[Current & Culture] When Parents Are Happy, Children Are Happy Too

Met My Wife at a Badminton Club
Gave Up My Hobby After Having a Child
Now Exercising Again With My Kids, Double the Happiness

I met my wife about 10 years ago at a local badminton club in our neighborhood. I was just absentmindedly watching people play badminton. Then someone noticed me, and before I knew it, I became a new member. When I was a child, I used to play badminton with my father on an outdoor court next to the neighborhood spring on weekends. Back then, I only thought about hitting the shuttlecock hard and far, but club badminton was about sending the shuttlecock where the opponent couldn’t reach it. When two grandmothers over sixty asked me to play a match, I thought there was no way I’d lose to them, but I think I lost about 21:3. I was running around everywhere, while they barely moved but sent the shuttlecock around in an unbelievable way. It took me a couple of months to beat them. When I won for the first time, I was as happy as if I had saved the country.

I was the youngest man in that club, and my wife was the youngest woman. We became close, got married, and had a child. Since getting married, I haven’t played badminton at all. I stopped the sport I loved so much because I had to take care of the child. My wife couldn’t be separated from the child, and I started working part-time to support the family. When our child was about two years old, my wife went out to exercise a few times but soon stopped.

The children are already 10 and 7 years old. Most of the things I want to do are still swallowed up by them. It feels like I can’t do anything. To make children happy, parental sacrifice is necessary. Whatever words come first, that is life, reality, and the truth.

Not long ago, I told my wife to stop worrying about the children and try going to a nearby badminton club. She asked how she could go leaving the children behind, and I said that if parents try to make their children happy, they inevitably become unhappy themselves, but if parents become happy, children will see their happy parents and become happy too. I have many external commitments and often come home late, but my wife took the children and went to the neighborhood badminton club. At first, she said it was hard to exercise and take care of the children at the same time and wanted to quit, but she said it was enjoyable to play games with people after a long time. I told my wife to just let the children play games or read comic books. If the children whined, I told her to say, “Mom is doing what she wants to do right now, so you should do what you want to do too.”

Several months have passed. The children now play badminton. This year’s Christmas presents for both were badminton equipment. My wife looks a little happier than ever. Seeing her like that, the children naturally play badminton together. I also reduce my work and go home early to go to the badminton club once or twice a week. While my wife plays games, I hit the shuttlecock to the two children in front of me. Just like my father did, I send the shuttlecock to them so they can easily receive it.

I wish for my children’s happiness, but I will not live for their happiness. With a vague hope that if I am happy with all my might, they will respect their happy parent as an individual and follow along. I hope my wife continues to play badminton.

Kim Minseop, Social and Cultural Critic

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.