
Family Day
Family day is a sacred time to get together.
While we lived in England my husband travelled every day to London, because of his work. So we decided that Sunday would be our family day. On very special occasions were the children allowed to go for play days or birthdays on a Sunday. Plus all our friends knew this as well and they learned to respect it.
However, a friend of our eldest son (nine years) invited him to his house. The mother asked me if would be possible for our son to go and play in their house even if it was a Sunday. We talked and decided to let him go.
On that Sunday we had a light lunch and I prepared an early supper. After coming home and at the time to set the table our son noticed that we were having the main meal at supper and asked me why. I explained how important it is for us to share Sunday meal together as a family. So we decided to wait for him. I didn’t think about this conversation any more. Until a couple of weeks after he was playing with our neighbor and the father invited him to stay for lunch. Our son told them that it was very kind but he couldn’t stay. Sundays were his family day and it was really important that he had his lunch with his family. Our neighbour came around just to tell us how impressed he was with our son’s answer.
It has been six months since we arrived in Singapore. Twice our son was invited for play days on a Sunday. Twice he said how Sunday is his family day. So he couldn’t go. Other days are arranged and the children are happy. The mothers commented how natural our son talks about “his family day”. One of them told him that she would like to adopt the idea as well.”
Carla Hernandez resides in Singapore, and is a proud mother of 3.