My parents are not like other parents

A full-time job in Sweden means that you work 40 hours per week. Provided there is no collective agreement, one may not work more than 50 hours of overtime during a month and a total of no more than 200 hours during a year according to the Working Hours Act. There are exceptions, either by agreement with the union or by obtaining a dispensation from the Work Environment Agency.

My 78-year-old business-owning dad, a full-blown workaholic, works 6 days a week and never less than 55 hours a week. Which is significantly less than during his prime. My 76 year old mom started working again after being retired for 3 years but got tired of being home alone waiting for dad to come home from work works 5 days a week. Her working hours per week amount to just under 35 hours per week. In addition to her work, my mom takes care of cleaning and cooking in their home.

Thankfully, unlike many other elderly people, my parents do not see their own age. For example, my mom and I were at an evening event last Thursday organized by Dior skin care. Mom loved the products so much she bought $1,749 worth of skin care. Another example, yesterday my dad was in a store and bought the latest Airpods. The shop assistant treated my dad like the elderly person he actually is and took the time to explain properly. He couldn't possibly know that my dad just wants to pay and go because he was on his way to a construction meeting at a big construction site and was short on time.

Not wanting to be rude to the shop assistant, my dad kept his cool but called me on the way to the meeting to blow off some steam and said quote "just because I'm a bit older they think I'm some ***** senior citizen who have all the time in the world" unquote. My dad also gets annoyed when, which is very rare, he takes public transport and they charge for a senior ticket. He says he wants to pay full price.

Both of my parents, who are still very active in the stock market, have the same risk taking as me and my husband. If they had been given a "free" choice, they would have chosen to take as much risk as the world's most perfect teenager who just turned 17. But then both my husband and I said no. If we are going to help them with investments, it will be at most the same risk-taking as us.

Nor are there many 76- and 78-year-olds who choose to buy an electric car after having had fossil-fuel cars all their lives and familiarize themselves with all the new things that an electric car entails. As a child of my parents, I'm incredibly grateful that my parents aren't like many other seniors who don't treat themselves to things because "they don't have much time left".