Saturday 21 / December / 2024
For those who have grown up children and working then why don’t we, as parents, ask them to pay a monthly parental tax to us?
I attended a recent meeting of Tax Authority in Muscat and when it came to my turn to ask questions during the debate period, I was tempted to ask its Chairman to consider passing a law to make it compulsory for working children to pay a monthly stipend to their parents. But I lost my confidence when I grabbed the microphone and instead asked a different question.
During the coffee break, all my media colleagues laughed at me when I told them the question I nearly asked. But at the same time they understood what I was aiming for. Of course, the government will never agree to impose a parental tax for employed children to pay their parents. As a matter of fact, no government in the world would do it.
However, many parents around the world who are in the retirement age needs the money. It is understandable. With mounting bills and soaring inflation, retired people find it challenging to pay for some expenses. I know young people would frown at the idea. They may well say they have their own expenses and bills to pay.
I tested my own children while we were eating lunch. It is the only time I can have their full attention. They laughed but did not say anything and quickly changed the subject when I told them that from next month they would need to pay me a monthly parental tax.
Of course, they knew I was not serious but again, many parents out there are in need of extra cash to make ends meet. While I was out for coffee, I did mention this to some of my friends. Suddenly, they put their coffee cups down and started talking.
One of them leaned forward and with a very serious face told us that he already asked his children in the last five years but has not received a rial from them. As a matter of fact, they stopped coming to his house on a regular basis. And now, they were even reluctant to answer his phone when he calls them. So, he sent them messages all three of them saying he does not need ‘the parental tax’ anymore. We all laughed but he was serious.
The other friend said jokingly that he was working out the bills he spent on his children’s education, toys, clothes and other things and would ask them to pay back in ‘easy installments.’ We all laughed and said maybe we should all do the same. The third friend, who was better off financially than the rest of us, had another explanation. He told us he has never stopped paying to his children though they were all employed. They keep coming back and ask him for money.
So what exactly is going on with our grown up and working children? Who to blame? You wouldn’t like my answer. It is us, the parents. We should blame ourselves for spoiling them when they were growing up. We gave them more then they needed. We never go back to measure our role as parents when we were growing up in own parents homes.
So the parental tax we are aiming for we will never happen because it is the way we have raised them to be what they are now.
