Beanie level: Errand boy

Beanies, what are the most cerebral dramas that you would recommend? The topic can be anything and the genre can be whatever, but I’m looking for something smart, thoughtful, and that’s really designed to be more than a surface level watch.

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    I’d be looking forward to these too because I doubt that there are many. Circle comes to mind and maybe for relationships development Spies but I still won’t call these two cerebral.

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      gosh I think of this emoji 🤯 when thinking of Circle , my brain gave up hehe

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      I can’t think of many at all shows. I would put Stranger and Stranger 2 in this pile. Maybe The Good Detective and My Mister, although IDK if cerebral is the right word for these (also, I haven’t watched MM, so I’m just guessing). Maybe Diary of a Prosecutor?

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    Seconding Circle and adding Solomon’s Perjury.

    I don’t know why but for some reason a few horror/thriller dramas popped into my head, like The Guest and White Christmas, though the former was more about the complex relationships for me.

    I would also say Matrimonial Chaos, for all its dressed up as a comedy, it really was incredibly thought-provoking for me, and was the perfect combination of acting/writing/direction for some of the most complicated characters I’ve encountered in dramaland.

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      Another vote for Circle and White Christmas, both Forest of Secrets, but the first for sure.

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    Definitely Stranger (Forest of Secrets).

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    Forest of Secrets (2017, 2020) for sure
    Nobody Knows (2020)
    Maybe Misty (2018)

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Okay, I’m officially a Kim Minseok fan. He sparkles so much in every scene he’s in of Lovestruck.

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    Also he reported a guy secretly filming a girl to the police ( i know i’ve mentioned this before but I will mention it again). He is a really great guy

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    How is Lovestruck? I haven’t had a chance to check it out but it seems like one of those polarizing dramas, from what I’ve gathered in my brief skimming of the fan wall.

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      So I like the four secondary characters and the actors who play them. I like the concept of doing interviews. I also like some of the frankness of the conversation topics. The FL is okay (sort of?) when she’s with the four secondary characters. However, main couple in this show and their entire plot arc are super boring. Ji Chang-wook is, as usual, putting in a pretty meh performance. It doesn’t help that, of each ~30 minute episode, the main two characters seem to get 20 – 25 minutes, with the remaining bit going to the side characters. My recommendation would be to watch the bits which involve the secondary characters (which are, thankfully, relatively self-contained) and to FF the stuff involving the main characters.

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        I actually feel JCW is getting better as the drama advances, and at least I can understand his character (someone described him on the recap as a Ted Mosby, and gosh that is SO accurate), but I don’t understand, get or like FL at all to the point I can’t even connect with KJW, an actress I usually like a lot.

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          I like the FL when she’s with Geon, Rin-yi, and/or Kyung-joon. She becomes inexplicable with respect to everything involving Jae-won, though.

          Ted Mosby is a good comparison! Unfortunately, I also hated Ted Mosby as a character. I also think JCW is better than he was earlier on in the show, although he’s still meh as far as I’m concerned.

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            Ted Mosby is on my top ten list of most hated characters in TV history 😂😂

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          I hated Ted Mosby so much, but I also stuck with that show for however many seasons it was on air, so apparently I can live with Ted Mosby character as long as the rest of the cast is good. I’m still on the fence but will be considering this if I get a chance.

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      I’m not making a recommendation until I see the end.

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Might be that I’m not paying close attention anymore, but does anybody understand what’s happening in Cheat on Me, If You Can? It’s sort of flying over my head at this point. Who’s the young guy who tried to assault Mi-rae?

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    That is Mi Rae fiance, I think. Its pretty clear the whole fiasco with the murder and everything else ties back to Yeo Joo’s mystery….whatever traumatized her, hurt her has sort of followed her like a shadow till now. There are two political parties hell bent on using Yeo Joo or silencing Yeo Joo and somehow they are all very close to Yeo Joo that one or both don’t want her dead but in control….they are trying to outsmart her and each other. Yeo Joo’s cheating husband, his anchor friend/mistress, Mi Rae all got caught up in the cross hair of it all. I am just waiting for Su Ho to catch up on it. Yeo Joo is lonely, she has the exterior of this unfeeling, monster, psychotic writer but the women is traumatized and is hiding. I am 100% sure she is being willfully ignorant to her husband’s cheating cause she is scared on some level to let go of the one person who held on to her when her mask slipped, her vulnerability got outed. She needs one person in her corner firmly. I am counting on Su Ho.

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      Thank you for the quick summary! It’s helpful. I feel like I’m not keyed into this show at all this point, so I’ve (quite literally) lost the plot.

      I am only watching this because I like Cho Yeo-jeong and Kim Young-dae. I would like their characters together, romantically, as friends, or just as a proper mentor-mentee relationship. I like their hijinks and I think these are the better characters in this show, perhaps because they are well-acted (although Go Joon is doing fine as well; it’s his character than sucks). The weird cheating angle is really really grating on me, the cop characters are just bumbling idiots at this point, HSW and his assistant/secretary are slime, and Mi-rae is just so poorly-acted and such a weak character. The spy angle is also not working for me anymore. As for the mystery at the heart of this show, I think they’ve been too tight-lipped. We’re 75% done and I still feel frustrated and too out of the know. I feel like a good mystery does a good job of revealing things and maintaining secrets. This show hasn’t struck the right balance.

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        I feel like this show never needed the cheating husband angle to the who dunnit mystery involving the writer who writes elaborate crime novels with a deliciously complicated past. I think its safe to say at this point with confidence that Yeo Joo is no killer. I don’t know if its the acting but all I see during some of the moments is a hurt, little young girl who has a wall up. And this girl is crazy smart. I think she is well aware of a lot of things and just willfully chooses to be ignorant. So, I have no interest in the cheating husband and his new college student. The show didn’t need any of it. I think they’d start peeling back the layers starting next week and we’ll circle back to the opening week now. But where the writing shines is with Yeo Joo and Su Ho and where it has failed miserably is with the husband, mistress and his buddies. The cops are bumbling fools, they are so fixated on Yeo Joo that they are not even trying to dig deep. So even I am starting to get impatient but I want to know what happened badly. One more thing, Yeo Joo’s book was named “The Secret Prayer Room” ….it gives me serious cult with sex abuse scandal vibe. But we’ll have to wait and find out.

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          @gem28 You’ve read my mind regarding this show. I watched this week’s first episode and I kept on thinking, “How come this show couldn’t be just about our mysterious writer?”

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Sooyoung is really a top quality actor. She’s killing this role.

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    She’s the most interesting character. For me anyway.

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    I love her character – she’s both super competent and Sooyoung manages to bring the right balance of eccentricity and heart to the role, without being over the top. She reminds me of a toned down Veronica Paaaarrrrk, which is never a bad thing. I love seeing dramas with super competent and sharp female characters who aren’t total robots or bitches for being ambitious. (Haven’t seen this week’s episodes yet, but will be remedying shortly.)

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      Yes, agree re the comparison to Veronica Pwaaark! Lol. I think Dan-ah is a super interesting character. Agree, she’s sharp and competent, but she also comes across as super fun and like somebody you’d want to get to know despite her evident socialization issues, if that makes sense. I was afraid Sooyoung would be just another idol actor (haven’t seen her in anything before this), so I was pleasantly surprised when I watched this.

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        I’d seen her in a few things and was always impressed by her because she never felt like an idol actress. I think she has a very natural style and combined with her charm it feels like she really gets into her characters’ skin and not vice versa (if that makes sense?).

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OMG, Mi-joo is such a legend!!!!!

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Seon-gyeom has so many fun facial expressions.

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\”He doesn\’t drive stick, does he?\” 😱😱😱 Run On really went there! LOL. This show is great.

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    That line really threw me for a second until I got it. Very well done…

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    TBH, I didn’t find it funny. I thought the joke was in bad taste :/ Just like the joke with the prof in ep1. Maybe I’m too much of a prude to find these amusing :p

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      I think this show does have a vulgarian streak, but I think I find it works well because it counter-balances the more thoughtful, clever stuff. I’d probably roll my eyes, or, worse, feel miffed at the crass gay joke, if it weren’t for the fact that there’s good balance.

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        Ha the balance is certainly there. There’s a LOT of innuendo and double entendres, e.g., Young-hwa’s lines after the painting meltdown, the running scene, throughout. It’s definitely very cleverly done. And that’s something I’m enjoying here!

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    What was the scene and which episode was it? For some reason, I can’t remember, lol.

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Okay, so I\’m in the home stretch with Skating into Love (okay, no, not really, but close enough). I\’m sort of confused about Yu Yan. He was important because he got Yubing to realize how he felt about Tang Xue. But what happened in the second half of the show? WIthin shooting distance of the end, his character feels underdeveloped, it feels like his screen time greatly diminished after like ep 15, his weird crush on Tang Xue went on too long and got tiring after like ep 20, and his whole plot arc seems uninspired and sort of lame in comparison to the plot arcs of other side characters (compare with Liao Zhenyun and Xia Menghuan, Zhou Ran, Yuewei and Jiang, even the philosophy roommate and the goalie). The ineluctable conclusion is that he\’s just sort of a superfluous character after roughly ep 15. He performed his role as a catalyst for the OP and, having done his primary job, his value in this show was basically spent and the writer couldn\’t figure out what to do with him but also felt like he couldn\’t be booted because of how his character was initially introduced and built up.

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When Manager Ma calls Li Yubing \”my little ancestor\”, what is the precise meaning of this?

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I know I’ve mentioned it before, but Taemin’s “Never Gonna Dance” is such a good album (or set of albums). I’ve listened to it so much for the last few months and I actually find that, as I listen to it more, many of the songs get better. Most of the B-sides are also really good. For example, I’ve been listening a lot to this song a lot today and yesterday. I love it.

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Beanfriends, what\’s the consensus on Hush?

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    I tried 3 eps but dropped because it didn’t keep my attention. However, fanwall posts and comments by @jorobertson (who’s been watching faithfully) are tempting me to pick it up again, which I might in a bit.

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      I noticed @jorobertson‘s posts and comments as well! It’s what has got me interested and asking for more feedback from other Beanies. I was initially very tempted because of Hwang Jungmin, whom I loved in New World and A Violent Prosecutor, but I wasn’t hearing much about it, so I’ve held off until now.

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        Hi @pickleddragon and @smaltwalt I have a couple of episodes to catch up on, so I was going to do that before I said more. I’ve been enjoying it because of HJM and also because of the story of people power that is running as an undercurrent. There’s an intergenerational thing happening too. I’m not sure how well it’s going to end up, but I’m interested. I noticed on k-drama clubhouse on youtube, Kthree, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DStCB11igIA, they commented how well put together it was, but did not go into it because of the ongoing Washington trauma. They reserved the discussion for next week. It touches on serious stuff and it might be the very thing that people might want to get away from. I always find those themes engrossing. I’ll catch up with the next couple of episodes tonight and get back to you.

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      So I’ve watched up to episode 8 now. I’d prefer to binge watch it in chunks because it is complicated and I have to “get back into it” every week. I still like it though. It’s panning out to be a mystery and also a story of exposing corruption with a team of very flawed reporters. This episode, I started to see the “team” come together and they are wily foxes. The newspaper is closely connected to politics – not at all unknown in SK (or elsewhere), but in this case it’s all about strengthening the web of power and influence and wealth into the next generation, and carelessly perpetuating glaring inequality. Not everyone’s cup of tea, but I like a mystery and all the machinations of politics and power. I wonder if anyone else is watching it and what they think? It’s not doing that well in the ratings, I see. 2.7% and 2.3%

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Omo omo omo, why doesn\’t Lee Soo-jin have children of his own?! He is so good with kids!

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    In one of the episodes of Three Meals a Day, he admitted that he’s never going to get married. I think he said he liked living on his own

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      That’s a bit sad, although I can’t really say much. I’m the same way and I also don’t plan on getting married.

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        I am not getting married either. Time is the constraint. I love my me time where I get to chill out everyday after work and no commitment. I don’t think I can survive working and raising children/family in the same time. I’d be too exhausted.

        Moreover, the my community still have view women mostly in traditional role. Even though the view has changed and improved over the years, the career women are still burdened with traditional family responsibilities. That does not fit me, who is used to flexible work life in IT. There were also days when work consumes my whole day and that definitely won’t do well with family responsibilities.

        So I am enjoying my single life. I can shamelessly swoon over pretty oppas everyday after work 😄

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Me @ Zhou Ran and Bian Cheng in Skate into Love. You people are gross. Take a hike.

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Been listening to this all day. I like it. What else is good from Suga’s album D-2? This is the only song I’ve listened to.

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I thought this was a super lovely expression of appreciation for KGR. KGR seems to get a lot of hate from netizens — and in fairness, he has said some questionable stuff — but I think the measure of the man can be seen in his devotion to and love for his son.

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Started watching Little Forest. OMG, Lee Seung-gi would make such a great dad! I think he\’d like being a dad, too.

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    aaaahhh I miss the kids!

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    It’s so cute, right? My kids are all around the same age and the way kids act is the same everywhere it seems 😅 LSG seems really good with kids, I hope he has some of his own.

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      OMG, your kids must be adorable!

      I think he’d be a great dad. Jung So-min also seems like she’d be an amazing mom. It also seems like she’s quite interested in having children? That’s the vibe I got from her in this show. LSG, I’m not so sure. He’s a hard one to read. He might want kids, he might not. He’s pretty ambitious, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he put off having kids in order to focus on his career for a little while longer.

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        My kids are pretty cute (I’m totally unbiased lol).

        I feel like becoming a family man would be the logical next step for his image of Best Son Ever once he reaches the appropriate age 😅 …. he’s mentioned a few times in shows that he wants to be married by the time he’s 40 so he’s probably got a plan.

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          IDK though, all Korean male celebrities (and female celebrities, for that matter) say they want to be married by 40, and a bunch of them fail. So I dunno. I don’t trust ’em.

          I think he’d be a great family man! He’s so affectionate and responsible, plus God knows he’d work like a dog for his family, just like how he sedulously does everything else. IDK if he’d be a good husband — he doesn’t seem like a super romantic person — but I think he’d be a responsible husband.

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            That’s true, it’s like you have to be single till the day you turn 40 but then you have to be married 😅

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            He seems to work 110% of the time so who knows when he’d find the time 😄

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          Also, I’m sure your kids are cute! I love young children in general, although I hate older kids (i.e. teenagers).

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            Me too, I dread the day my kids become teenagers. My 6 year old just came inside with a handful of flowers to “to make our house pretty because we have girls in our house.” Which was nice of him but makes me feel like I have been inadvertently reinforcing gender stereotypes 😬

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            I think you’re being too hard on yourself! Obviously, it’s important to teach children to be respectful and to not pigeonhole themselves and others, but you can’t change everything in their environment that conditions them to think certain ways about what it means to be a boy. Unfortunately, you’d have to change all of society to make completely eliminate the influence of gender stereotypes.

            Personally, I read this and just thought your 6 year old was a huge cutie for bringing in a handful of flowers!

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            You’re very kind! I also thought it was very cute – he ended up getting one flower for each of our family (including all grandparents/aunts/uncles/cousins who don’t live with us) 🥰

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    I didn’t watch the last ep because I couldn’t bear to see the kids go!!!!

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Ugh, okay, I hate the Yu Yan, Wei-wei, and Bian Cheng drama in Skate into Love. Bian Cheng has been a snake all along, but Wei-wei and Yu Yan are getting on my nerves now, too. Like c\’mon dudes, stop being so melodramatic. You\’re 18. You\’ll find other people. Please casting a dark shadow over the nice thing BingBing and Maste Tang have got going.

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WAIT, Yoo Teo is married?!

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Re-read this haunting article earlier today: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/30/world/asia/japan-lonely-deaths-the-end.html

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    This was very 🙁 but also so realistic. Japan is basically telling the world where everyone is headed.

    As someone who is single, sibling-less, and without any close relatives of the same age or younger, it is entirely likely that my own end will be similar. I’ve already started prepping friends – gently – about what might need to be done and so on. Practical trumps morbid in these matters, IMO.

    What troubled me about the article, though, was the presumption that having a child would prevent a person from dying alone, i.e., “my child will look after me till the end”. I recognize that that is the motivation for having children most of the time, but I find that to be very selfish and so demanding and disturbing.

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      This is pretty far off for you, though, no? I don’t know how old you are, of course.

      I want to go on a really long rant about how atomized we are in the modern world, but I decided to spare you the pain. (Also, I have a litigation document that I need to complete by 8 AM, so ummm.) I think it’s really sad that this is happening. I know, for my part, that I don’t want my parents to be alone in their old age and will do everything I can to ensure they live with me until their ends. As for myself, I have less faith that I’ll escape this fate. I don’t plan on marrying or having children, I don’t have many friends, and I already find my life pretty lonely for lack of friendship or other companionship (not do to lack of trying on my part, I might add). So I fear this may happen to me, too. That makes this stuff all the more terrifying.

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        I honestly don’t know how far away I am. I’m what most would call – ugh – middle-aged, nearly 40. As a young adult, I never really thought I’d live beyond 50. And tbh, even now, I’m not excited at the prospect of going beyond that number. My mum passed of a sickness in her mid-50s, which is my working precedent. In my head, I’m well past my halfway mark.

        Yes, like you, I’ve committed to staying with and looking after dad (who’s fine right now). And I’ve never had a conversation with my parents as to why they had me. I expect it was what society demanded they ought to do. (I personally think in another social setup, my parents would never have married – each other or anyone else – definitely not my dad.)

        And heck yes, atomized we are! Starting with our nuclear family existences… No worries about the non-rant. I shouldn’t have subjected you to mine either. And my apologies. But I was working on an arbitration filing, and heh – needed the distraction.

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        A while back, on one of the sailboat channels I follow, there was an article about a small yacht that had washed up on a beach. The boat was in good shape, everything in good order, with a sailor who had passed, on board. I thought that going out like that – doing something that I loved, hurting no one, everything shipshape – would be fine by me.

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      I feel like most Asian countries have this mentality of having children for the sole reason that they will have someone to care for them when they are older (at least here in India where there is a prevalence of arranged) marriages and I honestly don’t think that it’s the best logic behind having children.

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        I think a fair few Asian people do have this concern. My mom has been guilt-tripping my brother and me since we were born about taking care of her in her old age. Having said that, I think it’s sort of unnecessary for her to be so insecure about this sort of thing, since it was always my plan to take care of my persons when they got old.

        I will say that I do sort of get having children, if not to take care of you in old age, then at least to be there for you in old age, even if only occasionally. One thing I’ve heard lots of older people talk about is how, as you get older, opportunities for socializing drastically contract. Lots of older people have told me that family ends up being one of the few constant sources of interaction in old age as a result. So I do get it. I don’t think having children only for this reason is a good idea, and I don’t think imposing yourself on your children is a good idea. But I do think having family is invaluable when you’re older.

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I love this OST.

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