Interview: Married Couple

The married couple I interviewed was my parents, Jennie Chua Go and William Kho Go. They go married on January 16, 1994 and are married for 21 years (I am 20 years old now),

Q: Please explain the details how you met each other. 

Mom: I was working for La Swerte Cigarette factory in the marketing division. Then a group of my agent friends introduced us to each other.

Q: What influenced your decision to get married? 

A: Age. We wanted to have a family of our own, and we decided we were at the right age and settle down and have our own children.

Q: What are the blessings of married life? 

A: The most important blessing would be the children that are fruits of our love. They made the family very lively and complete. The blessings of a married life would also be being alongside each other till death do we part. I would be knowing that everyday I have somebody that I can depend on and a second opinion on things.

Q. What are the challenges of married life? 

Mom: One of the challenges of being in a married life would be being ready for children. We thought it would be easy since we read some books and asked advice from other people with children of their own. It was very difficult to handle our time and rotate since we have 3 children. Even though we have gotten nannies, it is still a challenge for us to cope with their needs. The financial stability has always been a problem for us ever since the children were born. The business was not holding up and there were the tuition fee of the children. We wanted them to have a good educational background, if not the best so we sent them to my alma mater, Saint Jude Catholic School. Of course, the price of high quality education would be costly. Furthermore, balancing the time has always been a challenge for us.

Q: How did you overcome these challenges?

A: In the long run, we sought help from our friends and relatives who were willing to help us by giving us short and long term advice that can guide us through our hardships. For the financial problems, we are slowly getting past it together. We know that our relatives are ready to help us anytime. For balancing the time, we decided that we should all eat together every dinner and talk about how our day went. We should also be going out at least once a week, Sundays to be exact.

Q: What can you advise to the young people who are in a relationship and plans to get married? 

A: We can advise the young people out there to become fully prepared and knowledgeable on what they are going to be facing when they get married. They should be able to plan ahead and situation themselves on different problems and issues that might occur and see on how they would solve it. They should also be planning on how many children they might have and financially ready for any circumstance.