Kids would not totally understand how much they're loved by their parents until they become parents, too.It is a difficult task, being a parent. It requires proper and rigid training, but sadly, there's no solid preparation or formal courses in parenting.
Kids resent discipline, no matter how you coat it. Consistent but firm. No corporal punishment. And sometimes, tough love.
In today's Philippines, there are a lot of "passing-through parents." These are parents who spend most of their days working outside the Philippines - in places like Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Singapore, Canada, U.S.A, Australia, Spain, France, Japan, Hongkong, etc.
They'd go home for a two-week vacation, lavish their children with material things, and then fly back to the country where they'd toil again year after year after year.
They'd go back home, sometimes, when it is time to retire, when the kids are all grown up or even married.
These parents missed the years when their kids were growing up - their graduation from elementary or high school or university, the birthdays, the Holidays. Communication is limited through texts, chats or video, emails and the occasional visits.
It's as if the family and children left behind are mere vacation spots, and the parent(s) are tourists just passing through.
It is sad. But to a lot of parents, being away and only visiting whenever they're able to, is unavoidable. They have to work to sustain the family.
There are also absentee parents by choice and those divorced.
Like a caravan that passes through towns and then settles permanently in friendly settlements, passing-through parents also long to nestle near their loved ones.
1 comment:
The hardest part in this generation is teaching children that there are simple things in life that can make us happy. Certainnly not only the pasalubong. We have become so consummed with material things that we even ask: I wonder how much this gift costs? We need to go back to the basics, and teach our children - and ourselves - to look up and give THANKS!
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