A relatively new phenomenon has struck the usually traditional structure of the Korean family, one born of double-income families and corporate transfers. These husbands and wives "belong to the category called 'weekend couples' (jumal bubu). That is, during the weekdays they live where their work is, apart from their spouses and children, and they go to Seoul to join their families on weekends."
More extreme cases are where one spouse actually lives for most of the year in a different country, typically with the husband in Korea, and the wife and children in the United States or Canada: "The Korean media have coined the term 'lonely wild goose' (oegireogi) for those husbands or wives who are left behind in Korea."
A number of factors have contributed to the prevalence of these long-distance commuter relationships: "Into the 1990s, with the advancement of public and private transportation on one hand, and more women moving into the workplace on the other, the option of maintaining different residences during the week-the 'weekend couples'-has become established as a new lifestyle in Korea, especially among professionals who can afford to have an extended weekend of three days."
It is important to note why members of an otherwise regimented family structure would choose to live in such a way: "No matter how important other motivations or circumstance may be, economic considerations are a prerequisite for becoming a weekend-couple family. All of the interviewees, including the 'lonely geese,' mention family income as a deciding factor."
The author notes that there are two compounding factors in deciding to become a weekend-couple family, children's education (schools in Seoul are considered far superior to those in outlying areas), and the "self-fulfillment of the mothers...That is, they pursue a career that they really want and seek satisfaction from their productivity at work." As one woman confessed, she liked her life working away from the family and alone, "not only because she can be relieved from all the household chores but also because she can spend her time as she wishes, doing what she really wants."
The spouse who lives on his/her own often feels the effects of this lifestyle keenly. Emotional isolation, eating alone and lack of conversation, poor eating habits, ongoing fatigue due to the nature of commuting, and alcohol abuse are all common complaints among these professionals working away from their families. Indeed, the emotional separation may endanger the very employment it facilitates, by leading to an "[i]nability to concentrate," and ongoing health problems.
However, as the author states, "[t]he most serious problem that weekend commuters face is their relationships with their spouses." Communication suffers immensely; seemingly minor issues are not resolved, and cannot be dealt with during the subsequent week, and tend to snowball into ever larger problems.
Unfortunately, after describing the harms and pitfalls of the "weekend family," instead of seeing the resulting effects upon the Korean family for what they are, a rending of the very fabric of the family, the author concludes that "we need a different approach for conceptualizing a wide variety of families in the post-industrial era." Yet we already have names for these reconceptualized families: Dysfunctional and Broken.
