1. You buy your first 25 pound
sack of rice.
2. The first time you cook a
favorite Asian dish without having to call your mom three times
for instructions.
3. When your parents’ friends
start sending their kids to your office to ask for career advice
or interviews (instead of you being sent to your parents’
friends).
4. The first time you treat your
parents/grandparents/aunts/ uncles to dinner in a restaurant,
using all the sneaky bill paying techniques (like intercepting
the bill while you go to the bathroom or having your kids pay
it) that your parents have used over the years to pay the bill
before anyone else knows what is happening.
5. The first time you make
something really hand labor intensive (like sushi or potstickers
or samosas) that only your grandmother makes—even your mom
doesn’t bother to make them; she buys them because they’re too
much work.
6. The day after you get married
when your parents suddenly stop telling you to stay away from
boys/girls (and study more), and start telling you to hurry up
and make them a grandchild.
7. When you start house hunting
in the school district with the highest percentage of Asians
(instead of the cute yuppie district) like all your relatives
did, so that your kids will go to the best schools with lots of
other Asian kids being pushed to study hard by their parents.
8. The first time you hear
yourself scolding your children in your mother’s voice and
language, or calling your own child, "silly melon" or "bug that
follows the fart smell" or one of the other many colorful
endearments, good or bad, that you remember being called as a
child.
9. The first time you give a red
envelope or a big cash gift to a relative or friend of the
family’s kid (instead of simply signing your name onto your
mom’s card).
10. When you start actually
enjoying family reunions…and start organizing them
(instead of just going to eat).
