Communication among siblings

I have 3 brothers and 2 sisters. When we were young, we play together, go to school together and do a lot of other things together.

When we grew older and started to work, things began to change. We talk lesser to each other. Lucky for our parents, we still have activities during the weekends. We would go to restaurants around Singapore to try out different special dishes.

After one by one got married, exchanges get even lesser. We would still meet at our parents' home during weekends. When our children came along, priority is on them and sometimes we see each other less than 20 times a year. Of course, Chinese New Year would be a rowdy one where all will bring their children to pay respects to our elders.

After my dad's demise last year, we had intended to spend more time with our mum. However, there seemed to be communication breakdown. Mum was left alone most of the time and that was how depression set in. Of late, we have been talking to each other more often, to help mum regain her old self.

It is rather sad that we had to wait for a crisis to happen before coming to unity again. For the sake of our mum, I sincerely hope this will continue.