If you see your spouse and parent drowning at the same time, who would you save first?

A very popular question that has been around for a long time. The question is said to test a person’s decision-making capability. It is also said to see whether the person is thinking from the head (brain=rational & logical) or from the heart (emotional). It’s rather tricky to answer such a question. It puts a person in a situation where he/she has to choose between two people that he/she loves. No one knows who came out with this question. However it is widely believed it came from a Chinese person. It is thought that the question challenges the person as to whether the person places more on filial piety (honour and respect) or on romance. Traditionally, the Chinese people are thought to respect and honour people who are older than them, in particular their parents. Therefore, it is expected that one should put the parents before oneself. On the other hand, you also have the question of love for your spouse. For those who have married for a long time would realized that they have probably spent more time and undergone a lot more with their spouse than with their parents. Therefore, they may be swayed to support the spouse.

Obviously there is no right or wrong answer to such a question. Some people would secretly hope that their spouse would save them rather than the other. By choosing  to save the parent, it is assumed that they do not love the spouse enough. There are people who posses the “nice guy” syndrome (ie: people who do not want to hurt anyone) where they would save one parent and then they jump into the water to drown together with the spouse. Then there are some people who are the “avoiding type” (ie: like to avoid responsibility) by jumping into the water and drown with everyone else so that he doesn’t need to decide. Then there are those who are the confidence type where they decide to save one but not the other without any hesitation. If you ask them why, they would give you all kind of reasons. The best one I have heard is that “the other drowning person (be it spouse or parent) would want me to do the right thing and that is to save the other”.

Last month in Sydney’s Daily Telegraph, there was an interview where a female celebrity was asked who does she love more, her husband or the kids? Without hesitation, she replied, “My husband!” She said, “I have known my husband longer than I know my kids. Without my husband, there will be no kids”. It was observed in the article, that the reason many marriages fall apart after having kids is because the husband and wife had neglected their marriage and became complacent while making kids as priority in their life that ignored the very principle of the union of man and woman.

Well, so back to our earlier question, who would you save in the event you are faced such a dilemma? I know my answer. How about you?