If you owned a two-bedder condo unit, would you move back into an older (35+ years) 4-room flat, while your parents took over your condo? For YK, this switch was both practical and gave him peace of mind. And no, it’s got nothing to do with pools or BBQ pits. Here’s why he and his wife decided this was the right move for YK’s ageing parents, and how it’s given him an appreciation for the most ubiquitous yet underrated of condo facilities: the 24/7 security team.
It began with problems in YK’s former home, his parents’ flat
YK moved out of his parents’ home in 2022, sometime after he got married. He moved into a two-bedder unit at Eunos with his wife and daughter. Whilst not one of the larger units (it was around 740+ sq ft), YK says it was just right for the three of them, and close to his parents’ flat.
About a year after he moved out, YK’s parents started running into trouble. It began with his father paying over $1,000 to purchase an unnecessary “special filter” for water. Barely a few weeks later, his mother was scammed out of $700 to purchase beauty products, which were sold to her by a door-to-door salesperson.
“My parents are too trusting, they assume everyone is a good person. Last time when we were there we could play ‘defence’, but now we weren’t there every day.”
While these were the two biggest expenses, YK says he’s quite certain his parents have been “easy targets” for various schemes that they haven’t told him about.
He suspects they’ve opened their wallets for the various durian sellers, teenagers selling ice-cream, and other salespeople who come to the front gate; probably paying whatever they’re asked. He subsequently insisted that his parents call him before major financial decisions, but they rarely do so.
An anecdote made YK consider condo living for his parents
Door-to-door sales are not the only problem. YK says his father is showing signs of dementia, which raises concerns for the future:
“There have already been a few times my mum caught him wandering around the nearby blocks, because he forgot which one was the right one. Eventually, he’d get home, but sometimes he could wander for half an hour.”
While at work, YK heard an anecdote from another colleague: his co-worker’s mother, who had dementia, was stopped from leaving the condo by a security guard who recognised her. This planted the idea to have his parents move into a private property.
Moving in together wasn’t possible in his two-bedder; so the family briefly considered selling and purchasing a bigger three-bedder. However, he changed his mind after crunching the numbers.
