By ARAB NEWS
Published: Jan 19, 2012 01:05 Updated: Jan 19, 2012 01:05

ALKHOBAR: Saudis don’t usually like it when their mother gets remarried. But when it comes to their father, no one has a problem.

According to a report in Al-Riyadh Arabic daily, the sentiments that children have toward their mother and father are not the same. They might not mind if their father marries another woman but will fight tooth and nail if the mother tries to remarry.

To think of losing their mother’s affection to another man is impossible for them. It might be argued that they are too selfish to give their mother another chance at life. After spending her whole life serving them devotedly, they would prefer her to lead a lonely life.

Umm Muhammad a 52-year-old divorcee, shared her experience with the newspaper. She had received a proposal from a man who promised her a happy married life. He was also willing to support her children from the first marriage. Living alone in a house given by her previous husband, with no one to take care of her except a housemaid, she thought it would bring an end to her solitary life.

All five of her children were married and lived in separate houses. When they heard about the proposal, they got really upset. Muhammad, the eldest son, threatened to kill the man while her other son reminded her that she is now a grandmother. Her daughters were worried what their husbands and their families would think.

Umm Muhammad realized that she would lose her children forever in case she married again. She knew that they opposed the proposal mainly because of their fear of social ignominy.

Al-Bandari Al-Khalifa, another Saudi woman, said it was difficult for her to even think of her mother married to another man. “My mother was in her 30s when my father died. We were just children then and she devoted her full life to bring us up. Now, all of us are grown up and married. But, we still cannot be in favor of her second marriage,” she said.

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Note by the editor: I do not think this is a particular ‘Saudi’ attitude. No children like to see their mother married again, it seems to be human nature.