Konsensya ng mga magulang

My eyes were caught by the headline in this free tabloid given on the LRT stations...

"Be the conscience of your parents. Do not in any way push them that they will be tempted to dip their hands in the government coffers" says Heidi Mendoza in her talk in St. Scholastica's "Truth Forum."

I was thinking how true. Not just on government coffers but everywhere! And it is not just the children pushing the parents but other family members pushing their breadwinners... sometimes it could be the parents pushing their children supporting them to do things that should not be done and the other is helpless to their demands... refusing to say NO even if they could not really support the needs or WANTS of their family.

I've seen this happen in my office and in my community. I have seen several employees who could no longer concentrate on their work because they have debts all over and their pay could not even pay these off... I have also encountered sales people who committed fraud in our company who have to be terminated even filed cases upon. Most of these people are not really bad but were tempted to dip their hands on their collection thinking that they were just borrowing because their family needed money and they could not refuse them... and they are not caught and they do it again until it has become a habit. And these are usually the sole breadwinners in their homes and when they are caught they lose everything. It is not just them who suffers but the whole family!

My father also used to talk about the plights of many married Filipina OFW when he was still working in the Middle East, how their family demands big money and they borrow from their employers and they are left with nothing to support their own needs they end up hooking up with men who could support them... and their family crumbles.

We really have to watch out for each other... be the conscience. And it is always good to listen to it than lose everything in the end.