life.  So was the life of Carol. She found herself in the fourties and unmarried.  No "Mr. Perfect" had come along.  She wanted a child, but ...

Here's an entertaining story.  In my family we mostly have noodles for lunch and everything else is eaten during dinner. It became a convention that I grew up with and didn't question much.  I thought it was the "norm" in most households. I spent my childhood in Europe and did my studies in the US. Whenever I had noodles, I had it for lunch. I never considered having it for dinner. Then I moved back to Thailand. I still ate noodles for lunch. There are so many varieties, I could never get bored of it. Then one day, Alex asked if I wanted to have noodles for dinner? "Noodles for dinner?" I repeated with a surprised look on my face. No, I didn't want noodles for dinner. It felt strange, "noodles don't belong at dinnertime." It's a "lunch" food! It just didn't feel right in my brain. It felt misplaced and abnormal.  The concept of "noodles" and "dinner" just didn't match. Did other people ...