"I AM MY PARENTS' RETIREMENT PLAN" GANG ARE BAD FOR LONG TERM RELATIONSHIPS

You are reading all these sentimental posts and comments by the "I owe my parents" Association of Nigerians and awwing, "Look at this responsible pikin. They will make a great parent", so you will carry yourself and start planning a future with them. 

*Laughs in Burundese*

It's all good until you are dating. Oga/madam does not owe you money. 

Then you start planning your wedding. You think that it will be based on the sum of your incomes, only for you to learn that you have to settle for a smaller budget because oga/madam is their parents retirement plan.

When it's time to rent a house, again, you will expect the two of you to choose a house based on the total on your income, only for you to hear that you must settle for a smaller accommodation.

As time progress, you find yourself footing most of the bills on your own because oga/madam besides the maintenance money, has to send money to their parents for other things.

"Mama is sick."

"Papa is sick."

"Their roof is leaking."

"Their house needs repainting."

And you, even though you never planned for it, will become another one of those parents who struggle to train their kids and later on become entitled to their money. Not because you didn't have the means to provide for them, but because you chose a partner who was raised with that same mentality.

Your quality of life will suffer.

Your children's quality of life will suffer.

You will find yourself thinking of how you would be living a much better life if you were on your own. Your in-laws are not living with you, but they cost you like a second family. 

And I'm taking it for granted that oga/madam only has his parents to maintain. No siblings or side chicks. 

If you are of the school of thought that you are your parents' retirement plan, make sure you make a shit load of money, otherwise you will just become a thorn in the flesh to your future partner. And if that partner also belongs to that same school of thought, you will end up in the same cycle of poverty as your own parents. And it won't be because you are poor. It will be because your parents made the choice to be poor and now you have to make up for their poverty which will inevitable result in your becoming poor too. 

I know that Nigerians lack foresight. We don't think on the long term. It is always about now. We we need now. What we want now. How we can survive now. You are poor planners. And that's why you also make terrible long term partners.

"I am my parent's retirement plan." If you don't become rich, just stay you stay and remain single.