<How to live as a mother in Korea>
Either a mother and a daughter know each other very well, or they are strangers (Shin, 2012). I know my mother very well, since the relationship my mother and I have is quite strong. I know my mother's habits, her favorite singer, what she has to do tomorrow, and her current concerns. However, at the same time, I do not know anything about my mother. I do not know what color she likes, what her hobbies are, or what her dream is. So, I decided to interview my mother.
I made my mother to lie on my bed and make herself at home. I also lied on the bed to create an atmosphere that we are chatting, not interviewing. I first asked her, what she wants to do from now on. She answered that she wants to take rest. She said that it has been very backbreaking to take care of two kids and make them to go to university, so now she just wants to take rest and do nothing. I knew that my mom goes to work two days a week, so I asked her why not take rest. My mother answered that to survive as a Korean elderly she has to prepare her later years, and in order to save some money she has to work now. I felt sorry for the current situation that my mother faced.
She said that she also wants to travel. She recalled her memory of trip to Norway when she was a university student. She said that she took cruise for the last course of the trip and it was so amazing that she wants to experience it once more. I had thought that my mom is not the person who likes to travel, so I asked whether she liked to trip or not. She said, "The women in my age usually want to travel." She said that her age is too late to learn something, but too early to do nothing. She said she is not a wanderer, who loves to travel, but said that traveling is pretty much everything that she can say that she wants to do. It means that traveling is not the thing that she really wants to do, but there is nothing else that she can say that she wants to do. She also added that after sending all children to college, now she is experiencing a sense of emptiness.
To change to mood, I asked that is the thing that she is most proud of throughout her life. She said that her children are her success. "In Korea, mothers have a lot to do to raise a kid", said my mother. When kids are in elementary school, mothers have to go to school to provide lunch meals, help kids cross the crosswalk. When kids grow up, they have to go to school as exam supervisors, have to collect information about private educational institutes and information about college admission test policy, and so on. "Working moms had to give up their profession as they raise kids", said my mother with a depressed voice. "At that time, everyone did so. No one thought that we were giving up something. It was presumed as a matter of course." She added that the only thing that she regrets is giving up her job. She said that after time passed, being left with ability to do nothing made her feel so desolate. She even made me to promise that when I grow up and become a mother, me to keep my career.
After interviewing with my mother, I thought that life as a Korean mother is very tough. As a mother, she was forced to give up her life and live only as a mother. The feeling that I was the result of her abandonment made me feel terrible.
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