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My parents liked to go hiking since I was little, so they went hiking mountains in South Korea with others every weekend. They enjoyed going hiking because they could see the beautiful nature and get along with the groups that used to go hiking with them. However, as they age, they felt pain in their knees and back. Therefore, they didn't go hiking so often as before. Instead, my parents started cultivating plants, such as plum trees, potatoes, peppers in the field where my grandparents used to cultivate. It became their new leisure activity that they enjoy every weekend. Personally, it sounds like a kind of work rather than leisure to me, but they said they enjoy it as leisure since they can enjoy nature outside of the city and be satisfied with the crops they have grown.

The picture below is Japanese silverberry that my parents grow. :)

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My grandmother is originally from North Korea and came south during the Korean war. She was orphaned by war and had no close family members until she married my grandfather who was also a refugee. It was his second marriage since he had thought that he would never be able to meet his first wife and kids in North Korea again, but they managed to come to south and reunite with my grandfather after a decade. In this strange situation that the War caused, my grandfather and his first wife passed away at an early age, and my grandmother had to make a living for six children (3 for her own and 3 stepchildren). I dare not to imagine what leisure activities were available to her at this time.

After the kids all grew up, my grandmother still largely contributed to family life by taking care of her grandchildren (including me) and helping my busy mother in household work so that she could pursue her career. It became the great joy of her life to cook and do house chores for our family. However, considering her health conditions in her 90s, recently, my mother had to stop my grandmother from helping our family. My grandmother had tough times for this “retirement” and she seemed to be depressed for a while. But this summer, I visited my grandmother and she was passionate about talking about her new leisure activities and friends. I’ve never known that she could be talkative like that. She started to go to a senior citizen center, made many friends there, and enjoyed learning new activities such as drawing and dancing that she had never tried in her entire 94 years so far.

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Well, I have grown in a society that does not value leisure time activities. Growing up, I witnessed zero active leisure activities undertaken by my grandparents. They were always busy with something on the farm. My grandfather used to spend a lot of his time reading biblical texts which he used to share with us. His leisure activities were mostly passive.
Interestingly, he is currently engaged in active leisure activity which involves taking long walks as part of the doctor’s recommendation. His blood pressure is slightly on the higher side while his joints occasionally ache. I usually encourage him to take those long walks every day for his health’s sake. His leisure activities are limited because he did not learn any new activities when he was young. If he is not taking those long walks, he is dozing off on his chair under a tree. 

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I could give brief information about my grandparents. My grandfathers both passed away when I was young, so I wouldnt be able to provide much there. My grandmother who resides in Puerto Rico, manages to always keep busy. She likes to feed her chickens, plant, pick from the avocados and plantain trees, cook, and clean. I think the warm weather helps her keep active and going. On the other hand, my grandmother that lives in Chicago, does not engage in outdoor activities. Mostly because she states it is to cold and her arthritis flares up. However, she still manages to book flights and travel back and forth to Ecuador. She loves to cook and dance as well!

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My parents have been very active most of my life. I fond memories of going hiking in Utah, North Carolina, and Mexico. My dad was an amateur body builder when I was younger and I remember trying to imitate some of the moves he would do. My mom really enjoys being outdoors. She loves having BBQ's and picnics with my family up the canyon.
Probably in the past 5-10 years my parents have had really poor health. My mom had brain surgery a couple years ago with cancer and my dad has had to have neck, back, and shoulder surgery from an auto immune disorder.
Their leisure has turned to more of the expressive arts. They enjoy going to plays, concerts, and musicals now. They also go on small walks with each other. I know it has been hard on both of them, but their attitude has been really good and they express gratefulness for the abilities they still have.

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I would like to share my experience about my grandmother. My grandmother was a very active woman who really enjoyed leisure compared to other individuals. Starting from table tennis, hiking, and knitting she has engaged in multiple activities. Especially, in hiking, she even visited Mount Everest which was phenomenal. However, a single tragic event has changed everything in her life. Just a normal day when she was doing her daily activities she fell down and broke her pelvis bone. After that, she went to multiple surgeries but couldn't fully recover and that lead to depression, and resulted as depressive dementia. She is now in a wheelchair, hardly remembers my name and she is no longer available to participate in any kind of leisure activities.

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I have never met my grandparents from my biological fathers’ side, my stepfather’s parents died at a young age, and my mother’s mother (i.e., grandmother) died when she was very young. I met my great grandfather when he was forced to move from Mexico to the U.S. at the age of 86 years old, which greatly affected his leisure opportunities because he was no longer “free” as he would often express. He also no longer had his farm which he greatly enjoyed working; working was a HUGE part of his life. In addition, he was unaware of the culture, unaware of where the park and other recreational facilities were situated, and basically in a foreign place. He spent most of the day home outside with the dogs reading the Bible, when his children visited him he enjoyed talking to them and recalling his days back home in Mexico. My great grandfathers’ leisure was greatly disrupted by being moved to another country.
With regards to my maternal grandfather (75 years old), similarly to my great grandfather, he cannot live without working. My family, on my mothers’ side, was taught that resting was for lazy people. There common response to someone saying, “I’m bored” was “that’s because you’re not working; people who work don’t have time to be bored.” I’ve come to believe that working is leisure for my grandfather… it’s either that or he find value in working because he can contribute to his family and not feel “useless.” On his “free time” he likes to sit down and watch television; if you were to ask him, however, I don’t think he would classify it as leisure time but as “recharging time.” On the weekends that he doesn’t work, he enjoys dancing, drinking, and talking to his friends.
The “working” philosophy of my family has greatly affected how my parents “do” leisure. I think that they would also describe leisure as “recharging time” (i.e., doing leisure, such as watching television, which allows them to rest to reenergize for the next day of work).

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I hardly knew my grandparents. Dad’s parents were dead before I was born and Mom’s parents lived far away from us. Hence, I have no clue about my grandparents’ leisure. I can talk about my parents’ leisure, though. They are both artists and specialize in interior design. They hardly have any separation between work and leisure. Mom is more balanced but, for Dad, work is his leisure. He really doesn’t know what to do with himself when he’s not working. He struggles through the holidays and turns into a hangry (this is not a typo) couch potato. I have shared with you earlier that he has just undergone three severe emergency surgeries and his recovery will be lengthy. He is not going back to work any time soon and maybe this is his retirement, period. I dread to imagine how his leisure is going to look like since he has never learned how to have leisure earlier in his life. To relate it to gerontological theories, sadly, disengagement might be a likely scenario. Nevertheless, I really hope that he will be able to figure out some path to innovation or at least loss-based selection. I also hope that he will achieve some sense of generativity or gerotranscendence, even if it is with some instrumental dependence.

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My grandparents spent the majority of their time when I was young working or watching tv. I do not remember seeing them do much other than that until they retired. Once they retired they got really into gardening together. They transformed their yard completely. My grandma also spent a lot of time scrapbooking and riding her bike after she retired. After my grandma passed away, my grandpa spent the all of his time either fishing, watching every San Francisco Giants baseball game, or watching reruns of old tv shows. My mom has always worked a lot, but recently retired. She spends her time laying by her pool, going on walks, and watching tv. Her leisure activities have not really changed, but she has more free time to engage in leisure since retiring. My dad also recently retired. His leisure choices also have not changed a lot, but he has more time to spend on them. He has a pretty consistent routine. He goes for walks, plays golf, watches sports, and goes to the casino with is wife. The majority of activities and leisure participation among my family members was the same as they aged and retired, other than my grandparents and gardening.

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Both of my grandfathers died before I was born. One of my grandmothers had dementia and the other had Alzheimer's so I never really got to know them. My dad died before he retired, so I am not sure how his leisure activities would have changed after retirement. My step-dad retired a few years ago and disengaged from all his leisure activities. He rarely goes fishing, works on the lawn, or any of the things he used to do. He never really had time for much leisure when he was younger (teen dad and worked for the railroad), so I believe that impacted his lack of leisure after retirement. My mom retired a few months ago and has really gotten in to painting furniture and going to estate sales. We spoke this weekend about the importance of leisure, and she is dedicated to finding something she will remain interested in.