Hacker News Reader

Comment by gamerDude | Hacker News Reader

This is also a reminder of the opposite. For those of us on here, we have less than 25% of our time with our parents left.

I lost my father earlier this year. I count myself lucky that I felt very satisfied and complete in our relationship.

View on HN

I listened to a Hidden Brain podcast recently which told me to try and think of the amount of time we have left with any experience like meeting our parents, visiting X place etc. and it's supposed to make you appreciate the situation more and not to sweat the small stuff.

What you've wrote about time with our parents is sad but in a beautiful way.

You will some day have a meeting or likely a phone call that is that last 0.001% - because it is the last meeting or phone call. Sometimes you know it to be the last but usually you don't. But for sure you'll remember it. So make every interaction matter!

You very rarely know it is the last time you’ll do anything.

i likely have < 5% left. I moved internationally and have parents in their 70s i will likely see them less than 200 days in total.

My wife and I are looking to do the same in the next couple years. How has your experience been?

We’re worried they’ll get sick and we won’t be able to help. We’ve tried getting them to come with us but so far no luck.

Fuck. I gotta go see my parents.

Long, but at the end he does the stats about approximate time left with his parents:

https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/12/the-tail-end.html

Reading this article a couple years back got me to really question why I was planning to move far away from my parents and spend so little time with them. Changed some life plans based on that.

I wish I’d done that. Moved away, far away. Now they are long gone.

Yep. I was raised moving a lot and assumed I'd do the same as an adult. But then I thought of how rarely my parents saw their parents. And how much I love my parents and siblings. I ended up marrying a man who also traveled a lot as a child; both of us are happy to prioritize being near family.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com