Death vs Birth

I am just going to share something that recently happened at work that makes me wonder.

You see, my company has a lot of old timers so the number of deaths of a family member is rather high, from brothers to parents to relatives. There was even one time there were 3 deaths in one month; very depressing indeed.

It’s to a point that I make sure that I have $10 notes in hand just in case for condolence money. Yes, I give away that much regardless I how well I know that person. In the office, on a name list, I tend to see some $5, mostly $10 to $50 and on rare occasions, $100!

Where am I going with this?

Well, recently, a colleague’s wife just given birth to a baby. So the HR did their standard passing of list and an envelope for congratulatory (is that what you call it?) money.

Guess what? Everyone gave an average of $5. Why is this so? And why does this bother me? I don’t know!

Being the practical person that I am, I think should one give more or equal amount of money to a birth than a death.

Reason being that the only thing that you have to deal with death is a funeral whereas a birth has pampers, baby formula, clothes, countless of doctor’s appointment etc.

I just feel weird about it. It could not be the reason of lacking of money because we just received our bonus money.

Anyways, I know I shouldn’t let such trivial subject bother me so much but at least I managed to vent it out here and eventually forget about it until I come across this again. =D